Centre for Charity Effectiveness lecture shares how charities have transformed fundraising income
Howard Lake | 26 June 2025 | News
An audience of fundraising sector leaders and professionals, some of them Masters students, heard last night at a lecture how a wide range of charities have grown their income considerably, and the reasons behind their success.
The summer evening lecture took place at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School in London. Alan Clayton, Chair of Revolutionise International, shared insights into the behaviours that can leader an organisation successfully to transform its income. And the emphasis was on behaviours of charity leaders, not on the tactics or channels adopted by the fundraising team.
It featured a wide range of case studies from multiple countries, together with, appropriately, the findings of academic research into elements of Great Fundraising by Professors Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang over the past decade. Professor Sargeant had been due to address the audience but was unwell.
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The ‘Perspectives on leadership behaviours of a great fundraising organisation’ lecture was attended by several dozen charity CEOs, senior fundraising professionals, grantmaking trust leaders, nearly filling the lecture auditorium.
The event was chaired by Dr Haseeb Shabbir, Academic Lead for the Centre for Charity Effectiveness’s (CCE) MSc in Charity Marketing and Fundraising at Bayes Business School. It is the only MSc on that subject in the world, and is one of five MSc’s available from the CCE for professionals working in the voluntary and community sector.
He held up his copy of Clayton’s book, Great Fundraising Organizations, published by Wiley earlier this year, and reminded the audience that it had initially sold out on first publication.
Clayton and Shabbir were joined by a panel of three charity leaders who had experienced implementing the Great Fundraising approach over the past 10 years with Clayton’s team at Revolutionise. They explained how they had tackled the transformation, the challenges they had encountered, and the results they had achieved.
The panel consisted of
- David Craig, CEO, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance
- Harpreet Kondel, Chair, Chartered Institute of Fundraising
- Emma Malcolm, Director of income and transformation, Macular Society
Dr Shabbir, who is also one of the national examiners for the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, then opened up questions to the audience, who followed up on particular topics both with Alan Clayton and panel members.
The event was held under the Chatham House Rule so attributed quotes are not possible.
Questions that were discussed included the opportunity for small charities, whether advocacy causes might need a different approach, and just how a charity, or rather its staff, volunteers and board, can be inspired to embrace a new way of working together.
Dr Shabbir thanked the audience for attending, reminding them of the value of reading Clayton’s book, and reminded his students of the need to complete their essay on the publication!
Next events
3-4 September 2025 – Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference 2025
With the theme ‘Creating Change Together: Civil society working beyond sector and organisational boundaries’ The Centre for Charity Effectiveness is hosting the Voluntary Sector Studies Network’s annual research conference.
11 – 12 September 2025 – The Great Fundraising Masterclass (London)
Revolutionise International’s The Great Fundraising Masterclass comes to London, expanding in practical detail what was covered in Alan Clayton’s lecture, to help charities accelerate growth in their impact and income.
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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.