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Job satisfaction is more important than money

Lai Yin-man, assistant PR and fund-raising officer for the Hong Kong Society for the Aged, is motivated by her caring nature

MOST PEOPLE WANT a good salary or prospects of promotion when they look for a job, but for me, job satisfaction is more important than anything else, and I always knew that I would get the most out of a job where I was helping other people.

When I graduated from Lingnan University I wanted to contribute directly to the community and I've been working in non-governmental organisations ever since.

I joined the Hong Kong Society for the Aged because I think it is important to make sure that the elderly get proper care. Everyone has to grow old, and not everyone is lucky enough to grow old gracefully. They need to be cared for. I have found my contact with the elderly really rewarding; a few words of encouragement in a phone call will be repaid with great warmth and positive feedback.

Although I really enjoy my job, it is not easy, and fund-raising is getting harder because there is a lot of competition out there and some of the newer NGO's are raising money illegally and giving us all a bad name with the public. It is difficult to persuade people to give you money if they have become sceptical of charities and how they spend the funds.

I spend a great deal of my day on the phone, often to the people who regularly donate money to us, who can be quite difficult to deal with. They want to know where their money is being spent and they also want to change the details of their donations quite often, so I have to discuss options with them.

I think you have to be quite detail minded to do this job. I have a lot of administration to do, and I also have plenty of quite tedious work, like stuffing envelopes for mail shots. We often persuade volunteers from schools or universities, or some of the elderly to come and help us out with this.

There is also plenty of scope for creativity, and this is the part that I enjoy. I am constantly trying to think of new ways to raise funds, and have to prepare proposals for companies to support our fund-raising programmes.

Fund-raising is increasingly moving in the direction of corporate sponsorship, and I am putting together a proposal for a company to persuade them to pay for our leaflets and promotional activity for a campaign to get children to donate their lai see money to the society.

Surprisingly, good storytelling is also a quality that is useful in fund-raising. Our direct mailing leaflets often feature stories of elderly people in need, or those who have been helped by our organisation. They are designed to illustrate to the public why we need their help, so I have to make sure they are as effective as possible.

I am also responsible, with one other colleague, for compiling the quarterly newsletter. We have to issue memos to regional staff to ask them to hand in reports on their activities. Once I have received them I have to rewrite some of the reports.

I work closely with our executive director on the message for the front page, then I co-ordinate with the design house for the layout, proof read, print and distribute it to 50,000 people.

It is well known that you don't get paid well working for an organisation like this. I could be earning a lot more working for a commercial company, but I gain a lot in other ways. My job makes me really happy.

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