Client Overview
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DKMS is an international charity dedicated to deleting blood cancer. They provide second chances at life for those in need of a blood stem cell transplant, by recruiting potential stem cell donors. They run a stem cell register and fundraise to cover the costs of this. We worked with DKMS UK, who maintain the biggest stem cell register in the UK, having registered over 1 million blood stem cell donors to date.
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Head of Fundraising Caroline Richardson approached us when she recruited Charlie Rowe to the corporate team. Charlie had a wealth of experience from a commercial background, and Caroline was keen to build on that while creating a ‘DKMS way’ of doing corporate fundraising.​
Background
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DKMS UK signed up Charlie, along with his fundraising assistant colleague, Katie, to our Firestarter Kit. Firestarter is designed to equip fundraisers with skills, tools and - absolutely fundamentally - confidence to use them. Combining elements of self-study with live calls to support action planning, Firestarter is a 5 module one-stop shop to support team members with everything they need to build and deliver phenomenal partnerships, in a way that works for their specific organisation.
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‘I had been doing corporate on my own for so long. It made sense that, rather than teaching Charlie myself, we use a formal teaching structure that would help us embed a cohesive approach to our partnerships. Our goal was to make sure we had a clearly understood strategy that will future-proof us as a team and set us up for success.’
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Caroline Richardson, Head of Fundraising
Approach
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Over the course of 10 weeks, we worked with Charlie and Katie to build their understanding and confidence around corporate partnerships. They worked through our self-study modules covering topics including how budget holders make decisions, how to identify your warmest leads and how to create perfectly tailored pitches that are relevant and meaningful to prospects. Along the way they completed a series of practical exercises to allow them to create their own corporate action plan. Alongside this, five coaching calls gave them the opportunity to unpick any elements they found trickier and explore ideas they wanted to get to work on in more detail.​
Caroline told us:
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‘The Fireside team always takes the time to get to know you as an individual as well as understanding the nuances of the organisation. Although Firestarter is a product, it’s also very bespoke. Understanding how we learn and adapting the learning for each of us meant we could get the absolute best from the training.’
Results
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For Caroline, results are clear across both the team’s skills and the ways of working that they are now embedding.
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‘I have seen Charlie grow so much in a relatively short space of time. I am blown away by his development! We were already giving him great support internally but it’s awesome to see Charlie grow so hugely and I know that’s down to Fireside and Andy’s process.’
Caroline told us that she is delighted that DKMS have got exactly what they hoped for from the programme. Everyone is now working in the same way, and the approach to corporate fundraising is ‘robust and coherent’. Elements of the training have already been incorporated into partnership work and Caroline is confident that applying the Fireside approach has been a key element in getting partnerships over the line. Work to fully embed the methods is still ongoing but they are ‘ready to fly with it’ in 2025.
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​Charlie said:
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‘It’s helped me be more comfortable about the fact that corporate relationship-building takes time. I know we will get there. A scattergun approach might get a few quick wins but having structure and thinking about core values really strengthens our offer.’
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Client Insights
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Charlie said of his experience:
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‘I have learnt a lot from Andy and the training. It’s given me a recipe to follow from scratch. We have already generated conversations from our proposals that I just don’t think would have happened without this training.’
Caroline’s advice to anyone thinking of getting in touch?
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‘If you have the opportunity to work with Fireside, don’t think twice - grab it with both hands! You WILL see increased partnerships, it really is as simple as that. And you’ll have fun along the way! In this industry, you need something different to stand out. It’s ultra competitive - and Fireside’s training gives you the edge.’
Get in touch
Want to find out how Fireside could work with you to ignite your corporate partnerships programme? Contact us today on andy@firesidefundraising.com
To find out more about DKMS please visit dkms.org.uk