The charity and fundraising foughts of Ian Atkinson


Wednesday 30 March 2011

Sunday's child



I’m surprised to learn that Myleene Klass doesn’t follow my blog.

Or – more likely – she’s an avid fan, but just disagreed with my notion that ‘Hero’ would be a good name to give a boy, but not a girl.

Because that’s what she’s gone and done.

Our beautiful little girl (the much more sensibly named Daisy Boo) was born at 5 to midnight, Sunday 27th. Just in time for the census, as people keep telling me.

Both sets of grandparents are of course delighted.

My mum: ‘I told your auntie Floss in Australia that you’ve called her Daisy Boo, because making up names is all the rage over there. But even she hadn’t heard that one before.’

Caroline’s mum, visiting and giving us a lovely bouquet of flowers: ‘You can keep the vase too.’

Caroline’s dad: ‘It’s an old Branston Pickle jar.’

Anyway, on the Friday night before, Caroline was three days overdue. So I went to get a curry. Ok, it may be an old wives’ tale that a curry can help bring on labour, but hey, any excuse not to cook.

The man behind the counter asked me if I’d ever been there before.

‘You ask me that every single time’, I replied, a bit peeved. ‘Most recently, two weeks ago’.

Clearly I don’t make much of an impression.

Anyway, he asked me what I did for a living. I said I do a lot of work for charity but I don’t like to talk about it.

And he told me about his own charity work. After the Pakistan floods, he and his staff worked extra shifts for nothing, and donated the profits to the appeal. He also asked every customer if he could add £1 to their bill and donate that to the appeal too.

He was thinking about doing the same for people affected by the Japanese tsunami (look at me, I’ve worked in fundraising so long I know better than to use the word ‘victim’).

Anyway, I was very impressed. I work for some amazing charities who do fantastic work. But the stuff I do is really time-consuming. Involves dozens of people. Gazillions of ‘sign-offs’. And takes months to complete.

But my local curry shop owner hadn’t bothered with any of that.

He didn’t need a PowerPoint presentation. Or a social media strategy. Or 17 rounds of amends.

He just got on with it. A spoonful of compassion. A bucketful of action.

He reminded me how simple it can be.

And how easy it can be too – to get good people to support a good cause, if you don’t let your own briefings and bureaucracy and bullshit get in the way.

Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just tired and emotional at the birth of my first child.

I mean, look at little Daisy Boo. She’s gorgeous!