Dawn Newton - Networking Without The Awkwardness

We talk with Dawn Newton about moving from charity comms roles into long-term freelancing, and what it takes to build a career that fits your brain, your life, and the impact you want to make. Her move didn't just change her workload, it changed how she thinks about impact, confidence, and sustainability in the charity sector.

We explore Dawn's “teach someone to fish” approach: coaching and mentoring comms staff, helping charities tailor messages to different audiences, and using an iterative cycle of testing and learning rather than chasing perfection.

Charity Meetup networking is a big part of Dawn’s story. We unpack how facilitation and play can make meeting new people feel safer, and also what it takes to keep sector events going when venues are expensive and budgets are tight. Along the way we tackle bigger themes of scarcity mindset, why optimism matters, and how LinkedIn can be a powerful place for human storytelling, and credibility building.

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Connect with Dawn on LinkedIn

Find out more about Charity Meetups

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Jane Curtis, founder of The Charity Freelancing Course, host of The Other Side Podcast and Co-founder of The Rich & Restored Retreat. 

Jane has spent 26 years in the charity sector, is a former events fundraiser, and now supports well over 100 charity sector freelancers to replace their in house salary without working 24/7 through a group mastermind programme, charity freelancing course and 1:1 work. 

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Welcome And Meet Dawn Newton

Jane Curtis 0:25

Welcome to the other side, the charity freelancers podcast. I'm Jane Curtis, and this is where we explore the journey from charity professional to thriving freelancer or business owner. Each week I chat with individuals who've made this leap from the charity sector, sharing invaluable practical tips and incredible insights firsthand. So whether you're considering making the move or you're already on your freelance journey or you're just a bit nosy and want to know what goes on behind the scenes of well-known freelance businesses, you're in the right place. So put your feet up and settle in as we dive into today's conversation. And today I'm joined by Dawn Newton, who is a marketing and communications specialist. Dawn founded the Charity Meetup Networking and Skill Sharing events in 2015. She has a decade of experience helping small UK charities and social enterprises share their stories and amplify their impact. She specialises in translating complex strategies into authentic and high-impact digital campaigns from driving viral advocacy campaigns for pregnant and screwed to humanising social action for infrastructure networks. Dawn delivers fast turnaround, budget conscious comms, and campaign support that drives real change. Welcome to the other side,

The Leap Into Freelancing

Jane Curtis 1:40

Dawn. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. So, Dawn, I want to get straight in and ask you a bit about your background because you've had a really varied career. I was doing a bit of nosing on LinkedIn. Um, you've been freelancing and doing interim contracts for a long time. Can you tell me a bit about your decisions for working in that way?

Dawn Newton 2:00

Do you want me to start from the beginning of like why I went freelance, or do you want me let's go there, let's go there, yeah. Okay. Um well I was commuting for like two hours each way from Aylesbury because I'd moved there, because I'd met my partner and we were living there, and I was really struggling with that commute, as you can imagine, and it was really depleting me, and I was feeling more and more frustrated in-house with the politics um and the restrictions, and so I really felt like I wanted to do something that had more variety and that I could bring my kind of uniqueness to, but I was really scared, and my partner at the time really encouraged me to do it. I was really frightened about like the accountancy side because I'm not great with numbers, I think I have dyscalcula like the similar to dyslexia, and he was like, Well, but you could have somebody do that for you, you know, you don't have to do all of the things, so I took the leap, and it's been so much better for me. Now being late diagnosed ADHD as well, it is much better for my brain to have that difference and that shift, and I've always thought so differently to all of my colleagues anyway, that by being a freelancer who can support a charity to do things in new ways, it's a really good fit for me. Um, I initially was doing um in-house comms for small charities, and then in 2014 I went freelance. I had my first contract with Nike, which would you believe, which was a project where they were doing some stuff about getting kids more active, um move one, so it was like adjacent charity. So I learnt so much from that because obviously they have much bigger budgets than we do, and then um went on to doing lots of different things. I've ended up working a lot in infrastructure, which is a little bit sadistic, I think, because I don't know if you've ever done any comms, but when you don't own your own stories, like in infrastructure, you're kind of doing things on behalf of others and you're supporting them to do their work. So communicating how that happens is quite tricky. You don't have like a cute puppy or um pretty pictures of things to show so easily, it's quite hard because it's sort of one step back, but I think I quite like that for some reason, and um, yeah, so I've done a lot over the years. I think I have quite a few threads around volunteering, which I'm quite passionate about because early in my career I worked at the Volunteer Centre Westminster, and I think it's sort of just something I wish I'd discovered earlier myself. So I loved the idea of like spreading the word about volunteering and how amazing it is. Um and yeah, so I kind of never really had like a plan really of like I'm gonna go for this type of client or I'm gonna do this kind of work. I've just built relationships over the years and uh gone where I was needed, really. Um yeah.

Jane Curtis 4:59

Yeah, yeah.

Advisory Work That Builds Capacity

Jane Curtis 5:00

And um you you mentioned that it obviously the commute was one of your kind of main reasons why you wanted to sort of work, but but what other um kind of benefits have you had felt through working in this way that you weren't potentially getting when you were in 95?

Dawn Newton 5:18

Well, I think I feel a lot more heard by being freelance. I often would be I don't want to say disregarded, but I don't I didn't feel taken seriously enough when I was in-house for whatever reason. I was never very good with all the politics. Whereas I think when I'm going in as more of like an advisor as for my role, it works better. And I do a lot of more like teacher man to fish stuff now, so I do a lot of sort of coaching and mentoring people who are in post who might be more junior, and I really enjoy that role because I feel like that's more sustainable for the charity as well, because I'm helping them to upskill within their teams, and then they can carry on that work. I realise I'm a you know, I'm an expensive resource for them, so I don't ever want to be there forever, I want to try to make things better, and that feels good, you know. I enjoy that, and I love the variety of learning about my clients and really deeply understanding their whys and what they're doing, and how I can tell those stories or support them to tell those stories as much as possible, and just build their confidence and their sort of understanding of. I think a lot of them struggle with like understanding how you appeal to different audiences because I don't think it comes naturally, so I do a lot around that of how you can sort of tweak things to appeal for different audiences, and a lot of what I do is just try and encouraging them to like work iteratively, which is also something I try to do. So, you know, you have your idea, your action, and your review, like what you want to do, do the thing, what are you learning from that thing, and then keep going in that cycle. And I really enjoy constantly learning, I learn about my clients, I learn about how tech changes constantly, which is always a challenge, and I learn about myself, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jane Curtis 7:07

And I found that um I think I can make more, I feel I can make more impact, you know, working in this way. Like um it's quick, it's perhaps a bit quicker, a bit more kind of powerful, like um focused, I think.

Dawn Newton 7:20

Because they're used to spending money on a thing, yeah. Which I really enjoy that kind of project base. We're doing this thing and it's exciting, and yeah, that's really up my street because I'm kind of quite I'm very good starter. I'm a very I can really help boost energy and get going with things.

Jane Curtis 7:37

Yeah, you like the variety and the fast pace, yeah.

Why Charity Meetup Exists

Jane Curtis 7:40

I can see that. Um, so I got to know you a little bit through charity meetup, which I think a lot of people listening will also um be aware of. You were like a really early adopter of like the sort of sector networking event. Um tell me a bit about why that why you started that and and how that came about.

Dawn Newton 8:00

So I went freelance and I would go to events and they would say there was networking, but it would just be a table with some drinks, either tea and coffee in the day or wine at night. But I would struggle and I would go to the one person I already know, which might be Kirsty Marins or Gabby or whoever else who goes to these things, and I love them, but I realise at the end of the event I've not met anybody new, which is quite important when you're freelanced because you need to network. And I think really naturally I'm actually terrible at networking because I find it really hard to just strike up a conversation with a stranger. And then I reflected and thought, well, if I'm struggling with that and I'm as extrovert as you can possibly be, I like public speaking, then especially the charity sector, which has a lot of more introverted people in it, other people must have a similar challenge. And I thought, could I make an event where that's the purpose of it, that we're really facilitating that networking and interaction, and that they have permission. And I'm not saying I force them, but I'm very uh I'm very motivated that they meet at least three people and they um push themselves out of their comfort zone and start up some conversation with people. I do it in a fun way through games and play, and it's not horrible and scary. You don't have to all stand in a big circle and say your name, which I find really cringy when I go to events and I get really stressed. I don't never know what to say. So I I did that, and then we did the first event, it was just freelancers, actually, and similar to Richard Berks current um iteration. And then I decided, no, we all want the charities there, like we want to talk to the charities, we want to listen, we also want them to be clients at some point. So then the second one we brought the charities into, and yeah, it just it just sort of has evolved from there, and it's been an incredible roller coaster ride, um, especially obviously with the pandemic um along the way, too, and having to shift to doing a lot more online. Um, but I love the events because I tried to do it in a very different way. I would go to a lot of events, there'd be a speaker like British Heart Foundation talking about their four million pound app, and I'd be like, I'm a small charity, I can't relate to any of this. So I've always tried to champion smaller charities, people who've never spoken before, people who have disruptive ideas, you know, and it for it to be a bit more unusual themes as well. So we have things like celebrating success and failure, because I think we're quite bad at both those things in the charity sector at times. Like we're not very good at taking a step back and reflecting and being proud of what we've done, and I think that's an area we could definitely improve, and they were really fun.

Jane Curtis 10:47

Um yeah, I love that. And um, they've been going like 11 years, so it's obviously really successful.

Dawn Newton 10:53

Um, yeah, we were hosted by like Facebook, Google, loads of big names as well. But my favourite has always been when charities have hosted us, like the British Red Cross have hosted us, a tiny charity called Petite Miracles hosted us in their shop in Shepherd's Bush. So yeah, it's really lovely, like melting pot of people. And the freelancers from the original have really supported them to carry on, really, because they have always been loyal and come and encouraged clients and different people to come along too. And I've always felt really supported and encouraged by the freelancers that have come along

Venues, Costs, And The Future

Dawn Newton 11:30

who are now friends of mine, and I really value those relationships so much.

Jane Curtis 11:34

And how often do they take place?

Dawn Newton 11:35

Are they monthly or I was trying to do them monthly, and it's just really tough. Like the events field is not recovered from before pandemic. Basically, at the moment, there's one happening online in September. Um, I did a previous one online. I much prefer to do in-person, but we don't have a venue that can host us. I think before the pandemic, people would lend rooms and stuff, but I think everything's just so much more expensive now, and so it's really hard to make it work. And I don't want the ticket price to be, you know, I try and keep the ticket price around 20 quid, like early birds, so I don't want it to be like £150 a ticket. I just can't ethically do events like that, so I'm not sure the future's uncertain unless we can find like sponsors or host venues. Um, we have a group in Birmingham that runs with a lady called Vicky Kangers, and they have an event coming up as well. I can't remember the date, but it's on the charity meetup website. And um I started a group in Buckinghamshire in Aylesbury, where I live as well. But again, I've tried to do some events, but it's been really tough going.

Jane Curtis 12:43

Yeah, it's tough, it is tough. And I think, like you said, you know, a lot of charities aren't don't have big headquarters anymore. Like, you know, people are working all over the place, so it's really, really changed. Um, I'm keen to hear a bit more about your business, Dawn, and like talk me through if there is such a thing as a typical week in your business. Um, I know you're a mum as well. Like, tell me, tell me what what does that look like for you?

Dawn Newton 13:07

Well, at the moment we're in the the thick of the six-week holiday, just past the halfway point, which I'm a single parent with ADHD. Oh my goodness, it's hard. So, yeah, juggling a lot um and trying to at the moment I'm I have a few little bits of work, um, working for a tiny charity that have like one and a half members of staff, like as small as you can possibly be, pretty much. So I'm trying to help them with a variety of different things, a lot of which is actually much more operational, just trying to get some systems in place, like a feedback form for the families they support online instead of a Word document, stuff like that. So it can be really functional support like that, or it

A Realistic Week As A Freelancer

Dawn Newton 13:50

might be coaching their sort of admin person with social media. We've created like a spreadsheet with inspirational ideas, themes, topics, so that she can, when she's having trouble thinking of what she can post, she's got loads of ideas and routes she could take to share about the charity's work, and also I'm encouraging them to post about other partners and organisations locally so that they're not just talking about themselves, that there's variety there. Um, and then yeah, I'm looking for work as well, so I'm doing more sort of applying for stuff. I have an interview on Friday for something, which would be a maternity cover. I um I'm promoting the charity meetup event that um I mentioned, which will be in September. Um, so yeah, I've got a workshop later for another client where we're sort of talking about the brand and trying to get that right, and then we're going to proceed with the launch. So, yeah, all sorts.

Jane Curtis 14:50

Perfect. And what are some of the biggest challenges um that you face as a business owner?

Dawn Newton 14:56

I think Madeline Sugton, who I'm sure you know, she's also been freelance for a really long time and is an amazing comms person, told me a long time ago that it's feast or famine. Like it's quite rare to hit that sweet spot of exactly the correct amount of work. You're either too busy or you're a bit scared about paying the bills that month. So it's trying to ride that out of how to um have the right amount wherever possible, or if you haven't got enough work, how what can you do practically to generate work and trying to stay positive and that kind of thing. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of challenges. I also, like I say, have really good freelance friends who are amazing. Because when I have like a wobble

Feast Or Famine And Finding Stability

Dawn Newton 15:50

or even to celebrate something, I can like message them and they really get it. And I'd really recommend to anyone who's freelanced to try to have that kind of circle. And interestingly, a lot of those friends do really similar work to me, and we often like sort of if we can't do a thing, we're like, Oh, is this something you'd like to do? And then recommend one another. So it's really generous and kind, I think, which is incredible.

Jane Curtis 16:12

Yeah, so important to have that network around you because it can be quite lonely as well, can't it? At times you don't necessarily have that like team of people there. So um, having that kind of that those people that you can just WhatsApp or whatever, like in that, you know, if you're feeling a bit down or a bit low, or like you say, if you've had a big win, it's like, yay, I want to celebrate this with someone. Um, so I totally uh agree with you on that. So you've been doing this work for a long time, Dawn. Like, what would you say kind of the secret to your longevity, your success is?

Dawn Newton 16:44

Oh well, I'm not sure I perceive a success. I think it's been cobbled along as I've gone along. I'm not sure I was particularly strategic about it. Um, but I think what I try to do is bring my uniqueness to a thing, which is I always have ideas. I don't know where they come from or how it works in my brain, but a lot of the time I think we get stuck, especially when you're in-house and you've been in a role a long time, and I've been really good at helping people get unstuck and be like, Well, what could you do? And how could we look at this in a different way? And asking more questions to help them find their way out of it. Because I think I can tell people what to do, but I think it's powerful to just be more of that kind of coach to help people find their own way. Um I mean, I think the charity meetup, the thing that I love to do is to really challenge and encourage the charities to push themselves and be bolder. I think there's a lot of fear in the sector, there's like a scarcity mindset. So I sort of see my role as very much like pushing against that and saying that actually if we shift that mindset, we could be a lot more positive and successful and not be so stressed. Um, so I do a lot around mindset in general, I would say, um, and try to be a good influence, really, and positive force and meet people where they are, because I can have all the ideas in the world, but

Scarcity Mindset And Burnout Warning Signs

Dawn Newton 18:20

for somebody who's just really stressed out, that's just so overwhelming. So sometimes it's just going out for a coffee and just having a vent and being like, okay, what one thing can we do right now to help you feel a bit better? Because I think I don't know about you, but I'm really quite concerned about the burnout. Like, um, I did a poll on LinkedIn and I got really scary results of like everyone was either in burnout, beyond burnout, or close to burnout, basically, and I just don't think that's sustainable. So I think we just all have to try to be kinder to each other and look after each other more and slow down a bit and try to it's like the Einstein quote like if you have I think it's an hour to figure out a problem to find a solution, you need to spend a lot of that time actually understanding the problem first before jumping in to try and solve it because you're often just dealing with symptoms and like firefighting and not really getting to the core of what you need to do. So a lot of what I try to do is to get to the roots, create replicable things for people that they can continue doing even when I've left, so that they can feel empowered to do things, but they might not have thought, oh, we'll create this type of interview and learn more about our staff team and share more about what we're doing. Because I think a lot of people are fascinated by how charities work, but we often share very little about the internal side of it. It's um I think it's hard because, like I say, a lot of people are quite shy in the sector and don't like to be front and centre, but I think they're heroes and they're amazing people doing incredible work, so it would be really nice to learn more about how they do their work and um yeah.

Jane Curtis 20:02

Yeah, and I love what you said about um scarcity mindset. Like I've definitely uh got a lot to say on that subject. Um, and I do think it's very much tied to uh what you just said about a burnout and that being like a real kind of epidemic at the moment. Um and you know that kind of feeling that we're all going for the you know, a fixed pie of like resources, and therefore you've got to work, work, work, work, work, work, work faster, faster, faster, more, more, more. You know, you hit a target, you get given a bigger target, you know, and it's just it's relentless. Um, and actually, there's something about just coming at this from a kind of mindset of like there is more than enough, you know, it's a circulation problem that we've got, it's not a resource, like there's resources, there is there is enough, you know, and actually how you would change your kind of approach if we were sort of leaning more into that, then that kind of there's not enough panic kind of franticness, you know. Um, and that's something that I've had to really embody as well. Because when I came out of the charity sector, that was not the way I was feeling, you know. I was very much feeling like I'm behind, I'm behind, I've got to rush, I've got to catch up, you know.

Dawn Newton 21:14

And yeah, that's been a real practice for me to just slow down a little bit and like release the grip a bit, you know, like just yeah, let things flow a little bit more, and yeah, um and I think it's sort of linked to the manifestation, which I know a lot of people will find woo-woo, but even if you just set goals, if you're not woo-woo, you set goals of what you want to achieve. I've been doing like um a vision board each year. Lady does a workshop locally, and she's so lovely, and she helps women in business. And I love to support her, and I love to do the vision board, and then I have it in my room every day, so I wake up and it's more sort of subliminal, but it really helps me to try and think what am I trying to do? The world's gonna do what the world's gonna do. To do, I just have to try to keep going in my direction, which is trying to bring more light and colour to things. How can we have a bit of fun with this stuff and be more magnetic rather than trying to force people to be interested in what we're doing? How do we become relevant? How do we be more interesting and draw people to us rather than being like trying to interrupt all the time?

Jane Curtis 22:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that. And just by being yourself, like so magnetic, you know, it being more you. More you and more you and and um unlearning a lot of the stuff of kind of and not being afraid, yeah, and having to look a certain way and having to appear and and behave a certain way. And that's well, I definitely don't conform.

Dawn Newton 22:46

I have bright pink hair and sometimes rainbow, and but it's taken a long time for me to sort of accept that that's okay, you know, and that I can be different and that it's an asset, you know. My brain definitely is not the same as other people's, but that is a positive thing. And I think a lot of the time with the freelancers, they're trying to appeal to everyone, and I think you end up appealing to

Being More You And Choosing A Niche

Dawn Newton 23:10

no one. So I think it is fine to niche and really think about what you love to do and how can you try and do more of that thing, the thing that lights you up, because I think you will be more successful if you can do that. And so for me, that's often the training and the I loved speaking and getting in front and doing the events and bringing people together. Community is really important to me, and I'm lucky enough at the moment to be doing communities of practice in Oxfordshire, so they're often online but sometimes in person, and it's just so lovely because I get to see the same faces each month and just be building that community and encouraging those connections, and I think I love that work.

Jane Curtis 23:48

Yeah, so important. Um, so that segues really nicely onto kind of networks and communities and support that you found useful as an employed person, a self-employed person. Um touch uh on that a little bit more. Obviously, you've got your charity meetups, but what other communities and support have you found useful?

Dawn Newton 24:06

I mean, I was spoilt because at the time I went freelance, we still had Bar Camp not-for-profit, which I love with Layla, and we had NFP Tweet Up, and we had loads of cool things, all those things have gone, sadly. Um, I have been a member for Charity Comms and I recommend them, they're really lovely. I'm part of the Fair Collective, which is run by Vic, which is a lovely community as well. I go to Richard's events and I find them really um refreshing and helpful, and um people are really honest there, um, which I really value. Um, I go to local things that are in person that that lady I mentioned, business foundations for mums, Kate runs, and they're really lovely because I can see we've been in real life. Because I get very lonely at home all the time, and being a single parent, I don't even have somebody to be like, How was your day? Like it's literally nothing. My child comes home, wants snacks, that's how it works, so it's fine. Um, yeah, so I I try to do more being with others where possible, and I really value it and I really recommend it. Um, and then I try to like have like coffees and lunches and with my like freelance friends wherever possible. At one point, we were trying to do like maybe not quite Christmas, but around that sort of time, often ending up in January because of people's availabilities, like meetups with um Kirsty and those guys, and that was really lovely, and I really enjoyed doing that. She's now in Italy, so a

Communities That Keep You Going

Dawn Newton 25:40

bit trickier. Um, but we've done a couple of Christmas do meetings together, and that's been really nice. Um, but yeah, I I really think the networks piece is like essential, and I think uh you you don't realise how much you need it, so it's quite hard to feel permission enough to like take time out of working to do that, but I think it's really helps because then you get inspiration and you get re-energised, and then you can go on to do more stuff. So even though it feels like you're taking time out, that time is really well spent, I think.

Jane Curtis 26:21

Really well, it's such an investment, isn't it? Um you've had like phenomenal success on LinkedIn, you've got over 30,000 followers. What do you put that success down to?

Dawn Newton 26:34

Well, I was a very early adopter, so that's not very helpful to many people, but I did go on it very early on, and I was doing a job where I was matching big corporates with small charities, um, corporate volunteering. So I was meeting like a Microsoft team, so I'd add 10 of them, and then it would recommend loads of other people from that company. So I had loads of kind of seeds planted early, but I try really hard to if I meet someone, I look them up on LinkedIn and connect to them. So whether that's on Richard's group or whatever group I go to, online or in person. I tried to like if my charity meetup events are on a particular subject, like I remember we did one on impact, and I was like, this is so hard because there's no job for impact. Like you have a fundraiser, you have a comms person, but impact could sit with anyone. So I was trying to target certain people on LinkedIn for that event. So I literally go through and try and connect to new people who might work in that sphere who might like to either be speakers or come along to that event, um, for example. Um, but I also think with LinkedIn, what I like is it's become a lot more sort of human, it's less just pure business now. So I do talk a bit more honestly. Like I talked about having a wobble recently and it went crazy on LinkedIn. But the algorithm is strange on there because like a lot of those people are not my followers. I'm like, so I have 30,000 connections, yet you're showing it to all these people who I don't know. It's very strange the way it behaves. I preferred it before, if I'm honest, where it was more like the old school, like you saw more recent posts rather than orchestrated um stuff where they're trying to put ads and all this stuff. I I find it frustrating, but I like it and I do use it quite a lot, and I do try to encourage others, and I do a trick which I think is a good tip for freelancers, which is to give people recommendations. So if I work with a client or even with another freelancer or anything, I write them a recommendation. Nine times out of ten, they will write one back for you. And so I feel good because I've written a nice recommendation to somebody,

LinkedIn Growth And A Simple Trust Trick

Dawn Newton 28:40

I've made their day, and it really cheers them up. But then I also get a bank, and I've got a hundred now of recommendations on my LinkedIn, and I can pull those and put them on my website, but I can also prove those people actually said it and I didn't just make it up, yeah. And then also when I have a bad day, I go read them, which helps. So yeah, I'd really recommend that because I think it is a bit cringe and it's hard. I think it's not very British to be like, oh, I thought this person was great, it just feels hard, but it's really a lovely thing, like a lovely kind of circle, I think, to appreciate people you're working with and their unique things that they bring.

Jane Curtis 29:17

So, do you think using it has been like a strategic decision for your business, or did it just kind of happen naturally from what you were doing before?

Dawn Newton 29:29

Um, I think I've got more and more disenchanted with the other platforms. So it's ended up by default being the one because I feel like the others are just becoming more and more divisive. But I always thought that it was an underutilised area for charities because I so I felt like I wanted to lead by example and use it well and know it so that I could help the charities use it better, and we proved that with the Pregnant Men's Group campaign last year because we had insane adoption for the paternity leave campaign and the amount of people, and it was lovely to see lots of men talking about it on LinkedIn, their experience of paternity, and how they think two weeks is not an acceptable amount. And several people said to me, I've never seen a charity campaign be all over LinkedIn like this, you know, because we were just resharing a lot of real people's anecdotal evidence of what they how it impacted their life. We didn't have to do very many posts, the community did that, and it was really moving. If you the some of the stuff so heartbreaking with babies still in the ICU and their dads having to go back to work, it's just terrible. But you know, it's very powerful when you can try to create a campaign in that moment and you get people to pull together. Um, and I think I'd love to see charities using LinkedIn more because it's so useful to like do more than just find your trustees, like a lot of people who are on there very influential. I think in my circle, almost all of my friends are on LinkedIn, but that's real peppered of whether they're on any of the other platforms, so it's a very broadly used one, I think.

Jane Curtis 31:10

Agreed, yeah. Um, so with the benefit of what you know now in 2026, what advice would you have given Dawn at the start of her freelance career? What do you wish you'd known then?

Dawn Newton 31:27

Really good question. I think similar to what we were talking about earlier, be more me, be bolder, be more clear on what you can bring yourself to everything. Um think about who your dream client list would be and write it down and think about how we could work towards working with them, be a bit more of a planner than I was. Um, and I think being open, keeping an open mind, because I think some of the things I've done I never thought that I would do, and I've ended up like I worked for two years on the Health Alliance locally, so that was a big NHS transformation project where we were trying to get the NHS and the track sector to work together, and it was ever so technical. I had to like learn basically a whole new language because the NHS speak in a completely different way, and I found it very challenging because it was technically quite difficult to simplify a lot of the communication between those two groups, but it was really fulfilling, and we did some brilliant events and a lot of cool projects around co-production and stuff that I was learning about, so I found that really enriching. I think you don't have to know everything about everything, you can do things where you're pushed outside of that kind of comfort zone of what you know, and I think sometimes you bring something special to that because you're you, you know, you don't have to necessarily have had 20 years of NHS experience to work with the NHS basically, so yeah, I really enjoyed doing that work, even though functionally it was quite challenging. Um, but it was meaningful to me, and I think it helped some people. I think the NHS is such a big organisation, it's hard to make any change. But I think we did a dent and they're still going, and they've renamed to Thames

Advice For New Freelancers

Dawn Newton 33:20

Valley now the Hellfinites that I work for. Um, but I think we definitely managed to get some very higher-up people to have a better understanding of the charity sector, and I think that's a win.

Jane Curtis 33:32

Yeah, well done, that's brilliant. Um so what changes do you think we're gonna see in the charity sector this year and next?

Dawn Newton 33:42

Um I don't know how it's going to go. I like I said, I'm worried about this burnout. I think the charities really do need to take professional development and well-being much more seriously because this has been going on quite a while and they have haemorrhaged so many amazing people who just found it untenable to work in the sector. So, what I hope is that they can make some shifts and reprioritise how some money is spent and look after their people. If you look after your people, everything else will flow and they will look after your beneficiaries even better than what they currently are. Obviously, I think there's a big shift with AI coming, where I think a lot of charities are experimenting a lot with that. I think there's a lot of ethical challenge around it, and I'm hoping that it will settle back down again and there'll be more human element because I think us humans can tell when it's been computer generated. Um I just it worries me when I see a lot of charities closing, and I think that mindset piece that we talked about of that. Um we did an event on it uh called The Market for Something to Believe in Is Infinite. And I think most corporates would kill for the purpose that we have as charities, but we actually squander a lot of the time, especially in our storytelling. Like we have these amazing stories often just stay within our charity, and we don't really put out there and help people to see and understand the incredible work, and then only when we close do people realise what we lose. So I just hope that we could try to do more with sharing that positive news. There's so much negative news, and I think we should be a light and be a place of optimism that humans are fundamentally good, like the volunteering side alone, like the amazing things that are done every day by volunteers just because they want to help is just so moving to me. So I hope we can try to steady the ship and be more positive and just think in more inventive ways and not get stuck of we have to still do it this way that we've done it for the last 20 years. We have to change, otherwise, we go the way of Kodak, we become obsolete, we can't keep trying to do things the

What Changes Next For Charities

Dawn Newton 36:20

old ways. So I hope that we can move towards being more open to change and as a sector look after our people better, is what I think.

Jane Curtis 36:29

Oh, Dawn. Got goosebumps when you were talking then, I love that. Um so if listeners want to come to your next charity meetup or find out more about you and working with you, is the LinkedIn the best place to send them or is there somewhere else?

Dawn Newton 36:44

Yeah, LinkedIn is often the first place. We have a mailing list, which is I do always send out to the mailing list first, and then I do LinkedIn, and then we have Facebook and Instagram as well, and then we have a website, charitymeetup.co.uk. Um, but if you just Google Charity Meetup, it will come up in lots of different ways of what whatever. But yeah, I mean I'd love to see more people coming along to the charity meetups, and also I'm always looking for speakers. So if somebody wants to share something, um happy to chat about that. Um, especially if they haven't spoken before, I love helping people to make that leap of speaking and sharing their story because I think it's nice to have new voices.

Jane Curtis 37:25

Yeah, I love that. Oh, amazing. Dawn, thank you so much for your time today. I've really enjoyed our chat. Me too. Thank you, Jane. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Other Side. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with a colleague who might be thinking about their own freelance journey or leave a review. And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. You can find all the links and resources we mentioned today in the show notes. If you're looking to replace your 9-5 salary without working 24-7, check out my website janecurtisevents.com, where you can

How To Connect And Final Thoughts

Jane Curtis 38:05

sign up to weekly tips and tricks to help you earn more doing work you love. That's janecurtisevents.com. Until next time, keep exploring what's possible on the other side.