Charity Fundraising Ltd is a major UK charity consultancy company. Established in 2000 we have extensive experience working with a huge range of charities to raise funds and guide strategic development. The company is staffed by eight charity consultants, who collectively offer over 150 years’ experience of working in and with the voluntary sector. Our consultants are all direct employees and we operate as a close team, enabling us to share our collective skills and knowledge with all clients.

We have supported over 400 UK voluntary sector organisations. Through our fundraising services we have directly raised over £50 million for clients from 500+ different funding bodies. Alongside this, our strategic consultancy services have identified growth opportunities and established strategies that have enabled customers to rapidly increase income – in many cases doubling their income within 3-5 years. Finally our monitoring and evaluation services substantially enhance clients’ ability to evidence the positive impact of their services and identify enhancement opportunities.

 

Mission

Our mission is to support the development of charities and other voluntary sector organisations in order to maximise their positive impact on society. We do this through providing expert strategic and practical charity consultancy services in fundraising delivery, strategic development and impact measurement.

Vision

Our vision is for a voluntary sector that can flourish through access to the funding and skills it needs to grow, enhance and measure its impact. We believe charities and the non-profit sector have a key role in the evolution of a fairer and more equitable society for all and we are passionate about helping them to achieve that.

Values

Integrity – We act in our clients’ best interests, only taking on consultancy projects where we believe we can add substantial and genuine value, delivering to brief and to deadline. We offer an honest perspective combining ambition with objective pragmatism.

Quality – We recruit highly experienced and capable personnel and strive for continual improvement through ongoing professional development, innovation and comprehensive quality management processes.

Partnership – We believe that effective development requires strong partnership. We work hand in glove with our clients to maximise the impact of our services. Our charity consultants are all direct company employees, working as a close-knit team to deliver the true benefit of our collective professional experience to the sector.

Equality – We believe in a society that values culture and diversity and which champions underrepresented groups. We actively seek to work with organisations addressing disadvantage and injustice.

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    they would recommend us to other organisations
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    a clear plan of action was agreed at the start of the project
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    we understood their organisation, their work & their needs
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    we were knowledgeable & experienced
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    we delivered high quality work
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    met deadlines & worked within the agreed timeframe
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    we have had a positive impact on the development of their organisation
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    we provided good value for money
  •  
    they would recommend us to other organisations

Consultants / View all Consultants

  • Paul Parker

    Paul Parker

    Director

    With over 20 years of experience working with an extensive range of charities, Paul has led major fundraising reviews, strategies, and programme evaluations. He has extensive expertise in Lottery and trust fundraising, tender writing, project evaluation, and fundraising strategy development.

  • Steph Prentis

    Steph Prentis

    Head of Consultancy

    Steph started working in the field of community regeneration in 2006 with an employment and training contractor supporting disadvantaged individuals. Since 2009, Steph has focused solely upon supporting Charities to successfully fundraise, strengthen their organisations and improve the services they provide to local people. Her work with them focuses on developing effective and robust fundraising and income generation strategies, successfully bidding for large grants and tenders, developing effective monitoring and evaluation processes and undertaking charity evaluations.

  • Fay Cope

    Fay Cope

    Fundraising Consultant

    Fay has been working in the charity sector since 2004, initially in supporter care before focussing on Trust and Statutory Fundraising in 2011. Since then she has successfully raised over £3 million in funds from Trusts & Foundations, Big Lottery Fund, and Statutory grants and contracts. Her experience includes developing fundraising strategies, monitoring and reporting, developing face to face approaches to engaging with grant funders, supporting project/new business development and supporter care.

  • Cathy Westbrook

    Cathy Westbrook

    Fundraising Consultant

    Cathy has been working in the third sector for over 40 years. She has worked for a diverse range of organisations, from national bodies to small local charities, in roles including fundraising, project delivery and strategic planning.

  • Gemma Walpole

    Gemma Walpole

    Fundraising Consultant

    Gemma has over 20 years experience working in the charity sector and is a full Certified Member of the Institute of Fundraising (MinstFDip).

  • Paige Sinkler

    Paige Sinkler

    Fundraising Consultant

    Paige has over 20 years’ experience leading and supporting charities in the UK with fundraising, monitoring and evaluation and communications expertise.

  • Linda Bowie

    Linda Bowie

    Fundraising Consultant

    Linda has worked in fundraising for more than twenty years, supporting a range of voluntary sector organisations including small charities and large, national organisations.

  • Rachel Poynor

    Rachel Poynor

    Evaluation Consultant

    Rachel has over ten years’ experience of working with a range of charities including Marie Curie, Beat, Working Chance and Ella’s in project management, service development and fundraising roles. She has experience of monitoring and evaluation across health and social welfare issues including homelessness, carer support, end of life care, ex-offender rehabilitation, modern slavery and mental health conditions.

  • Graham Parker

    Graham Parker

    Director & Senior Consultant

    Graham is the Director of Charity Fundraising Ltd, a business with a social purpose which he founded in 2000. Graham has been involved in voluntary sector work and fundraising for over 40 years, achieving specialist expertise and a track record of success in achieving grant and contract funding for a wide range of revenue and capital projects.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to some frequently asked questions

How much will it cost?

Can you work for us on a commission basis?

What is the success rate for your bid writing services?

Do you work with small and start-up charities?

Do you work with social enterprises?

Do you have relevant experience in our specific sector?

Do you have referees that we can contact?

Do you only work with organisations local to you?

Our consultancy services are charged per job or per day. Once we have an understanding of a client’s needs, we will provide a costed proposal for them to consider. We strive to offer excellent value for money and our client feedback confirms we achieve this. Our fees fairly represent the value of our experience and remain highly competitive in relation to the fees charged by many other Fundraising Consultants.

No, Charity Fundraising Ltd only works on a day fee basis and advises trustees / management of charities to avoid commission arrangements with professional fundraisers. Our professional body, the Institute of Fundraising also strongly recommends against commission arrangements.

Our fees tend to represent between 5 – 20% of total funds raised for our clients however we cannot make any guarantees in this respect. Our best result to date has been grant income of over 100 times our fees. We aim to ensure good value by only working for clients at a level that is appropriate and affordable to their organisation. We will only work with a prospective client if we are confident that we can achieve success for them. Working with Charity Fundraising Ltd also offers additional intangible benefits such as developing management and fundraising skills and procedures in house and supporting long term strategy development. Fundraising is becoming increasingly competitive but our knowledge and experience built up over many years enables us to give your campaign the best possible chance of success.

We provide a more limited range of services to small and start-up organisations. In most cases we recommend one of our training courses, however, we can also provide business planning / fundraising strategies. Small or start-up charities without a track record of successful service delivery and financial management tend to attract only small grants and donations. Therefore in many cases it will not be cost effective to use a consultant to provide fundraising services for these organisations. For locally focussed community organisations, free support and advice is usually available through your nearest council for voluntary service. A directory of these is available from NAVCA. The Charity Commission can also offer advice on incorporating and registering as a charity.

Yes, we have a lot of experience supporting Social Enterprises in business planning, training, fundraising and generating income. We will also consider sources of finance that are particularly suited to social enterprises, such as loans and venture philanthropy.

We have a whole team of consultants with experience across a huge range of the voluntary and not-for-profit sector. Charity Fundraising Ltd has provided consultancy services to well over 200 organisations and delivered training to countless more. Some of our previous clients are listed on our website but please get in touch for specific relevant examples. Specific thematic areas in which our consultants have extensive experience, include:

  • Health including mental and physical disability and autism
  • Welfare of the young, elderly and disadvantaged including BME groups
  • Education, particularly for disadvantaged groups
  • International Development
  • Work with offenders, ex-offenders and those at risk of offending
  • Drug and alcohol misuse

Yes, however we do get a lot of enquiries about our services, so to prevent our existing clients from getting inundated with reference requests we ask prospective clients not to contact these until the final stages of agreeing a contract. At this stage we are happy to provide named referees and contact details.

No, we work with clients across the UK and beyond. Outside the UK our work tends to be mainly with large, well established organisations.

 



"Slough YMCA are happy to recommend Charity Fundraising Ltd, they helped us with formalising/improving our Big lottery bid, and have always been supportive and willing to advise."

− Colin Young, Chief Executive, Slough YMCA

"Charity Fundraising Ltd were very professional and flexible in their approach, maximised the usage of paid-time, and offered some very useful input into presenting our project to our target funder in the most effective way."

− Gareth Owen, Chief Executive, Volunteer Centre Westminster

"Peter came over yesterday and spent several hours going over two bids with two MiNet members, three rota staff and myself. I have spoken to each person individually since and we were very appreciative of the support that was provided and acknowledge the usefulness. This will definitely contribute towards the effectiveness of how we develop and finalise, future and present bids respectfully."

− Anthony Salla, MiNet Coordinator

Fundraising Consultant Jobs

We are always interested to hear from people with experience and skills in line with the services we offer. Please contact us with your cv.