Jean-Gabriel Tarassenko

Having had an experience within a smaller NGO, I wanted to remain in the charity sector but was looking for a bigger or well-known charity. I knew by working in a bigger organisation I could gain new experiences with structure and governance, how different teams relate to each other and work together and have a truly collaborative experience is why I was really interested to come work for Macmillan. 

I wanted to be a part of that.

The People you work with, the ability to learn from others on a daily basis. 

Our team is contact supporters, and we are privileged to do the things we do. 

We receive a lot of letters into the Head Office from supporters. We have a lot of supporters who choose to share their stories and their losses, their experience and their story with us. We love those letters and we especially love the letters from children involved in fundraising.  

Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost in data and technical aspects of any role but when you receive those stories, it brings it all home why we’re here and what we do. These letters make sure we stay connected.

Sometimes it may begin with a whole team meeting, we allocate workload because we are a front line operational team. Our day may also include training and guiding new members of the team at particular times of the year such as Coffee Morning income, “Thank You”s for Challenge Events, learning how to process income from Philanthropy donations. 

Our day can also involve looking at problem solving, dealing with supporter queries such as missing income to specific thanking for a particular support to dealing with Gift Aid or working with other Fundraising or Finance teams. 

I’m also the Co-Chair of the B.A.M.E Network which involves talking to people one to one, reviewing policy documents, organising events, working with the ED&I team and other stakeholders.

Knowing that I’m part of a wider team, whatever I do has an impact on people. Wanting to continue to help others with shared problems and resolving them.

Because the people make the organisation. 

The relationships you develop with people, you rely on one another, we have a warm and welcoming atmosphere and there’s a lot of opportunity to work on different projects for example me being able to spend time on the B.A.M.E Network and there’s opportunity to move around the organisation and get different experience in other teams.

I play guitar and I sing.