Nominations open for Outstanding Contribution to Fundraising Award 2026
Howard Lake | 26 February 2026 | News
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising is inviting nominations for this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Fundraising Award.
The award is part of the National Fundraising Awards which will take place at the Fundraising Convention in London in June.
The award is unusual because it doesn’t take the format of the other awards, which recognise individuals, fundraising teams and organisations, which are shortlisted publicly before a final winner is announced in each category. Instead, nominations are reviewed and shortlisted by the CIOF’s Governance Committee, for recommendation to the Board of Trustees, which then makes the final decision.
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The award recognises and celebrates “an individual who has made a profound contribution to the UK fundraising community through their actions, leadership or practice”.
The Chartered Institute explain that the outstanding contribution “may be a single contribution (e.g. a piece of research), a number of specific contributions, or a lifetime of contribution to the sector”.
Last year the award was presented to Kerys Sheppard.
Nominations can be made by any interested party, but you can not nominate yourself.
The deadline for nominations is Friday 6 March 2026.
- Richard Taylor wins IoF’s outstanding contribution award (6 July 2020)
- DSC’s Luke Fitzherbert receives lifetime achievement award at Third Sector Awards (12 October 2005)
- Judith Rich OBE wins lifetime achievement award (11 July 2006)
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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.