Mark Astarita joins Tobin Aldrich and Imogen Ward’s fundraising consultancy
Howard Lake | 25 July 2017 | News
Mark Astarita OBE, Director of Fundraising at the British Red Cross for 17 years, is to join Tobin Aldrich and Imogen Ward in their fundraising consulting and search practice.
The former Chair of the Institute of Fundraising helped treble the British Red Cross’ income while he was there, and is one of the few UK fundraisers to be responsible for raising over £1 billion.
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The fundraising consultancy he is joining, established less than a year ago, will now be renamed Astarita Aldrich & Ward (AAW). Its clients already include Macmillan, WWF, ActionAid, Leonard Cheshire Disability, The Children’s Society, Concern Worldwide and the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Global fundraising hub for Red Cross and Red Crescent movement
Astarita will build on his experience in the international Red Cross movement by creating and implementing a “global fundraising hub” for the International Red Cross & Red Crescent Movement. Based in the UK but available internationally, the tool will help build fundraising capacity and expertise through:
• strategic input
• data analysis and
• global insight.
Astarita, Ward and Aldrich will work with 190 societies around the world to create the service, and advise on the best people who can be recruited or developed to deliver the international movement’s fundraising vision.
The hub will act as an internal consultancy service to all parts of the movement building fundraising capacity, people and products at national level and globally.
Astarita will take up his new role in November. As well as the Red Cross and Red Crescent work he will also be involved in other AAW consulting and recruitment projects.
He said: “I have long championed the building of the Red Cross and Red Crescent’s global fundraising capacity. I passionately believe in giving other national Societies the tools to raise their own resources and in the process, inspire their populations to give. The opportunity to lead the Hub working with Imogen and Tobin is very exciting as is the opportunity to join their successful leadership consultancy”.
Tobin Aldrich
Prior to becoming a consultant, Tobin Aldrich led the fundraising and communications functions for major charities such as Concern Worldwide, WWF, Sightsavers and National Deaf Children’s Society.
Imogen Ward
Before she set up Aldrich & Ward with Tobin in September 2016, Imogen Ward was CEO of an African children’s charity, Lessons for Life Foundation. She was previously Fundraising & Marketing Director of the emergency medical charity MERLIN (now part of Save the Children UK) and the Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). She has been a Fellow of the Institute of Fundraising since 2013 and currently sits on the BBC’s Appeals Advisory Committee.
WATCH: “If you spend it you should be bloody proud of those that raise it”
- OBE for Mark Astarita, Director of Fundraising at the British Red Cross (13 June 2015)
- Mark Astarita to continue to chair Institute of Fundraising (3 July 2013)
- Institute names award in honour of Gill Astarita (19 September 2008)
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.