Over 30 years experience

As a professional fundraiser, I worked across the full range of fundraising roles. From emptying static collecting boxes and organising flag days to soliciting major gifts from wealthy individuals & foundations, working on major appeals and managing staff fundraising teams.

In the Internet industry I was one of the few people to run a truly profitable mass market web hosting and domain name registration business. It never incurred any debts and always ran on positive cash flow.

My voluntary sector career started in 1988 with my appointment as a community fundraiser with the charity RNIB. After completing a degree at Edinburgh University I returned to work on large fundraising appeals, including the launch of the youth charity Fairbridge in Scotland and the re-branding of the RSSPC as Children 1st.

From this I went on to other roles including Fundraising and Marketing director of a large conservation charity and Fundraising Manager of an HIV & AIDS charity.

Having found a need for good quality, but reasonably priced, web hosting in my work I founded Hostroute.com Ltd in August 2000 with an initial investment of £200. The company’s brands grew to become one of the most recognised web hosting companies in the UK at that time with separate brands operating in the USA and Canada.

In 2007 the company was sold to Ultraspeed UK Ltd (now part of the Six Degrees Group) and I was appointed as group Marketing Director, as well as being a controlling shareholder and board member. Hostroute continued to trade as part of Ultraspeed, while I took a wider role in the combined company.

In September 2009 I left Ultraspeed to return to the voluntary sector. I worked as a fundraiser for the Eric Liddell Centre for 14 months where I combined work in fundraising, marketing, social media and web development. This resulted in  a considerable improvement in their financial performance.

Ultraspeed was sold to the Six Degrees Group in 2012 and the Hostroute part of the business was separated off and sold to Paragon Internet Group. Both are still trading.

In December 2010 I combined my voluntary sector experience and my private sector management skills with my appointment as manager of the environmental charity for churches: Eco-Congregation Scotland.  This was initially a one-year appointment funded by the Scottish Government. Over the next seven years, I quadrupled our income, built a staff team, recruited 12% of all Scotland’s churches to take practical action on climate change congregations and established Eco-Congregation Scotland as one of the leading environmental organisations in Scotland. I was also active in campaigning for action on environmental issues through lobbying, influencing and major campaigns like the campaign to introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles in Scotland.

Experienced Charity Consultant

After seven years as head of the environmental charity Eco-Congregation Scotland, I started working  as a freelance charity consultant offering my expertise to charities and voluntary organisations across Scotland as a charity consultant and fundraising consultant.

If your organisation is in transition, needs help with change management, organisational development, fundraising or communication then you should contact me.

Under my leadership my last organisation doubled in size, increased it’s income four fold and became established as one of the leading environmental organisations in Scotland. I am now able to offer those skills on a freelance basis.

I am a member of the Institute of Fundraising and ACOSVO (Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations).

I am now working as a freelance consultant specialising in strategy, fundraising and communication as well as an interim executive.

To find out about the services I offer click here or read my full CV here.