Charity Insights

Throughout my time at Save the Rhino I have had many opportunities to do a mixture of tasks to get a feel for everything that goes into charity work, with a particular focus on corporate relationships. However, working a 2 month period I have managed to “showcase” my skills and have been allocated a final task: data mining.

As a biologist we work strongly in statistics and with writing a personal blog, I find data mining very interesting. For those of you who don’t know: this is the act of searching a customer base to give a profile to a typical customer so that they can be targeted effectively. I was given access to the behind the scenes of all social media and Save the Rhino’s website to get an idea of the kind of supporters and traffic we attract.

I found it absolutely fascinating and terrifying the amount of information we seemed to know about our audience just through likes, favourites, and clicks. It is really interesting to not only know what kind of people we are attracting but also how web platforms are used. At Save the Rhino social media platforms are used by a completely different audience for a completely different reason to the website.

It is a great and final insight into the work of charities. This however is a universal skill that I can carry on to many different kinds of work and I’m glad I was given an opportunity to practice it in my final days.

When first arriving at Imperial College, thinking I had the next 5 years of my life planned, I never once considered working for a charity despite the number of times I had volunteered for one. However this was a different kind of volunteer experience to the rest, I think much of volunteering can be superficial as you’re only there for a few days a week and only for the time period of a couple of months. This experience definitely cannot be described as superficial, I was taught the ins and outs and I am very grateful for it. Perhaps charity work is appearing more on my horizon than I thought.

Read Save the Rhino Final: Data Mining in full

Something that I was looking forward to the most when working for a charity that is directed towards animal conservation was the rate of rewards. I have already mentioned that I have worked in field work and at a zoo, but to be able to see the impact your work has on animal conservation in these fields is slow and can take years – even a lifetime. However, charity has easily come up trumps. Work is fast-paced and the benefits of your work are immediate.

Save the Rhino has 13 programmes in Africa and 4 programmes in Asia. With an extensive group of projects around the world that is under their control, there always seems to be good news. Such as Ratu the Sumatran rhino (one of the rarest in the world) being pregnant for a second time or the fact that the team in Swaziland’s Big Game Parks has managed to keep rhino poaching at an all time low with no poaching incidences last year.

Not only is it the regular news from programmes across the world that give you a rush but the constant exchange of funds, whether it be by community fundraising, corporate fundraising, memberships or merchandise. We always seem to be having rhino costumes being returned from somewhere; we have quite a busy little office.

When I look through archives of previous photos, you see how much this charity does and how active they are, especially for a small team of seven.

So you don’t need to be big or need a lifetime to make a difference!

Read Save the Rhino: Fast Paced Conservation in full

Save the Rhino is a small charity which has a vision for all five species of rhino to thrive in the wild for future generations to enjoy. They do this by funding a variety of programmes in Africa and Asia. I have been working part time for Save the Rhino for three weeks now, totaling six days and you’d be surprised at how much you can learn in so little time.

My passion is conservation and once I had already experienced other routes of conservation, such as field work and zoo programmes, I wanted to turn towards charities. I’m lucky enough to have two supervisors which allows me to focus on two areas of charity work, these are events and corporate relationships. This means I have a large variety of tasks, every day is different, so no excuses for boredom!

However, what has struck me is the importance of large events for small charities such as Save the Rhino. That may seem obvious to you but I don’t think you realise quite how prepared we are. The London Marathon is Save the Rhino’s largest event and even though it is not taking place again until April 2017, my first task when I sat in that office was to update the London Marathon webpage and everyday since, there has been a task dedicated to it.

If you didn’t know, Save the Rhino is famous amongst the London Marathon runners because of its iconic and pretty awesome rhino costumes (if you want that extra challenge when already running a 42km race). They weigh 8-10kg and you can’t see far ahead as the rhino head obstructs your view.

My work at Save the Rhino hasn’t been marked by the tasks that I’m doing but about the image a charity creates. The London Marathon is so important to Save the Rhino not only because it raises important funds but also because it follows their image of endurance and extreme sports, ultimately this comes through in all the work that I do with Save the Rhino – this is what everything revolves around.

Read Save the Rhino: The Importance of Image in full