Volunteer fundraiser of the year
Howard Lake | 16 June 2011 | Blogs
For any volunteer who has made a major contribution to fundraising, over a significant period, for one or more organisations.
The shortlisted entries in alphabetical order are:
Harry Becher & Catriona Blampied
Isabel Hudson
Polly Odbert
Harry Becher & Catriona Blampied
Harry and Catriona came up with an innovative fundraising campaign to raise £1m for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre. After both their mothers were diagnosed with breast cancer, they launched an online, social-networking, fundraising campaign called Too Many Women (TMW) which would embrace the digital world and use all their networks and skills to capture the imagination of a new generation of fundraisers. They asked 201 individuals to become ‘ambassadors’ of the campaign and to raise £500 each in any way they like. These 201 then asked nine friends to join them and to raise £500 each. The result is 2010 individuals, inspired by Harry and Catriona, raising more than £1m for Breakthrough during 2010/11. TMW is an incredibly creative, home-grown fundraiser which has encouraged fast and efficient awareness raising and very effective giving. This wouldn’t have been possible without Harry and Catriona’s energy, passion and selflessness over the last three years.
Isabel Hudson
Isabel joined Scope in 2004 as a volunteer on a business networking committee known as the Business Development Board (BDB), becoming chair in 2009. She tasked the BDB with leading a specially created dinner ‘Sporting Inspirations’ to be held at a London hotel. The event would raise unrestricted funds for Scope, rejuvenate the BDB and access new networks of high value supporters. Following the success of this evening Isabel worked with Scope’s head of philanthropy to develop an appeal for the transformation of one of Scope’s services for disabled adults, at the heart of which was a ‘venture philanthropy’ product targeted at private donors and grant making trusts. The appeal went on to raise £1.8m in donations and interests-free loans.
Polly Odbert
For 19 years Polly has volunteered an average of 40 hours every week for Watford New Hope Trust. She is passionate about the plight of homeless people, and is an extremely popular character among the homeless community of Watford as she is notorious for offering care and support to those most in need. For 15 years she has been the sole full-time voluntary manager of the WNHT charity shop. This shop is the largest charity shop in Hertfordshire and during the past five years it has generated a consistent profit of at least £120,000 a year, enabling WNHT to run its drop-in centre. Polly is an extremely humble lady whose commitment to raising funds to help those who are homeless and vulnerable goes largely unnoticed.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.