The essence of fundraising is teamwork. Whether you are a lone fundraiser working in your organisation or part of a large team - fundraising can never exist in isolation. We rely on our front-line colleagues to deliver amazing programs, care for those in need and incrementally make the world a better place. We rely on our support teams to ensure we have the materials, the governance and the resources in place to ensure we are able to do our jobs.

And of course, we rely on the donors, whose generosity, compassion and love inspires us every day to do our work better and reach more. Being part of a fundraising team is a sacred thing. Together you live with the pressure that people's lives whom you will never meet will be affected by how well you do your job. We understand the complexity of trying to package and share stories of suffering, pain and triumph in a meaningful way to inspire those whom we know care about the same things we do.

This year’s Fundraising Team of the Year have illustrated to us all the essence of great fundraising teamwork. In an organisation that has been around a long time and who could easily become stale they showed great courage to innovate and improve on what they'd done before. The went back to their colleagues from other departments forming project teams that could translate the work better for their donors, work together to create messages and create more meaningful campaigns. They set their team mantra as Ownership - Collaboration and Accountability.

Most importantly as a fundraising team their numbers were outstanding. Increasing income, engagement and donor numbers across their campaigns throughout 2018. They have set a new bar for us all to reach.