“Karen helped our charity build its first fundraising strategy, before we employed an in-house Head of Fundraising. Her approach and the report she produced changed the fundraising culture at our charity entirely. It enabled Trustees to understand its importance for the first time, building the structural understanding of why we need fundraising and why we need a relationship-building approach. She conducted lots of interviews to inform the fundraising strategy, and spent time educating the whole team while she developed creative and sensible recommendations. Karen embodied our values throughout and was a pleasure to work with.”

“Karen did an extraordinary job fundraising for our roof restoration appeal. In just six months she exceeded her fundraising target by over 100%. She embraced the challenge with huge enthusiasm in which the ‘you’ quickly became ‘we’. Her innovative ideas, energy, tenacity and attention to detail were a winning combination. From big-ticket donors to the small community contributions she was tireless in her optimism and gratitude for gifts. In periods of immense pressure, she kept smiling. At the end of the initial contract and fundraising challenge, she has given us well-evidenced analysis of what worked well and less well, and a clear set of actions for the future. If you want someone to inspire and take ownership of your campaign, Karen is who you need!”

“Karen led our new strategy as we moved from a “fix” agenda into building and developing the charity. Karen (and her colleague Ruth Seymour) sensitively navigated the complexity of all stakeholders and engaged with teams in a way that made them feel engaged and valued, the end result being a collaborative approach that highlights key deliverables and development needs. This guidance has been instrumental in shaping our journey as the charity continues to improve and grow. I would highly recommend Karen and Ruth!”

“Karen is a much valued and key player in the Murray Parish Trust family. This is not just down to her exceptional skills and tenacity at winning meaningful grants but, being a boutique charity, our team tend to get involved in areas beyond just their dedicated roles and this is where Karen really comes into her own. She has the ability to turn her hand to pretty much anything that’s required in charity work. She is nigh on exceptional at what we believe is the most important thing - developing strong and positive relationships with both existing and new donors. We trust Karen implicitly to represent the Murray Parish Trust at the highest level and we simply would not be where are today without her.”

“I cannot recommend Karen enough! She has been a true asset to bibic. She has supported us to secure large grants which have turned around our financial position. She has also supported some of our fundraising staff with their own professional development and enabled them to blossom. She is passionate, focused, supportive and has become a part of the team even if she doesn’t work with us at the office. I would recommend Karen to any charity if they are looking for fundraising support with strategy, trusts, coaching, development, communications and much, much more.”

“Karen brought clear strategic thinking to our capital campaign, a real appreciation of our challenges, great patience and always solutions. She was someone I knew I could trust and who would always deliver. Her direct and honest approach was a godsend and I will be eternally grateful for her support. She helped us reach the target ahead of schedule and established a strong fundraising programme for the future, leaving a real legacy for the charity. She is a joy to work with and I can’t recommend her highly enough.”

“Karen’s evaluation of our corporate fundraising strategy and marketing materials was SO useful. She worked to our tight timetable and I can already see how valuable her input is going to be as we work to fund our Bright Green Futures programme. She’s an excellent listener and really understood the help we needed. Her advice was based on excellent knowledge and experience, tailored to our needs. I would definitely recommend Karen for specialist corporate fundraising support.”

“Karen worked with us during the early part of 2020 and produced an extremely valuable strategic fundraising report to help us shape our fundraising strategy for a capital fundraising appeal. Karen went the extra mile to ensure that she had a full understanding of our charity and our operations to be able to make appropriate recommendations. Working with Karen allowed us to take valuable time out to discuss and work through key issues that we sometimes shy away from in a busy work environment and her knowledge and experience gave us the confidence in our abilities to deliver.”

“Karen has the great ability of gently guiding you on how to improve your funding applications. Her enthusiasm, knowledge and endless experience helped me to create targeted, professional applications that stimulated trusts to donate to us. Her mentorship does not stop when her consultancy ends as she sends regular emails of tips, trusts and ideas to help you continually improve your applications.  Karen increased my skills as a fundraiser, but also, more importantly, my confidence – for which I am very grateful.”

“I was introduced to Karen following a promotion when the team I was managing had several issues and were underperforming. Karen has taught me a huge range of tools and helped me develop lots of documents and a toolkit to get the most out of my team. Karen has coached me through some really difficult management situations in which I know I would have struggled without her guidance. She is encouraging, patient, energetic and kind. She has empowered me to trust my judgement, stand up for myself, think strategically, be more confident and write a kick-ass 5 year strategy! Karen’s suggestions are never prescriptive: we worked through everything together. My sessions were always really well structured but were also flexible depending on what problems I arrived with. Karen is wise and incredibly passionate without being remotely overbearing. She has been a fantastic mentor; I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with her and would recommend her to anyone looking to develop in their career.”

“We are so grateful for Karen’s generosity with her time and skills. Firstly she helped us identify what we are already doing well and what we needed – the gaps in our fundraising efforts. Karen was patient as she gathered information from us to write a powerful Case for Support to use primarily to approach local businesses. Thank you Karen for your wonderful help so far and your ongoing support!”

“I have enjoyed working with Karen whilst she was carrying out a trust fundraising project for bibic. Karen is extremely professional and conscientious in her approach to work, and goes the extra mile to ensure success. Her attention to detail is second to none. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Karen if you are thinking of looking to work with her in any aspect of fundraising in your charity. 
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“Karen has been, and continues to be, an incredibly valuable member of our charity. She is a delight to work with. Karen consistently offers so much more than our initial brief, guiding our small team in so many varied areas with her extensive knowledge of the fundraising sector. Nothing is ever too much trouble and her results speak for themselves. A real asset to The Murray Parish Trust and we would not be where we are without her.”

“Karen has been helping us with our trust and foundation fundraising for our current major appeal. Her research is imaginative and thorough and the grant applications she has prepared for us are of the highest quality. She is a strategic thinker as well as being in full command of the detail. I don’t hesitate to recommend her.”

“I commissioned to provide mentoring support to a recently promoted Head of Department who was struggling with underperformance in her team and not achieving income targets. The results have been superb. The skillset Karen helped her develop have given her the confidence to deal with some very complex issues in a mature and professional way. At a recent strategy planning meeting the member of staff stunned her colleagues with the quality of her presentation which demonstrated a high degree of strategic thinking and financial acumen that she did not possess pervious to Karens support. I would thoroughly recommend Karen. I have been absolutely delighted with the results and consider the value of her intervention to have been an extremely worthwhile investment.
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