50 Most Influential in Fundraising announced for 2013

Howard Lake | 10 July 2013 | News

Fundraising magazine has published this year’s 50 Most Influential in Fundraising list, featuring the 50 people whom its readers judge to have the greatest influence in the sector.

Mark Astarita, Chair of the Institute of Fundraising and Director of Fundraising at the British Red Cross, heads the list once again. He has been joined in the top ten by a growing number of directors of fundraising at charities.

The dominance of women in fundraising roles is beginning to be reflected in the results, with 19 women and 30 men listed this year, compared with 16 women and 32 men in 2012. Three of the top five spots are taken by women.

Given the preponderance of women donors, it could be argued that ‘The Donor’, who reappears in the list, could increase the number of women to 20.

Consultants are still well represented with 15 of them, but charity staff still outnumber them at 22.

Rob Cope, Director of Remember a Charity, entered the list for the first time and was voted into second place. This year’s list saw 19 names that were not included in the 2012 list, although some had appeared in previous years.

Given that politicians including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have appeared in previous lists, their influence appears to be waning: only Nick Hurd MP made this year’s top 50.

Five people employed in charity sector media and academia were listed, including UK Fundraising’s Howard Lake at number 30 and Professional Fundraising magazine’s editor Celina Ribiero at 33.

A record 300 people voted for the 50 Most Influential in Fundraising this year, putting forward 348 names, which itself suggests a remarkable consensus given that each voter could put forward up to 10 names.

Image: Top 50 by Mile Atanasov on Shutterstock.com

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.