Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland – Thoughts From Cecelia Molumby, Development Officer, Sing Ireland
Sing Ireland is Ireland’s national body for the support, development and promotion of all forms of group singing, and we are on a mission to enhance lives through singing and build stronger voices throughout Irish communities.
It’s six months since I began my role with Sing Ireland as Development Officer and commenced the Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme. As an organisation, we are already reaping the benefits of working with the Business to Arts team and network. I might be the Fundraising Fellow, but the ethos and process of this journey is being embraced across our organisation by both the team and Board.
I have not become an advocate for group singing overnight nor in the last six months. I am, first and foremost, a musician and choral singer, so much so that I spent a year in Hungary completely immersed in the wonderful world of choral music and ensemble singing. Therefore, I don’t need any convincing of just how powerful group singing can be and came into this role with my very own case for support!
The Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme provides me tailored support, through a structured programme of training and mentorship. This opportunity is not only fine-tuning my professional marketing skills, it is also providing me with the space, the guidance, and the grounding in core fundraising strategies to take forward.
Over the last 6 months of the Fellowship, we have delved into the organisational structure, revenue streams, and strategic plans of the organisation; and we have set realistic yet ambitious key performance indicators. We now strategically approach the role of marketing from two different perspectives, both programmatic and institutional. I have gained an understanding that effective institutional marketing becomes the cornerstone of fundraising success. At present, we are refining what is an already developed fundraising plan to ensure that we have clear objectives, timelines and targets. While Sing Ireland has worked in this area in the past, the Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme is supporting us in building a long-term fundraising plan that will ensure Sing Ireland will become a stronger, more sustainable organisation for the choral and group singing community in Ireland.
As we commence the next phase of the Fellowship, I am particularly looking forward to further applying the knowledge and experience already gained to bring even more tangible value to Sing Ireland. In addition to enabling a more vibrant and active singing sector, Sing Ireland is on a mission to make a truly meaningful impact on the number of young people that are engaging in youth singing in Ireland. We also strive to achieve equity in access to group singing for older groups as well as those who find themselves on the periphery of our society. I am excited to share our story of how our vision needs funding; to open a dialogue and collaborate with the corporate world; and to create the conditions for this – our impact – to happen.
As someone who truly values, recognises, and has experienced the life-changing ability that group singing can have on individuals and communities, it’s really rewarding for me to seek out new ways to increase income generation and diversify funding streams to support Sing Ireland’s artistic programming. The Fundraising Fellowship, Ireland programme is already laying the foundations for further fundraising successes for us into the future and I’m really looking forward to seeing the impact that my efforts will make over the coming months and years. If you’d like to find out about ways to support Sing Ireland, please feel free to contact me.
Cecelia Molumby
Development Officer | Sing Ireland
Connect with Cecelia on LinkedIn
Contact Cecelia at cecelia@singireland.ie
Tags: Business to Arts, Cecelia Molumby, Fundraising, fundraising fellowship, fundraising fellowship ireland, fundraisingfellow, Sing Ireland
