I started my fundraising life as a student volunteer spending hours shaking a collecting tin on streets across the UK. Sometimes people gave pounds, sometimes pennies, but collectively their generosity made a difference to many different charities and one thing I noticed was that they usually smiled as they gave.

My career has taken me around the world where I’ve been involved in great projects working with philanthropists from different cultural backgrounds on transformative gifts of millions, sometimes tens of millions, of pounds or dollars.

Of course, it’s a special moment when someone agrees to make a gift but, for me, the real satisfaction is showing a philanthropist the impact that their support is making and the ways in which it is having a positive effect on people’s lives. Whether the donor smiles, cries - or sometimes both - that’s an important part of what fundraising is about.

Some I've worked with recently

• Arts Centre Melbourne
• The Australian National University
• CASE
• Garvan Research Foundation
• Griffith University
• Imperial College London
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• London School of Economics
• McMaster University
• Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
• St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research
• Trinity College Dublin
• The University of Auckland
• University of Bath
• University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• University of Sheffield
• Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)

Talents

• Major and principal gift fundraising
• Campaigns (specific, capital and comprehensive)
• Fundraising health-checks/audits and reviews
• Feasibility studies
• The building of clear, compelling cases for support
• Strategic planning and the effective implementation of those plans
• Building and leading strong, effective fundraising teams
• Fundraising in the Asia-Pacific Region

Before More

• Executive Director of Advancement for the AU$1bn Believe Campaign for the University of Melbourne, the Asia Pacific’s largest philanthropic campaign
• Five years as Director of Development and Alumni Relations at my alma mater, the University of Bath, building a great team
• Deputy Director of Development at the University of Bristol involved in the later stages of the University’s first campaign and then transitioning into its £100m Centenary Campaign
• Director of Development for the capital appeal for At-Bristol, one of the UK’s Millennium projects
• Eight years in the charitable sector at leading UK children’s charities starting in community fundraising and ending up in major gift fundraising while coordinating the case for support as part of the NSPCC’s £250m Full Stop Appeal
• Studied Economics at the University of Bath while becoming addicted to fundraising

Outside More

• Triathlons, cycling and skiing
• Trained pyrotechnician
• Trying to play the saxophone, often with mixed results
• Supporting rugby union - Bath, England, Lions and Melbourne Rebels - in that order
• Visiting new places and being able to experience and understand different cultures