Date published: 13 February 2024 by Katie Inglis
Meet Pam, who has now retired from volunteering with Rainbow Trust after 14 years. Here she shares her experience of what it is like to volunteer for us:
"I’ve been at Rainbow Trust for many years! I have volunteered my whole life and I had previously fundraised for Rainbow Trust, so they were always on my radar. I was impressed by the work they did and as it was a local charity, I had heard about it on the radio which reminded me how much I enjoyed volunteering and thought it would be good to get involved – and I haven’t looked back!
What I have loved about volunteering at Rainbow Trust is that it is so varied! I helped with Corporate and Community Fundraising, so a lot of the day is spent on a computer, which I didn’t mind at all! One of the biggest projects I had was researching synagogues in Leatherhead, as well in the London and South East region. As I hadn’t figured out how to use the online systems, I typed and printed 21 letters to send. From this alone and the generosity of the synagogues, we raised £18,000! I even received a medal from the Mayor of Epsom to acknowledge this achievement. It was nice to feel valued and this was recognised by Rainbow Trust.
I also had the opportunity to speak at the Rainbow Trust staff conference once which I really enjoyed - it was so much fun telling the hilarious anecdotes from over the years.
One of my main roles was helping to prepare schools for carol concerts, particularly the Bookham ones. This involved monitoring ticket sales, working out where to advertise and any new ideas. I was also involved in Waitrose schemes and encouraging supermarkets to fundraise. It shows how times have changed though, as we mainly used cash collection tins, but it’s a different world now as not many people use cash or coins anymore.
I’ve loved interacting with the office colleagues, and I have enjoyed teaching the new staff how we do things. Rainbow Trust is such a worthwhile charity. There’s no hidden agenda – everything and everyone is straightforward. There were challenges, particularly when all your hard work and networking and research is only rewarded by a very small donation or nothing at all. But Rainbow Trust has exceeded my expectations!
I am leaving Rainbow Trust now because I have been here for 14 years, and I wanted to leave on a high. I didn’t want to be the person hanging around for too long that nobody can get rid of! It means I can enjoy some me time and I have space in my life for different things. I will miss Rainbow Trust, particularly working with Katherine, my manager, but I have enjoyed it very much."
Katherine – Corporate & Community Fundraising Manager says:
"Pam began volunteering for the Community fundraising team in 2010. When Pam originally joined, she took on the onerous task of thanking all our supporters and would manually write individual and tailored letters to all of our supporters to ensure they felt valued. (this was before our systems were automated).
However, Pam is undoubtedly best known for organising the Bookham Carol Concert and has done so since 2011. It’s a wonderful local community event that has enabled us to develop relationships with our local church as well as with schools and businesses. As well as taking sole responsibility for this flagship event, Pam managed our relationship with Epsom Methodist Church who host Europe’s largest book fair. By liaising with the church and managing a group of volunteers each year at the Epsom Book Fair, she was able to secure £14K over the years for this alone.
Alongside running these local community events Pam has managed our applications to Synagogues, which in one year resulted in over £18K. The support Pam has offered to myself and the team over the years is impossible to list, but also includes revamping literature, sourcing auction items and representing us for cheque presentations. We would like to thank Pam for her years of dedication and her bubbly personality will be missed at head office."
