Who we are

Who we are

Meet the team


Grahame Darnell - Managing Director


Grahame has over 23 years’ experience of working at a senior level with charities and NGOs in addition to the first five years of his career which were spent working in marketing in the commercial sector. He has managed every aspect of the fundraising mix through successful roles at Head and Director level. A proven strategist, he has standout skills in corporate partnerships, major donor and community & events fundraising. Grahame has worked on numerous strategies has recommended investment plans for a range of causes. Many of his strategies have helped charities to deliver significant growth, with highlights including a $14m increase across a two-year period for one major international health charity. Some of Grahame’s in-house career highlights include doubling income over four years whilst Head of Corporate and Events at RNID and growing Action for Children’s’ income by 20% over four years. 

Catherine Bennett - Director


Catherine Bennett has worked in fundraising for over twenty five years and has previously held senior roles in a range of charities including Breast Cancer Campaign, Help the Aged and Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (now the Lullaby Trust). She has a strong track record delivering solid and sustained year on year growth and has particular specialisms in corporate fundraising, commercial partnerships, trusts, events and legacy fundraising. A lateral thinker, Catherine has wide experience of tackling a range of challenges from across the fundraising mix and is adept in developing fundraising strategies for smaller charities and those with low brand awareness.

Ruth Sorby 

Ruth is an experienced development professional working in the not for profit sector over the past two decades. Most recently Ruth led UK development at Worldreader, overseeing both individual and institutional fundraising, specialising in corporate partnerships. Prior to this Ruth progressed through a series of community fundraising roles at Action for Children culminating in leading the Legacy and Development team. At the University of Surrey Ruth joined the newly created Alumni and Development function and prior to joining the third sector, Ruth’s experience includes marketing roles at Lucas Industries and the McLaren F1 team. 


Ruth is an expert in relationship management and enjoys sharing the benefits of networking opportunities. A proud member of The Conduit and a Trustee at The Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation, continuing her literary links.

David Mbaziira - Associate Senior Consultant

David is a passionate advocate for all areas of diversity and inclusion. He works with clients to co-create inclusive cultures with a focus on the strategic business drivers for organisations and the value of inclusive leadership. David works across a number of sectors including charity, higher education, arts and culture, health and sport.


A communications practitioner with over 25 years’ experience, he has worked in both advertising agency and client-side senior roles in the financial, not for profit and sport sectors, developing strategic marketing campaigns, communication strategies and inclusion programmes.

Jo Cleaver - Senior Research Consultant


Jo has over 30 years’ experience in the market research and insight sector. She is a versatile and enthusiastic quantitative and qualitative researcher who has proven ability to test ideas and translate research findings into practical insight to inform decision making and strategy development. In her early career, Jo worked exclusively for market research agencies, including MAS, Numbers and NOP and was a Research Director aged 29. In 2010, she moved to the charity sector, initially as interim Market Research Manager for Action for Children, followed by five years at The Children’s Society as Senior Market Research Manager. Throughout she worked closely with all teams across the charity, and was especially involved with marketing strategy, segmentation and supporter journey research.

Della Weight - Associate Senior Consultant


Della is a strategic leader with more than 30 years of experience in fundraising, in the UK and internationally. She works with international NGOs to further their fundraising and income growth, consistently helping them to achieve their targets and implement cutting edge fundraising techniques. She is known for her leadership and practical approach to fundraising development. 


Associate team

 

We have a trusted network of specialist associates who we can draw on to meet specific aspects of a client brief. We have all worked with each other in the past and come together to create seamless expert teams to deliver the most appropriate mix of skills for the client. Our associates have expertise in a range of areas including: individual giving appeal creation and copywriting; data insight and data analysis; market research and supporter insight; prospect research.

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