Marketing is a competitive field, which nonetheless shows no signs of shrinking even as other industries suffer in a tough economic climate. As a student, if you are thinking about aiming yourself at a career in marketing you are sure to find plenty of options when you graduate, as marketing and public relations are essential facets of pretty much every organisation that you can think of, from global corporate giants through to charity jobs. Modern charities rely on slick professional marketing to compete for finite funding, especially during economic downturn, and indeed a quick glance at established resources such as Guardian Jobs will confirm the selection of charity jobs out there that focus on marketing.
To the uninitiated, the term ‘charity jobs’ may reasonably seem to indicate unpaid work, and indeed many charitable organisations rely on volunteers to provide important services. However, for a long time it has been the case that key functions, at the core of medium and large scale charities, have been handled by paid professionals. Management was the first area in the charity sector to feature widespread professional employment. Perhaps inevitably, the introduction of professional management soon lead to the trend to move beyond small scale amateur campaigns to ever more sophisticated marketing.
As mentioned, apart from pursuing a central mission statement, charities are in fact in competition with each other for finite funding. Funding comes from many sources, including public donation, central and local government, and corporate sponsorship. Marketing is essential to raising awareness of the work of a charity, without which funding can be very difficult to secure.
Charity jobs can therefore provide invaluable experience for those interested in entering the field of marketing. Marketing is after all one of the two or three possible core functions of a charity. Marketing is essential for not just fundraising, but also campaigning. Indeed, many charities are not involved in the third possible major activity – providing direct services – and are instead dedicated to full time campaigning and political lobbying.
Charity jobs in marketing can therefore help achieve ethical aims, in contrast perhaps to the wider marketing industry that occasionally gets a bad press for an apparent lack of moral compass. Undertaking voluntary work during undergraduate study can be a great way to get to know a charitable organisation better, and provide a vital head start when it comes to looking for vocational training and graduate positions in charity jobs in the marketing sector.