We live in a world where there are lots of opportunities to do training courses, join coaching programmes and become certified by professional bodies. None of these are bad, in fact I have participated in all three at different points in my career and gained a lot from them, but they do often cost significant amounts of money. A few group coaching programmes I have recently looked at have cost around £2000. And I know that many fundraisers don’t have a couple of thousand pounds to invest in their professional development and often the charities that they work for don’t have development budgets of that size either.
A lack of funding doesn’t mean that you can’t invest in your personal development. There are many activities that you can participate in which are totally free of charge and others that only carry a small price ticket.
I also find the free ones great for keeping up with professional development if you aren’t at a moment when you want to significantly invest, or perhaps you are just starting to grow a seed of what might come next but aren’t yet ready to commit. I also believe in the cumulative benefit of lots of small acts of professional development, adding up over a period.
I have created a free PDF outlining five free ways that fundraisers can invest in their professional development without having to invest any money. To receive this free resource, simply sign up for my email newsletter here.
And, if you have any free professional development ideas for other fundraisers, please feel free to drop them in the comments section.
