Helping organisations build volunteering movements and maximise grant income.

What people say

“Laura did an awesome job pulling together a case for support for our project and has brought it to a place where its ready for funding. The work she did scouring the fundraising landscape at an incredibly challenging time gave us a great pipeline to approach.”

Felix Hilton, Cycling UK
“Laura has been an impressive person to work with. Her initial approach and interactions were well judged, creating a very good impression from the very beginning and she worked creatively to fine-tune the project to our needs. Her understanding of the volunteering space is first rate and her enthusiasm for volunteerism shines through. She is open to ideas and has a very warm and engaging manner. I have had great feedback from staff colleagues and outside partners who she’s included in the work”

Nick Gallagher, The Solicitors’ Charity
"Laura has the rare skill of being able to take a strategic view of an organisation or problem and pull people together behind a solution. She has a detailed knowledge of volunteer management, in both small and large organisations as well as considerable expertise in charity governance and learning & development. Her calm and thoughtful presence will add value to any organisation.”

Emily Hughes, Girlguiding UK

About

I’m an independent consultant, working with charities and social enterprises to build volunteer movements and maximise income from grants. I set up my consultancy in 2018 because I wanted to use both of these skillsets to help more organisations doing brilliant work. I didn’t want to choose between my two passions of volunteer involvement and fundraising, and I love the variety and insight this brings.

Often I’m invited to help when there is a clear objective to develop volunteering or fundraising, but an outside perspective, expertise and capacity are needed to make the work truly impactful. This could be providing the research and expertise to develop a brilliant volunteering strategy, evaluating or designing a volunteering programme, auditing a trusts and foundations programme or simply getting some winning funding bids out if your organisation needs extra capacity.

I’ve worked in the third sector since 2004 in a wide variety of roles from Community Development Worker to Head of Volunteering, all of which involved advising and developing organisations and volunteers. I’m also an active volunteer and trustee, currently with Yorkshire Netball, Bramley Elderly Action and the national trustee recruitment and diversity charity, Getting on Board.

As a real charity geek, I make sure I'm constantly learning about good practice, new ideas and trends in the sector. I’ve gained an MSc in Charity Fundraising and Marketing at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness and I have qualifications in Voluntary Sector Management, Governance and Fundraising. .

“Laura is both highly educated and highly experienced in the charity sector – I’m not the only one who calls her a charity nerd! She maintains a super up-to-date knowledge of volunteering and volunteer management. Laura also brings high-level skills to governance and oversight.”

Volunteer Strategy

I have over 18 years’ experience in researching, designing and delivering ambitious volunteer strategies and development plans to help you understand, build and engage your volunteer movement.

I worked as a strategic leader of volunteering for 12 years including roles at Parkinson’s UK, England Netball and Volunteer Centre Leeds. In these roles I supported hundreds of charities, social enterprises and local groups to develop how they recruit and engage volunteers, leading projects which received recognition from the Cabinet Office, Nesta, Charity Learning Awards and Sport England.

It’s important to me for my work with volunteer involving organisations to be grounded in the volunteers’ experience. I’m very proud to regularly volunteer for some brilliant organisations, Getting on Board, Yorkshire Netball, Bramley Elderly Action and Same Difference Arts. I’m also a member and mentor with the Association of Volunteer Management.

Strategic Volunteer Involvement Services:

Scoping and Designing Volunteer Strategies and Action Plans
Resourcing Support, Including Volunteer Manager Job Design and Funder Identification
Research Including Case Studies, Needs Analysis and Benchmarking Exercises
Volunteer Insight, Including Focus Groups and Surveys
Volunteer Journey Mapping, Review and Development
Scoping and Testing of Volunteer Roles and Structure
Impact Evaluation of Volunteer Programmes
Volunteer Leadership Training
Volunteer Process and Policy Review and Development
Trustee Board Recruitment, Development and Induction
Developing Tools and Resources for Staff and Volunteers
Mentoring Early Career Volunteer Managers

“Simply put, Laura revolutionised our trust fundraising.”

Fundraising Strategy

I have 17 years’ experience in raising funds from a wide range of trusts and foundations and a master’s degree in strategic fundraising from the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, University of London.

I love helping organisations grow through developing the tools and systems that can help you find the right funders for your mission and tell your unique story through high quality funding proposals.

Fundraising Strategy Services:

Interim Trusts and Foundations Lead Roles
Scoping and Designing Fundraising Strategies
Building a Fundraising Case for Support
Migrating Funder Relationship Data to Your CRM
Prospect Research
Pipeline Development
Stewardship Plans
Trusts and Foundations Tools and Templates
Bid Writing
Training for Staff

Clients

Contact me

It all begins with a vision to improve the way your organisation is working. I’d love to talk to you about any projects you have in mind. Fill in the form, or ring 07517 536119