Fundraising and charity leadership appointments in April 2026
Howard Lake | 15 April 2026 | News
This month’s roundup of new fundraising and charity leadership appointments include announcements from the Charity Commission, Raiser, FoodCycle, Youth Music, The Brain Charity, Bowel Research UK, Brunelcare, Devon Community Foundation, Eric Liddell Community, Artswork, goDonate, Make-A-Wish UK and Big Give.
Charity Commission for England and Wales
Kate Sayer has been appointed as Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee at the Charity Commission for England and Wales, for a three-year term from 9 March 2026. The appointment was made by Secretary of State Lisa Nandy MP.
Sayer is a Chartered Accountant and was part of the founding team of Sayer Vincent, the audit and advisory firm specialising in social purpose organisations. She served on the Charities SORP Committee for 15 years and taught charity finance at Bayes Business School. She was Chair of the Board of Trustees at Bond from November 2019 to December 2024.
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From January 2020 to December 2023 she was Oxfam’s first Director of Integrity and Ethics. The full appointment notice is available on gov.uk.
Board Members of the Charity Commission are remunerated at £350 a day.
Raiser
Impact investment specialist Mark Carrigan has joined the board of directors of Raiser, the company working to transform funding for small charities.
A Senior Lecturer at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, Carrigan is also a non-executive director to The Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, Rogare – The Fundraising Think Tank and Fundraising Ireland (now Charities Institute Ireland).
Carrigan said:
“Funding pressures, income volatility and increasing expectations around measurable impact are reshaping how organisations operate and how resources are allocated. These trends have brought civil society to an inflection point of forced evolution. Raiser is rebuilding the sector’s infrastructure, not to reduce the administrative friction around bidding and funding, but to remove it entirely”.
He added:
“Having taught [Raiser’s co-founder] Luke Wilkinson some years ago, there is real personal satisfaction in seeing first-hand the ingenuity he is bringing to the sector”.
FoodCycle
Mark Game has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of community dining charity FoodCycle, joining in mid-April. Game is the founder of affordable food clubs charity The Bread and Butter Thing and co-founder of The Community Shop, the UK’s first social supermarket, established in 2013. He brings 25 years’ experience in food surplus redistribution and had previously served as a FoodCycle trustee from 2017 to 2023.
He succeeds Sophie Tebbetts, who steps down after ten years with the charity, having grown the number of community meals from 26 to 90 across England and Wales. Tebbetts moves to a role supporting community health initiatives at Royal Papworth Hospital Charity.
Youth Music
Adam Joolia has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Youth Music, the national young people’s music charity. He joins in September from AudioActive in Brighton, where he served as Chief Executive for nearly two decades, growing the organisation from a single-post project into a £1.3 million Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
Joolia will lead Youth Music as it develops its new five-year strategy, with a focus on income generation, youth voice, and equitable grantmaking.
The Brain Charity
Matt Meaney has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of The Brain Charity, the national charity supporting people with neurological conditions. He starts on 20 April, joining from Zoe’s Place where he served as Head of Fundraising for six years. He previously served as Chief Executive of Wirral Mencap from 2018 to 2020.
Bowel Research UK
Kathryn Pretzel-Shiels has been confirmed as permanent Chief Executive Officer of Bowel Research UK, having served as Interim CEO since October 2025. She has been closely involved with the charity since 2016, initially as a Trustee and later as Chair of the Fundraising, Marketing and Communications Committee.
Pretzel-Shiels brings more than 30 years’ experience in international business, including 28 years at American Express across three continents and a period as Marketing Director at PAUL Ltd.
Brunelcare
Bristol-based care charity Brunelcare has appointed Sonia Furzland as Interim Chief Executive Officer from early May, succeeding Oona Goldsworthy who steps down after six and a half years. Furzland has more than three decades of experience in the housing sector, most recently as Interim Executive Director of Housing at Bristol City Council.
Devon Community Foundation
Commodore Jake Moores OBE DL has been appointed as the new Chair of the Board of Devon Community Foundation. He brings a 37-year career in the Royal Navy, during which he commanded three submarines, and has since served in a range of civic and charitable roles in the county, including as High Sheriff of Devon from March 2024 to March 2025.
He has played a leading role in commemorative and community initiatives, serving as Chairman of Shrouds of the Somme, a major art installation marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in 2016 and the centenary of the end of the First World War.
The Eric Liddell Community
Edinburgh-based dementia care charity The Eric Liddell Community has appointed Megan Veronesi as Chief Executive Officer from 1 April 2026, succeeding John MacMillan who had led the charity since 2016. Veronesi brings more than 15 years of third sector experience, with senior roles at Royal Trinity Hospice, Firstport, and Edinburgh World Heritage, and more recently as a freelance interim CEO and consultant.
Artswork
Youth arts development charity Artswork has appointed Katie Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer at Channel 4, as its new Chair of Trustees. Jackson joins Co-CEOs Annabel Cook and Louise Govier as the charity continues its work supporting young people’s access to the arts.
Jackson has responsibility for the broadcaster’s brand strategy and its Marketing, Media, 4creative and Communications teams.
Through amplifying youth-voice, placemaking, creative career opportunities and learning for 35 years, Artswork has worked to improve young people’s life chances and making a difference.
goDonate
Online fundraising platform goDonate has appointed two non-executive directors. Scott Gray, former inaugural Chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Supplier Forum and previously CCO at Elovate, joins alongside Vanessa Cartwright, a Founding Adviser to AI-powered gifting platform Generous and former President North America & UK of Astound Digital.
Make-A-Wish UK
Sara Millar, 22, from Glasgow has joined the board of trustees at Make-A-Wish UK, becoming the charity’s youngest ever trustee.
Millar had her wish granted by the charity in 2019, to meet chef Gennaro Contaldo, after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma aged 14. She subsequently served on the charity’s STARboard young people’s advisory board and as Youth Advisor to the board before joining as a full trustee.
Big Give
Match funding charity Big Give has named four celebrity ambassadors: broadcasters Lorraine Kelly and Megan McCubbin, comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax, and investor and Dragons’ Den panellist Deborah Meaden.
All four have previously supported charities taking part in Big Give campaigns. The charity, which raised a record £57.4 million in one week through its 2025 Christmas Challenge, has set a target of raising £1 billion for good causes by 2030.
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.