Fundraising Now 2023 - Speakers

Lynda is an award-winning, innovative and published fundraising leader, with 18 years’ experience in the charity sector. She is currently Head of Partnerships and Philanthropy at The Brain Tumour Charity, and has a track record of leading fundraising teams to consistently achieve and exceed on their fundraising targets.

Lynda is experienced in philanthropy, corporate partnerships and trusts fundraising and is a skilled trainer and coach. She is keen for charities to develop and implement a multi-layered partnership approach encompassing all income streams to maximise the potential of a charity’s donor pipeline.

Claire has worked in fundraising for fifteen years, specialising in legacy fundraising for over a decade. In 2011, she completed a PhD looking into why people choose to leave legacies to charity.

Having worked for a number of different charities, she is now a consultant specialising in legacy and in-memory fundraising, a research fellow at the University of Plymouth Hartsook Centre and is a tutor for the Institute of Fundraising’s qualification courses.

Joel has been in fundraising management since 1997, for ten years with international development and human rights charities (WaterAid, Amnesty International UK and VSO), managing large scale direct marketing programmes.

From 2008 Joel led fundraising teams in health, social care and medical research charities in the UK (United Response, Breast Cancer Campaign and two hospice charities) as Head of Fundraising / Director of Fundraising. Since November 2018, Joel has work as a fundraising consultant and has held interim fundraising management and leadership positions at several national and international charities including RNID, Royal Society for Blind Children and ActionAid Ireland.

In addition to his consultancy work, Joel teaches the level 3 Fundraising Apprenticeship and is passionate about opening pathways for people from different backgrounds to forge a career in fundraising.

Joel is a certified member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (MInstF Cert) and was awarded a master’s degree in Voluntary Sector Management by the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School, City University (formerly Cass Business School) in 2021.

Rebs is currently working with Shelter as their Interim Social Media Manager, and has previously worked in the social media teams at RNLI and Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Having written the strategy behind the RNLI’s extremely successful TikTok channel and currently managing Shelter’s TikTok account, Rebs knows how to successfully build and engage with an audience on this platform. As well as digital communications, they have also have a background in fundraising, and have been known to use the DSC’s funding guides as a sole fundraiser early in their charity sector career.

Kathryn received her PhD in Psychology from The University of Exeter in 2017. Her thesis examined how humans can consciously or unconsciously learn new information using brain imaging and brain stimulation techniques.

Kathryn now applies psychological theory and experimental design to research in the non-profit sector and uses techniques such as structural equation modelling and Process modelling to analyse data for academic and industry reports.

Her current research at the Institute of Sustainable Philanthropy focuses on sustainably increasing donor psychological wellbeing and donation behaviour by exploring donor identity.

Jess Crombie is a researcher and scholar working as a Senior Lecturer at UAL, and as a consultant for the development and humanitarian sector working with organisations such as the UNHCR, DEC, Red Cross, Save the Children and UN WFP. In both contexts Jess utilises almost two decades as a senior leader in the charity sector to explore the ethical complexities in storytelling and find practical ways to navigate this responsibly. Her research focus is investigating the potential for power shifts by seeking out the opinions and ideas of the people who share their stories with INGOs around both process and portrayal.

Jess commissioned and co-authored the ground-breaking research ‘The People in the Pictures’, and later ‘Who Owns The Story’ and founded and now co-chairs the Bond sponsored 'People in the Pictures working group', set up to bring about sector wide change towards more ethical practises in the creation and use of images of poverty.

Jess also has significant experience producing stories in across four continents, and has lead teams to create some of the most innovative and award winning content in the humanitarian sector. In her most recent role as Global Content Director Jess sat on the senior leadership team at Save the Children, set up and led a large global team working across 29 countries, and created content ranging from VR to participatory projects with children to experiential events, winning Save the Children awards including Cannes Lion Gold and Silver, a Clio, and a Silver British Arrow.

George joined DSC at the beginning of 2017 and, having previously led the sales and customer service teams, moved into training at the start of 2020.

He trains in Management & Leadership, Fundraising, Personal Development, Project Management and Wellbeing. He has extensive experience in helping organisations make positive changes to how they approach social change.

He is also qualified as a Mental Health First Aider, with additional time spent studying Psychosis.

The favourite part of his role is knowing that the work DSC performs has a major impact on both the charities and individuals that we are able to serve.

Jason Williams is a digital marketing consultant who has worked in the charity sector since 2010, starting his career at Motivation Charitable Trust. Jason has also worked for a top digital agency supporting large charities and is now freelance working with small charities. Jason was the first person in Europe to become a Google Ad Grants Certified Professional.

Anda Chiu is the Head of Fundraising at Step by Step, a charity that supports young people going through hard times to break the cycle of homelessness.

Anda joined the charity in 2017, and oversees a team of 6 to raise the income needed to provide accommodation and specialist support services which are unfunded by statutory income.

Anda has worked in fundraising for over 8 years and has a Diploma in Fundraising with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

Kemar Walford specialises in organisational development, with a focus on fundraising from trusts and foundations. Working as a professional fundraising consultant for the last six years, but with 13 plus years of non-profit sector experience. Helping grassroots to medium-sized charities, social enterprises and community groups secure over £3 million over the last six years for various causes covering community, social welfare, offenders, health, social isolation, domestic abuse, and youth. Having spent ten years at the UK’s biggest funder (the National Lottery Community Fund, formerly Big Lottery Fund) undertaking assessment, grant management, programme development and local support in the West Midlands and London.

Kemar is the chair of Black Fundraisers UK at the Chartered Institute of Fundraisers (CIOF) since 2017. A special interest group of the CIOF established to support black and ethnic minority fundraisers in the UK. He is also a trainer and consultant on the Avocado+ programme since its inception, a programme developed from the Avocado programme originally delivered through BF-UK, now managed by Money4you.

A guest speaker for podcasts, networking and fundraising, focused events. These have included the CIOF’s annual conference, BAME online fundraising conference and First Fridays hosted by the Small Charities Coalition and Charity chat podcast. Kemar is a project manager and trainer for Aston-Mansfield, supporting local groups to build their all-round capacity through the Fitter Finance programme. He also spent two years as a volunteer organisational mentor for Sported, the Olympic legacy organisation for grassroots community sports.

In January 2017, Kemar established his fundraising consultancy, KN Walford Consultancy Ltd, which helps non-profit organisations thrive, not just survive, by developing and growing their fundraising activities. Through KNWC, he offers professional advice and guidance in business planning, fundraising strategies, project development and design, prospect research, funding applications, and grant management.

Nicole works with policymakers, businesses, charities, philanthropists and civil society in all its forms. Pro Bono Economics undertakes economic research and policy development for, with and about charities, with the aim of a UK with higher wellbeing for all.

Prior to PBE, Nicole was Head of EU Negotiations at the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) where she led the UK’s premiere business organisation’s work on the negotiation of the trading relationship between the UK and EU. She has also worked for Microsoft and managed political campaigns.

Gordon has 21 years’ fundraising experience, 6 as a consultant:
- Chartered Marketer (2015) & Fellow (2016) - Chartered Institute of Marketing
- Mentor & Coach for Chartered Institute of Fundraising (2016-18)
- Set up Bloom Fundraising in 2016
- Currently responsible for Direct Mail fundraising programmes for 3 UK non-profits

Helen Daw is Head of Data Strategy & Insights at Woods Valldata. Working closely with our charities and account directors, her role is to support their fundraising activities - delivering actionable insights and data strategy recommendations alongside wider charity benchmarking and trend analysis. Helen brings with her experience of working within the charity fundraising sector and working on data and CRM planning and insight projects.

Bijal joined nfpResearch in January 2014 and now oversees all of nfpResearch’s general public audience research including the Charity Awareness Monitor. She has worked with a number of clients across the UK and Ireland on understanding brand perceptions and engagement among target audiences. Bijal also works on bespoke and social investment reports. These have included donor segmentations and trends in trust, volunteering and fundraising.

Bijal graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2013 with a degree in Geography. She has been volunteering as a Girl Guide Leader since 2008 and is a trained workshop facilitator. One of her roles involves designing gender equality leadership workshops for girls and young women. These workshops run globally and discuss the issues girls care about and how they can become leaders for change in their own communities.

Priya works in direct marketing for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). Her fundraising journey began at The British Asian Trust, having previously worked for a start-up helping migrants settle in the UK and Europe as their South Asian Communities Manager. In her spare time she speaks about inclusive, ethical, anti-racist fundraising copywriting and storytelling.

Matt is an innovation and fundraising leader, with specialist skills in digital fundraising, new product development and facilitation. He is proficient in setting up innovation functions, strategy development and managing large, cross-organisational change projects.

Over the last decade, he has designed and facilitated innovation sprints for dozens of projects – his bespoke methodology can be applied to both process improvement and new product development. Alongside this, Matt is also proficient at integrating and embedding new fundraising innovations, particularly where the digital meets physical. Recent examples include working with our clients to embed social media-driven fundraising, streaming and cryptocurrency driven philanthropy.

As Head of Innovation at Marie Curie, he managed the organisation’s in memory programme, as well as testing, developing and growing several new digital and supporter led products. Managing the supporter led function, he delivered a £6 million annual income target working with a large team of product management, community fundraising and innovation specialists.

A passionate advocate of digital fundraising and the power of technology to revolutionise fundraising. Matt champions innovation based on robust data and audience insight over the latest industry trends.

Matt joined THINK in early 2020 and now runs THINK’s Digital Forum and Events Forum, as well as leading on our Digital Fundraising for Beginners and Community Fundraising training courses.

Rosie Cribb is founder of www.fundingschool.co.uk a training and support hub for small charities and social enterprises to increase their fundraising confidence and success.

Bertie Herrtage is the founder of The Crowdfunding Coach, supporting the successful development of VCSE crowdfunding campaigns and promoting crowdfunding education across the UK and abroad through councils, cvs networks and accelerator programmes. Bertie was the Senior Coach at Crowdfunder UK for 5 years and is the author of the crowdfunded magazine Crowdfunder Stories.

Jon has more than a decade’s experience developing forecasts, analysing data and providing economic insight in both the government and not for profit sectors. He has applied his analytical skills to inform high-profile policy issues for the Department for Transport, HM Revenue & Customs and the Valuation Office Agency. He is also Chief Economist for Pro Bono Economics – a charity that specialises in helping other organisations in the not for profit sector to measure and evaluate their impact – where he has worked with organisations such as Children’s Society, KPMG Foundation and Hestia. If it’s a sunny day then you might find him gliding along the Norfolk broads on a paddle board (normally with one of his daughters balanced carefully at one end).

Mervi Slade works as a Payroll Giving Specialist at Cancer Research UK. She has been working in Payroll Giving since 2000 in various roles from a Professional Fundraising Organisation to Payroll Giving Agency. She has also worked at Save the Children as their Payroll Giving Manager and before her role at Cancer Research UK worked as a consultant helping charities in Payroll Giving.

In 2018 she was awarded Outstanding Contribution to Payroll Giving award at the National Payroll Giving Excellence Awards.