What is it like working as a crowdfunding assistant?

I remember when I applied for the Crowdfunding internship I had no clue what I was going to do. I had a brief idea what crowdfunding was, but I was under the impression that I would be dealing with a regular website. Well, Click turned out to be not so regular, but rather an unbelievably amazing platform which changed not just my life but everyone else’s who has ever used it!

My photo frame! I am so proud of it.

Let me start by introducing myself and what I do. I graduated from the University of Essex in 2015 with a first class BSc Honours Degree in Business Management. I participated in numerous Sports Clubs and Societies and I was also a VP of the Bulgarian Society for the 2013/2014 academic year. I decided to do an internship during my gap year as I wasn’t quite sure what exactly I want to do in future.

The skills and confidence that my Crowdfunding Internship gave me not only made my career path very clear now, but also made me stand out of the crowd and became a narrow specialist in the field of HE Crowdfunding. I am now doing my MA in Marketing, Advertising and Media on a full scholarship, but still working on Click for two days a week.

Careers Centre with a Case Study on me

After 10 months of working on Click I can surely say that my background was particularly useful for my role as Crowdfunding Assistant. The main reason is that when coming on my first day at work, I already had a plan in my head for what would be the best way to approach potential users for Click.

I knew that presidents and committees of Sports Clubs and Societies would be my starting point as they all need additional funding for their events, competitions and equipment. What is even better is I already knew most of them personally and I could easily approach them directly. I had an ‘in’ that more established staff couldn’t access.

My first ever name badge

Once having all Sports Clubs and Societies on board with us it all started…. Attending Fresher Fairs, going to general meetings, giving presentations every week, organising events on campus , drop in sessions. We were going to attend every possible event where potential good Click projects could be found and this made a difference to a point when we had 10 projects live at the time.

Promoting our crowdfunding platform

Me & James taking over! Dream team :)

Some of my other duties include uploading engaging content on Twitter, which sometimes means chasing students for days to make them tweet about their own Click project, but which I could then retweet and ask other University accounts to help promote.

Designing flyers, pens, boards and other promotion materials are one of my favourite things to do. Not just because it’s a fantastic way to raise awareness of the Click brand around the 3 campuses, but also because I learn a lot of useful skills which I can then put into practice many times more.

Day to day life of a crowdfunding assistant

My everyday routine is quite diverse when I don’t count the usual replying to emails and answering all sorts of students’ questions of course. I usually have a meeting with each project leader before they even start drafting their project and I explain how the website works step by step.

Then, I email them the handbook and the Click guidelines and our crowdfunding agreement which is a summary of all the information provided on the website. Plus, I ask them for their promotional plan for the whole campaign.

Another exciting thing I really enjoy doing is organising different events which not only includes booking gazebos and tables, but also finding alternative ways to engage students to come and talk to us. Some of the things we came up with so far is our photo frame with the Click logo, Click sponge cake for Click’s First Birthday Party, fridge magnets, Tesco Voucher Twitter competition and many others.

At the end of the day, all that hard work and chasing up for 5 weeks pays off especially when I get one of this emails which makes me melt down;

“Dear Viktoriya,

I would like to thank you for your amazing support in the last five weeks. Click is doing great job and the platform helped me a lot. It is my first time doing a crowdfunding and it was a great experience.

Many thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Sana”

For me, being part of the Click Team is not just a job. It’s my way to spread the philanthropy meaning among students, teach them useful skills and help them make their dreams come true. How cool it is to be getting paid for making other people happy and fulfilled!

I don’t think anyone else in the world is as lucky as I am, especially now when after all the hard work all of us together managed to turn the Click project into a tremendous success. In just 1 year Click has proved that when you have a have a goal and work towards it, there is nothing more fulfilling than reaping the fruits of your labour.

P.S. Click celebrated its first birthday on the 9th of November and as it became such an integral part of my life, I would like to encourage everyone who still doesn’t believe in the power of crowdfunding to give it a go. Maybe it will change your lives as much as it did mine!