This workshop will show how the practical wisdom of poets, playwrights and novelists can inform the process of writing for fundraising. Insights will include:

Advice

• Rainer Maria Rilke on Preparation Time vs Writing Time
• Virginia Woolf on Writing Hygiene
• Leonard Cohen on Drafting
• Jorge Luis Borges and Colum McCann on Editing

Tips

• Ernest Hemingway on A Writers’ Tools
• Ayn Rand on Quotes
• Brian Friel and Brendan Behan on Humour
• V.S. Naipaul and Marty Whelan on Narrative

Counsel

• Ricardo Piglia on Tone
• Ernesto Sabato on Solitude
• James Joyce on Building Relationships
• Peter Sheridan and Thomas Kilroy on Research vs Writing

Hacks

• Bob Dylan on Transmitting Urgency
• Vera Cáit Walsh and Iris Murdoch on Rewards
• Frédéric Gross on Easily Accessing Inspiration
• John Gardner on Re-re-re-re-reading

There will be two intervals with short writing tasks, along with opportunities throughout to discuss and share with your peers what works for you. While this course is designed for those who write to foundations and major donors, it will be of use to any fundraiser who regularly writes to donors.

About the facilitator: 

Hugh Harkin was first published aged seven in the Evening Herald. He knew the poem was not very good, but who refuses the Evening Herald?

Hugh has a degree in English literature and Classics, and taught English literature in a secondary school. More recently, he has worked in all areas of fundraising, specializing in writing for foundations and major donors. He spent four years with a small national organisation, Anam Cara, and now works on the philanthropy team of Barnardos. He has helped both organisations secure dozens of grants, many of these substantial and multi-annual.