I always start my day off with putting on the kettle, the tough question is always… Tea or coffee! After concluding my decisions, its then time to get down to business! Most mornings, I spend at least an hour checking social media, reading through Facebook and Twitter and current affairs, usually in the Guardian. Seeing what I can dig my teeth into that’s worth Tweeting/posting about!

I am really enjoying exploring different aspects of social media and seeing what will work well for different charities, I am already excited by what I have learnt so far and am excited to expand my knowledge further.

Then I read through my emails, most are newsletters I have signed up to informing me of funding updates. So, I spend a large part of the average day reading through funding opportunities seeing if any catch my eye for our clients, if they do I make sure their criteria is eligible, this can be quite a big task as we have quite a few clients. If they are eligible and look good for the client I add them to a funding applications diary. It can be frustrating but when you find the right one it is an amazing feeling – a feeling of real accomplishment!!

I have a work plan that is created at the beginning of every week, we go through my work plan from the week before checking that everything was completed and if it wasn’t we put it on the new work plan. This way we make sure all my tasks are being completed.  My week can vary in what I am doing depending on what work is needed to be done for our clients. However, I do spend a lot of my time reading up on trusts, finding opportunities for all of our clients and working on opportunities reports which are then checked before they go out to clients.

Sometimes, I go out and meet clients too, this can be for a wide range of things, so far I have:

  • Attended a corporate development meeting with a music making charity
  • Been on a 2 day course at the Directory of Social Change
  • Help prepare for new client meetings
  • Gone undercover in museums and galleries looking at their donation schemes!

Six months in and this apprenticeship is going well and I am really enjoying it!