Fundraising consultancy and agency developments in September 2026
Howard Lake | 29 September 2026 | News
Fundraising agency and consultancy developments this month include the launch of trustee fundraising training company Fundraising Across the Board, a £1 million milestone in giving from Cambridge Management Consulting, Oxfam appointing an agency for its Christmas campaign, Givepanel and JustGiving launching a combined events platform, and the launch of digital raffle platform RaffClub.
Fundraising Across the Board launches trustee fundraising training
Fundraising consultants Sarah Goddard and Juliet Ellis have launched Fundraising Across the Board, a company providing the fundraising insight trustee boards need to govern effectively. With more than 50 years in fundraising between them, they say there is often a real gap in fundraising knowledge at board level, which can lead to tensions and a less than optimum environment for raising income.
The core training is a 90-minute interactive session followed by a 30-minute Q&A, offered as an open course or tailored for a whole board, online or in person. The next open session runs online at 12 noon on Wednesday 11 November 2026, during Trustees’ Week, at £135 per head plus booking fee.
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The pair also offer strategy away-days and ‘critical friend’ reviews of fundraising strategies.
Juliet Ellis said: “We want Trustees to be confident about honouring their legal responsibilities around how their charity raises funds if they do not come from a fundraising background.”
Oxfam appoints Happy Hour for its 2026 Christmas campaign
Oxfam has appointed Bristol advertising agency Happy Hour to create its 2026 Christmas fundraising campaign, following a competitive three-way pitch.
Happy Hour is an independent agency based at The Picture House on Lower Park Row in Bristol. It says it is ranked the leading creative agency outside London, and 19th nationally, in Campaign’s Top 100 Creative Agencies for 2026.
The campaign has been developed over several months alongside Oxfam’s in-house team, and launches in November across TV, social and radio. Happy Hour led strategy and creative development working with Oxfam’s creative, supporter recruitment, supporter journey and digital teams.
GivePanel and JustGiving launch combined events platform
GivePanel and JustGiving have launched GivePanel Events x JustGiving, bringing event registration and fundraising together in a single platform. Supporters can register for an event and create a JustGiving fundraising page in one journey, while charities get combined registration and fundraising data in one place.
The platform was developed with British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer’s Society, Diabetes UK and Prostate Cancer UK, and charities including Refuge, Mind, Sands, PAPYRUS and Brain Tumour Research are already running live events on it.
RaffClub launches digital raffle platform for charities
RaffClub, a UK-based fundraising technology company, has launched a platform enabling charities, schools and community groups to run compliant online raffles and prize draws. It covers payment processing, shareable links and QR codes, guest entry and transparent draws in one place.
Co-founder Tristram Prior said the platform followed conversations with hundreds of charities about their fundraising needs, with the aim of making raffles and prize draws easier to manage so charities can reach more supporters.
MND Association appoints Pablo and The Kite Factory
The MND Association has appointed independent agencies Pablo for creative and The Kite Factory for brand media, following competitive pitch processes managed by the AAR. Pablo becomes the charity’s lead creative partner, while The Kite Factory will lead strategic media planning and buying for the MND Association’s first-ever large-scale brand media campaign.
The appointments follow the charity’s recent rebrand and mark a step in its long-term growth strategy, aiming to build sustained public awareness, deeper audience engagement and increased support for people affected by motor neurone disease. The two-month pitch process involved three creative agencies and three media agencies, with both partners beginning work immediately ahead of the launch of their first integrated brand campaign later this year.
Richard Evans, Director of Engagement at the MND Association, said:
“This campaign will underpin our long-term plan for growth, following the development of our five-year strategy and launch of our new brand, so it was important we found teams which share our vision and ambition to create something truly game changing. We’re confident that our partnership with Pablo and The Kite Factory will help us build the sustained public awareness and engagement we need to make a difference for people affected by MND now and into the future.”
Ben Kay, Founding Partner at Pablo, said:
“The opportunity to work with the MND Association has felt a little bit different for all at Pablo. With personal experience of the devastation this horrific disease wreaks, it has been humbling to see the emotional investment into this from everyone within the agency.”
Crisis appoints Nexer Digital to rebuild website
Homelessness charity Crisis has appointed Macclesfield-based agency Nexer Digital to rebuild its website, aiming to create a clearer and more accessible experience for the more than one million people who visit it each year.
Nexer Digital will create simpler online journeys for people experiencing homelessness, donors, fundraisers, campaigners, volunteers and community partners, and says it will involve people with lived experience of homelessness and accessibility needs in the design and testing process.
Hilary Stephenson, Managing Director of Nexer Digital, said:
“Crisis’s website has an essential role to play. It must help people access support while giving supporters clear and simple ways to take action and see the difference their support makes.
“We’ll begin with the people who use the website and what they need from it, including members with accessibility needs and lived experience of homelessness. By embedding inclusion from the outset, we can create an online experience that works better for everyone.”
The new site, built on Umbraco 17, is expected to launch in early 2027.
PDV and THINK launch CAUSE360 insight dataset for charities
Data-driven acquisition agency PDV and fundraising strategy consultancy THINK have launched CAUSE360, a postcode-level insight dataset built specifically for UK charities. It was unveiled at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s Insight in Fundraising Conference 2026 this month.
The dataset covers more than 1.75 million active UK postcodes, built on 40 million-plus consumer records and refreshed monthly. It is structured around a five-part ‘CAUSE’ framework (Context, Affluence, Understanding, Situation and Engagement), combining local environment, financial capacity, values, life stage and giving behaviour. The partners say it is designed to help charities find new supporters, understand existing ones, segment and profile, and plan campaigns and local partnerships.
Scott Logie, Head of Data Consultancy at PDV, said:
“Charities have limited data on the people who give, whatever they can gather at the time. What they’ve been missing is a reliable way to understand these people in more detail and why they give. That’s the gap CAUSE360 closes.”
Cambridge Management Consulting passes £1 million giving threshold
International advisory firm Cambridge Management Consulting (Cambridge MC) has now exceeded £1 million in direct giving to nonprofit causes and charitable sector initiatives.
The milestone, announced alongside the publication of the firm’s first Impact Report, focuses on its framework for corporate social responsibility (CSR) that embed social value into commercial business models.
1:1:1 – the three-part commitment to social value
Founded in Cambridge in 2015, the consultancy states in its impact peport that it has integrated social purpose into its operations from inception, choosing not to treat philanthropy “as a secondary concern”. The company allocates its corporate support through a structured three-part pledge:
- 1% of company profits set aside for charitable causes
- 1% of staff time and professional expertise donated to pro bono projects
- 1% of total equity held for supported charities, offering nonprofits potential long-term returns
This approach ensures that the company can provide a range of support to beneficiary causes from immediate financial support or operational expertise and long-term equity growth.
Targeted funding across key causes
The company concentrates its philanthropic giving through five designated priority areas, termed its ‘Five Cs’:
- children
- cancer
- conservation
- communication
- and Cambridge (reflecting its founding location).
Through this scheme, the business has delivered varied direct support. Examples highlighted in the firm’s impact reporting include:
- Funding youth development expeditions for underprivileged young people in wilderness areas via the British Exploring Society
- Supporting youth community projects through Surf for Lives in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Sponsoring local sports programs, including the Cambridge City FC Girls U12 Youth team
The company also offers pro bono services.
Tim Passingham, founder and executive chair of Cambridge MC, leads the initiative, which runs alongside the firm’s commercial advisory work on major digital infrastructure and telecommunications developments.
The company has also this month achieved Certified B Corporation status.
- Pro bono legal advice for 30+ charities from Axiom (13 February 2015)
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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.