Working for a charity, I often get very mixed reactions to my career choice but the most common question seems to be “why?” After all, charities play a minor role in the social and economic scale – don’t they?
Like business, charities exist because there is a demand for a service or product. The difference is, the need that charities fulfil is not fed by corporate glory or in the pursuit of financial wealth. Instead, they are there to fulfil a particular need ( usually originating from trauma or significant event). This need may be one that not many have thought of or simply something that hasn’t touched them yet and therefore doesn’t need thinking about. Charities are the background music to the giant corporate and global machine – quiet and unassuming, we are always there in the background and every now and again, someone hears something they like and they listen attentively, maybe even dance a little, before resuming their day to day with the music continuing in the background…
Until something totally unseen and without warning rocks their world. Brings chaos, uncertainty and possibly even fear into their world and this is when they turn to the music. Now they seek out the band to help them in this hour of need. To listen to the music being played that can offer them some comfort and to be the calm in the storm until their lifeboat arrives.
That is the role that charities play.
We too, experience the storm and see the challenges but we do not run. We pick up what instruments we have, compose our own symphony and play on.
