By our Founder, Katie Mullen
I launched Ochil Fundraising in October 2022, after a 10 year career in the charity sector. My first client was/is Glencoe Folk Museum, a small heritage charity in, you guessed it, Glencoe!
I live in the foothills of the Ochil Hills, near Stirling so that’s where I got the name. I am a keen hiker, so I wanted to incorporate some mountain elements into the brand.
“How did you end up working in fundraising?”
I started my fundraising journey while studying Chemistry at university (yes, that was a big mistake!). When I wasn’t trying to get my head around polypeptide chains, I worked as a Student Caller within the university’s Alumni Department. My job was to phone graduates and ask them to donate to the student bursary scheme for struggling students.
Sound terrifying? It was! But, I loved the buzz I got when someone finally said “Yes, sign me up!” I also knew I was making a difference, because one of my friends happened to be a bursary recipient and wouldn’t have been able to attend university without it.
It quickly became apparent that I was much more suited to pitching a case for support than testing boiling points. So after dragging myself through my Chemistry degree, I went off to do an MSc in Marketing with Tourism and Events (a much better choice.)
I also took on a couple of internships while I studied, one at the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and another at Bethany Christian Trust.
Fundraising Experience
After my studies, I started working at Changing Face Scotland (a branch of a UK-wide charity), where I was tasked with setting up multiple income streams pretty much from scratch. It was an intimidating challenge and in hindsight, I was in way over my head. But, totally naive to this, I absolutely went for it. I learned a lot and by the end of my three years there, I was winning significant corporate partnerships and securing large grants.
Over the next few years, I worked for various charities including a hospice, a cancer charity, and a Day Centre for the elderly – all small Scottish charities. The latter was a charity called Braid Health and Wellbeing and again, I was tasked with setting up a fundraising programme from scratch. This time, I was more experienced and things went a lot smoother. I hit my target six months early and exceeded it by £35K.
Marketing Experience
Anyone who has worked in the charity sector will know that you rarely get to simply ‘do your job’… usually you end up doing at least three! Fundraisers often have some level of responsibility for marketing within their charity, whether that be updating the website, creating social media content or designing flyers and posters.
I always loved this part of my job and as I became more confident, I realised that I wanted to do more in marketing. I kicked this off by signing up for a Diploma in Digital Marketing in late 2019, which I have now completed.
We all know what happened after that! So in May 2020, while on furlough, I started doing some freelance marketing work for a Scottish tour operator, and my original business, Katie Mullen Digital Marketing, was born.
I now have a wide range of marketing clients including a magician, massage therapist, graphic designer, party prop hire company, a networking organisation and several charities.
In August 2022, I decided to leave employment altogether and go full-time into running my own business. My plan had always been to start offering freelance fundraising services alongside my marketing services. In October 2022, I began working for my first fundraising client. In January 2023, I onboarded another charity client with a mixed package including fundraising, social media, and copywriting.
And that pretty much takes me to where I am now!
