Katie has been with Demelza as the Community Manager for South East London since 2019 – but what is a Community Manager, and what does an average day look like for Katie? We sat down with her to find out!

“So as a team, Vicky Adley – the Community Manager for East Sussex and Kent and Georgia Cook, Regional Fundraiser, – and myself are responsible for fundraising individuals, SMEs (small-to-medium enterprises), education settings and groups such as churches, Rotary, and WI’s. The supporters we deal with day-to-day tend to be in the £1-£5000 range, but we do have some supporters that pull together and raise £10,000+ which is quite wonderful.”

A Demelza volunteer at Bubble Rush, wearing a Demelza t-shirt.

The role of a Community Manager at Demelza

“My main role is to be out in the community spreading the word about Demelza and the work that we do and encouraging people to sign up to support us. I deliver a lot of talks and presentations; I will follow the supporter on their journey helping to guide their fundraising and at the other end when funds have been raised I get to do the cheque presentations – you might have seen those massive, big cardboard cheques in some of our photos, I’m normally involved with those! It’s a great visual representation of the hard work that goes into fundraising out in our communities. It’s also lovely because we’re starting to be able to go out and about again, actually meeting people and talking to them in person instead of virtually – that’s really exciting.”

“There’s a lot of updates to send out as well; as much as I’m out in the community actually meeting our supporters and talking to them, I need to be keeping everyone updated week-to-week and month-to-month too. Sharing Demelza stories with our supporters is really important, because not only do they get to see the real difference they’re making to the families we work with, but they might share those stories with people they know – and hopefully, some of those people will be inspired to get involved - either as a fundraiser, a donor, a volunteer or even a lottery player!”

Together for Short Lives

“Now that the partnership between Together for Short Lives and Morrisons has launched, I’ve taken on some exciting new responsibilities as well; we’re paired with 19 Morrisons stores who are doing some amazing fundraising for us, so it’s my job to make sure they’re taken care of! I’ll be meeting with them quarterly, sharing updates on fundraising efforts and giving them an insight into how their support is making a real impact on the services we can offer.

“It is a bit like painting the Golden Gate Bridge – pretty much as soon as I’m done with one lot of updates, I have to jump to it and start working on the next lot. The work we do at Demelza doesn’t really stop, so neither can I! It is amazing though, and I’m so excited to be working with Morrisons; some of these individual stores raise thousands every year and their Community Champions love to get people involved so they’re lovely to work with."

“As you can tell, it’s an ever-evolving role and no one day really looks the same! But our supporters make such a big difference to Demelza!"

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