Find Out More About Our Director
I’m a passionate, and committed individual who truly believes in the importance of the charity sector, and significantly, the importance of a professional and sustainable charity sector. My professional goal is to ensure that at the end of every day, I can tell a story about someone I have helped. From securing funding to managing volunteers, the stories not only motivate me but also are a great resource for engaging supporters. My strengths lie in my project management, relationship management and stakeholder management. I believe that people who work with me on projects genuinely listened to, understood and supported me to deliver the best solutions that they can. I want to make sure that I contribute to your objectives, at the same time thinking big about the ways we could work together to improve outcomes for the people the charity supports.
From my first role in the charity sector, I embedded the role I held and ensured that I made it my own, as a result, the role was regraded to the management level within the first 12 months. In this role, I successfully project-managed the transformation of employee volunteering. I lead the organisation to secure full funding for the function and also increased delivery from 250 opportunities to 2,500 a year. I increased the range of opportunities and went above and beyond to create creative and engaging opportunities that not only made a difference to young people but also provided the volunteers with a development opportunity. Since completing my Princes2 Project Management training I have been able to reflect on my experience at the Prince’s Trust and have a detailed understanding of how I could have done things differently to have achieved a faster or better outcome. These are learnings I can apply to future projects I manage.
Throughout the project I managed, I used my excellent organisational and prioritisation skills to manage the five workstreams as part of the review. I worked to a variety of deadlines both internal and external. Throughout the project I worked independently and as part of a variety of teams, including the volunteering steering group. I used volunteering best practices and current theory to maximize the impact of the project. As part of the project, I developed, embedded and enabled regional volunteer officers to deliver an effective volunteer journey across the UK. This included detailed cost analysis to develop rate cards for corporate volunteering and in turn, secure funding from corporate partners to continue delivering the service.
I developed a range of materials to support the engagement of volunteers, across a range of platforms, and a range of audiences. This included videos, social media, internal communications, face-to-face events, and a wide range of other formats. I also used this approach when looking at implementing training for corporate volunteers, to make it as accessible as possible to as a wide a range of supporters as possible. I developed the minimum standards for managing corporate volunteers on the internal CRM database, this included developing the business case for CRM changes, writing specs for system changes, implementing and testing changes and then training staff to meet the minimum standards required to ensure the best use of the system possible.
Throughout my time at The Prince’s Trust, I co-produced volunteering opportunities with volunteers, corporate partners, youth workers, young people and external partners. I also used an asset-based approach to ensure that no one was excluded from volunteering with us and to help young people meet volunteers from a range of backgrounds. All volunteering opportunities included an evaluation, which was used as a way to review and learn from volunteer experience to adapt opportunities. I conducted a social value audit for the whole of volunteering to understand the financial contribution volunteers made to the organization. To do this I analysed and interpreted a wide range of data both internally and externally. I looked at insights and trends to test my findings, benchmark to other organizations, and considered environmental factors to ensure the social value audit was robust.
Once I’d moved to Mencap and East Anglian Air Ambulance, I started delivering high-quality corporate partnerships, from the charity of the year partners, to multi-channel corporate sponsorship I was building relationships, exploring possibilities and negating with senior managers to secure vital income for these charities. Whilst I had some great successes, I also had a couple of failures, which helped me to horn my skills and learn from the experience, to help me grow for the future. Whilst working for Mencap I was responsible for the account management of several corporate partners worth up to £100,000. I built strong internal and external relationships, ensuring that relationships meet the needs of all parties, and had an unrivalled experience. I recruited, managed and supported charity champions across corporate partners, by understanding what motivated these volunteers, but also recognising their important fundraising efforts. I was results driven and ensured all partnerships meet their KPIs, both financial and non-financial. I negated partnerships, and completed research to deliver excellent account plans agreed upon with all parties.
In my role at the East Anglian Air Ambulance, I was responsible for successfully account managing different funding partners from across the region and bringing on board new partners. This has included growing and sustaining existing partners, and pitching new partnerships, I was also required to negotiate commercial partnerships. The role required excellent working relationships with colleagues from across the organisation. I developed a new stewardship programme, as well as new standards for managing the fundraising CRM system and developing new reports for fundraising colleagues. I have an excellent eye for detail, ensuring that communications, plans and funding bids are correct and clear. I have also been responsible for reviewing a contract for a new commercial partnership, and ensuring partners understand their commitments to the organisation.
At Stonewall Cymru, I managed a team of four whose role was to deliver all programme and membership work. This was a busy team who delivered £250,000 of income for the charity, as well as being responsible for marking the stonewall equality index, and feedback to members about their strengths and weaknesses. I delivered training on equality to organisations, as well as provided advice, support and guidance on how to engage the LGBT community be it as an employee, supplier, stakeholder or customer.
I’m now looking for my next big opportunity, with the additional project management I’ve recently completed. I believe this makes me a highly desired employee. Not only do I know the fundamentals of how to manage a successful project, but I also have over ten years of practical experience in delivering large-scale, cross-functional projects.
I’m interested in talking to anyone within the third sector regardless of role. I believe that firstly, we can all learn from each other. Secondly, no connection is a bad connection, we have something to give and something to take and want to do this with as many people as possible.
As I move on in my career journey, I want to make the best use of my project management skills and qualifications which I have recently complete. So I’d be interested in any role such as a PMO or perhaps an opportunity to support a programme that’s just coming to life. My skills will ensure that what is desired at the beginning is what is delivered at the end.