About me
A motivated, committed and tenacious charity professional with nealry 30 years’ experience of strategic leadership and management and a thorough understanding of fundraising, income generation and building management. Has a wide breadth of skills and depth of experiences of charity leadership, specifically in generating income through commercial and charitable means, operationally and financially managing complex and multi-venue/purpose buildings and leading large and small teams through considerable periods of change. This is alongside a passion for charitable activity that supports those facing the effects of deprivation and exclusion.
Carlisle Youth Zone - Head of Partnerships & Development
Theatre by the Lake, Keswick - General Manager
Freelance Theatre Consultant
Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven - General Manager
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry - Fundraising & Commercial Director
Royal & Derngate, Northampton - Marketing Officer and then Development Manager
Experience
Head of Partnerships & Development
Carlisle Youth Zone
2024
Responsible for developing an Income Generation Strategy for in excess of £1m pa
Manage a team of fundraising, communications and data analysis staff
Part of a Leadership Team of three, responsible for the strategic development of the charity
Responsible for fundraising from trusts & foundations, businesses, individuals, events and public sector
General Manager
Theatre by the Lake, Keswick
2021 — 2024
Part of the Senior Management Team and operational deputy to the Executive Director.
Establishing fundraising and commercial operations, including management third-party caterers.
Establishing and overseeing a new finance function.
Line management of key operational departments (Finance, Customer Experience, Stage Management and Production & Technical) and of freelance fundraising support.
Management of preventative and reactive maintenance, including the retention of a facilities management company, across the theatre and its stores in Keswick and Workington.
Ensuring Health and Safety and Building Safety statutory compliance.
Operational HR management.
Designated Premises Supervisor.
Freelance Charity Consultant
2020-2022
Shortly after taking the decision to work in a freelance capacity, the Covid pandemic took hold in the UK. During the two years that followed, I worked with four organisations (Belgrade Theatre, Theatre by the Lake, Rosehill Theatre and Imagine If Theatre Company), supporting them through arguably the most challenging period in history for the theatre industry.
Financial sustainability – Helped develop sustainable budgets and cash flows - Reviewed these on a very regular basis in response to ‘emerging situations’
Culture Recovery Fund – Supported the writing, budgeting, submission and reporting of successful applications totaling over £2,200,000.
Other fundraising – Supported the submission of applications for Trusts & Foundation funding (including the Weston Culture Fund) and direct individual giving.
Job retention scheme – Instigated and successfully managed furlough schemes for over 130 employees, ensuring an in depth understanding of an evolving and complex programme, accurate HR processing and recording of over 500 employee communications and monthly submissions of Job Retention Scheme claims with necessary supporting evidence.
Short-term interim Executive Director cover – When the national lockdowns were announced, I provided cover for Belgrade’s Executive Director who was on a period of health-related leave.
Strategic Development – (i) At Imagine If Theatre Company, I was employed to develop a new strategic direction for the company and (ii) whilst at Theatre by the Lake I was employed to embed a new strategic direction within the operational teams.
General Manager
2017-2020
Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven
An £800,000 turnover organisation attracting 5,000 visits to 50 performances in its opening year alongside operating a high quality restaurant, offering meaningful and aspirational employment to young people in West Cumbria.
Financial, HR and operational management for the theatre and restaurant including establishing budgeting and management accounts processes.
Developed a fledgling, high quality restaurant, employing young people in meaningful jobs and working closely with the project delivery team to set high standards.
Established processes and procedures across the organisation as a whole to ensure that it was compliant with statutory and funder-based requirements.
Completed the Capital Project including snagging/defects, and final settlements with contractors.
Marketed the organisation to existing and new audiences, and encouraged visitors to utilise the restaurant and other catering facilities.
Acted as Company Secretary for both the charity and its commercial subsidiary.
Fundraising & Commercial Director
2006-2017
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
A £5,500,000 turnover organisation with a programme of touring and produced work, attracting 160,000 visits to 400 performances per annum and offering over 10,000 engagement opportunities through its Community & Education Company in support of young and older people at risk of isolation or exclusion, develop talent and giving a voice to marginalised communities.
Part of the Senior Management Team and deputy to the Executive Director.
Provided and grew sustainable income from fundraising (including from businesses, individuals and grant making trusts), Front of House (including sales of merchandise, ice creams and sweets) catering (including a cafe and bars) and Events & Conferencing.
Managed Development, Operations and Events & Conferencing Departments – Responsibilities included staffing, strategic and full financial responsibility, setting and achieving targets.
Strategic responsibility for the Theatre’s Catering Team.
Attended and actively contributed to meetings of the Board of Directors, Audit Committee and Nominations & Governance Committee, and administered the Development Committee.
Marketing Officer and then Development Manager
Royal & Derngate, Northampton
1999-2006
Revenue fundraising from Businesses, Individuals and Grant making trusts.
Partnership Fundraising for a £15,000,000 redevelopment project.
Financial Management of all income and expenditure budgets for fundraising.
Led on marketing and sales to Group Bookers and wrote direct mail and press releases.
Key skills, attributes and achievements
Strategic thinker
25 years’ experience of facilitating excellence, inclusivity and opportunity through fundraising, entrepreneurial activity and building management to resource great change.
Comprehensive experience of developing and delivering against robust business plans and strategies to secure financial resources.
The development and implementation of ethical policies to ensure a principled approach to fundraising, matching core organisational values.
25 years’ experience of working in and with charitable organisations with turnovers of up to £6.5m with a funding mix of grants, philanthropy, commercial income and event sales.
A skilled fundraiser, directly raising £225,000 philanthropic income per annum revenue funding for theatres (a notoriously difficult sector to fundraise for) and over £3,000,000 partnership funding for capital campaigns
Responsible for securing £850k pa income through commercial activities
Trusts & Foundations fundraiser
Secured significant levels of Trust & Foundation funding for Capital campaigns including £300k from the Robert Horne Foundation and £250k from Garfield Weston Foundation
Secured one off and regular grants against projects with children and young people including £150k from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, £50k from The Higgs Charity, £100k from the 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust as well as regular grants from a number of local and national funders.
Businesses fundraiser
Secured sponsorship with Carlsberg worth in excess of £250k.
Established one of the UK’s largest theatre-based corporate membership scheme, partnering with over 60 businesses
Secured event sponsorships with national (inc Avon, Nationwide Building Society, Barclaycard) and local businesses
Secured £20k annual philanthropic support from Coventry Building Society in support of work with children and young people as well as smaller regular and one-off donations in support of projects supporting people experiencing hardship to access theatre Christmas productions
Individual giving fundraiser
Secured major individual gifts for events of up to £20k alongside smaller regular and one-off donations in support of charitable activities including work with children and young people
Fundraiser from statutory organisations
A key part of the bid writing team that has secured annual funding from the Arts Council (Belgrade - £1.1m pa, Theatre by the Lake £650k pa)
£19k from ERDF in support of specialist set building eqt
£240k Catalyst Arts funding from Arts Council to develop organisational fundraising potential
£2.2m in Culture Recovery Fund across four organisations during Covid
£3k Regional Growth Fund is support of website development
Capital project fundraiser and manager
I have played a pivotal role in three capital programmes, with total project values of £38,000,000. I have had responsibility for partnership funding (totaling £3,000,000) and was involved on the project committees, creating affordable, attractive and functional buildings.
Commercial and entrepreneurial thinker
Takes an entrepreneurial approach to developing robust strategic plans – For example, changes made at Belgrade resulted in the reliance on subsidy reducing from 70% of turnover in 2004, to less than 30% in 2017, whilst simultaneously increasing turnover by 40%.
Developed multiple new income streams, including Events & Conferencing, B2B Expo, craft fairs, regular film and afternoon tea events, comedy nights and a gift shop.
Utilised the skills of workshop practitioners to generate commercial income from team building/skills exercises and commercially focused youth theatres.
Negotiated contracts and managed relationships with external catering licensees delivering in excess of £150k pa in royalties. Developed successful strategies for bringing catering operations out of external control and increasing the contribution to the charity by 400% as a result.
Staff Manager
An experienced people manager
o Theatre by the Lake, 17 paid staff and 180 unpaid volunteers
o Belgrade - 65 paid and 15 unpaid staff
o Rosehill - 25 paid and 12 unpaid staff, which included Apprenticeship posts.
Comprehensive experience of all aspects of recruitment, contracting, motivation, performance management and disciplinary actions for the teams.
Inspired the growth of departments and recruited and developed people within them, and in response to significant funding cuts, I have restructured departments, resulting in posts being made redundant, but with minimal impact on frontline services.
Relationship and partnership developer
Developed relationships with arts organisations, communities, businesses, top division sports clubs, and local government to broaden engagement in theatre activity.
Engaged businesses, FSB and Chamber of Commerce to successfully help lobby local government against reduction in funding
Worked with the Trussel Trust and Public Health Cumberland to identify families facing financial hardship in order to provide complimentary tickets and travel to Christmas productions
Crucial to the success of fundraising and commercial activities has been the communication with, and engagement of, the wider staff team in order to harness their skills, ideas and initiative, encouraging people to act beyond their roles and responsibilities, in order to benefit the theatre.
Tenacious
Successfully self employed during Covid, working with four arts organisations at a time of industry existential crisis
Managed a fundraising team and grew income during recession and austerity
Led the operational and administrate functions of a theatre re-opening post-covid with less than half of the staff as pre-covid