Author: Nivantha Bandara

Summary of placement at the K&C Foundation

Reflecting back upon the first meeting with the Office Coordinator at the K&C Foundation, the primary objective was to raise awareness amongst small businesses in the borough. I am proud to say that I have visited and raised awareness amongst a total of 120 businesses during my time at the K&C Foundation. A total of 70 businesses provided appropriate contact details and were added to the business follow-up sheet, but not all of them were added to the database. During that same time, approximately twenty follow-up phone calls were made. I noticed that the businesses I contacted responded positively and were willing to discuss different ways in which they could get involved.

In search of small businesses that are keen to help the community, I visited several areas within the borough including Kings Road, Sloane Street, Fulham Road, and Knightsbridge. On my daily visits to these areas, I discovered that certain businesses were unlikely to respond positively to our cause as they had head offices based outside of the borough. As a result, I learnt to approach businesses selectively so that time would not be spent unnecessarily.

What I have gained:

Through my coordination with the team on different issues, I have learnt the importance of communication and clarity when approaching the task at hand. This skill will be useful during my third year when I work on the DMT (Design, Make and Test) project. Engaging with businesses directly has dramatically improved my confidence in presenting. Furthermore, I have gained knowledge about the extreme contrasts in wealth and opportunity that exist within the borough.

What the Foundation has gained:

Over the period of four weeks, a total of 120 small businesses are aware of the work carried out by the K&C Foundation. This opens the door for leads to be pursued through the contact details brought back and entered into the database.

My recommendations for the Foundation:

  • Target keen university students during the summer by approaching the careers’ service at Imperial College London.
  • Allow someone from the team (a volunteer perhaps) at K&C to visit small businesses in Golborne Road and Portobello Road and discuss possible ways to get involved. Several of them didn’t have email and therefore were not added into either the database or the business follow-up sheet.
  • Work with the same printing shop during the year in order to build a relationship and negotiate prices.

I am really grateful for this opportunity to have worked with an “umbrella” charity over the last month, leaving me with many positive experiences.

Weeks 2 and 3 at the K&C Foundation

Having gained a strong understanding of how the foundation engages with a business, I was ready to visit a significant number of small businesses in the borough and convince them of the importance of closing the gap between the rich and the poor. The main focus thus far had been towards larger, established businesses in the borough.

My networking skills proved key in convincing managers, supervisors and owners of these businesses that we weren’t just another charity in need of donations. In order to do this, I needed to demonstrate a level of confidence that they simply couldn’t ignore. One of the ways I used to describe the K&C Foundation was by calling ourselves an “umbrella charity” that helped a number of smaller, lesser known charities in the borough. During weeks 2 and 3, I experimented by using different ways to describe the Foundation and chose the ones that were well received.  The areas I visited to approach small businesses  include Sloane Street, King’s Road, Kensington Church Street and many more. On my daily visits to these areas, I discovered that large chain stores were unlikely to respond positively to our cause as they had head offices based out of the borough. As a result, I adjusted my strategy and approached businesses selectively so that time would not be spent unnecessarily. When visiting the small businesses, I carried a set of flyers, leaflets (of campaigns) and business cards in order for them to know more about us and contact the office directly if they wished to do so.

In addition to my outdoor visits, I needed to add the contact details and other relevant information to the office database at the end of each day. This would allow the team to easily contact the relevant person and keep them informed of our work via phone or email long after my time at the Foundation had ended. Doing so proved somewhat tricky as my colleagues were already occupied with work of their own. I then decided to create a business follow-up document that would be used to suggest next steps and the progress for each business. It meant more work due to the fact that at least twenty businesses were visited each day and had to be added to both the database and the business follow-up document. Another task that I undertook in the last two weeks was making twenty-something follow-up calls to larger businesses already contacted months ago but hadn’t responded yet. These were added to the business follow-up document too. However, at the end of each day, I felt really good about myself because I had done the very best I could do!

My first week at the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation

At the end of my first week at the foundation, I have come to know of the extreme contrasts that exist in the royal borough that most of us living here know very little about. The foundation is dedicated to making connections between local charities and businesses and guide them in maintaining long-term commitments.

During my first week, I was briefed about how connections are made with businesses and how information is stored on a database.  I have also learnt about what many of the charities in the borough do and how they help local citizens. It’s amazing what some some charities do in order to help people and how most people are unaware that such help exists. This has helped me see a very “human” side of the borough.

In order to obtain necessary funding for three different charities, the foundation organised a charity evening at a hotel this week. The representatives of the charities presented how any monetary contribution would be used by them. I gained valuable insights into presenting with emotion and clarity.

Before starting my week at the foundation, I was told that they still needed help in raising awareness among small businesses in the borough. My role will be to engage with businesses in K&C personally and bring back details of interest in order to follow up with them. This information must then be added to the database so that communications reach a much broader base. Since I will be representing the foundation, I needed to prepare a list of things that best represent the foundation and what they do.

Working with a team of committed individuals gets me excited to do the best possible job I can for the foundation in the next few weeks to come. I know that I can always ask for help from my helpful colleagues so I am enthusiastically looking forward to the core part of my work here.