The trustees are elected by members of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and meet four times a year. Trustees stand for three years and can be re-elected for a further three-year term. The trustees also have the power to co-opt additional members onto the Board for their specific skills.
With over 30 years of experience in the charitable sector, I have honed my skills in both agencies and charities, offering strategic and hands-on leadership to drive income growth for a variety of organisations, including the British Red Cross and Barnardo’s. Throughout my career, I have successfully managed annual income exceeding £60 million and led teams of over 100 staff.
Passionate about diversifying our sector, I co-developed a fundraising apprenticeship during lockdown, which I now teach. The curriculum includes modules on fundraising strategy, supporter stewardship, effective communication, and data management.
As a Trustee on the Board of St John Ambulance, I contribute my extensive experience to support their fundraising team in growing voluntary income. Since 2016, I’ve also provided interim fundraising support and consultancy for numerous charities, such as Diabetes UK, Christian Aid, Dementia UK, the MS Society, Thames Valley Air Ambulance, RNIB, the University of Stirling, Leicester Hospitals Charity, and Animals Asia.
I am honoured to serve as the new Chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and look forward to working with our members and partners to drive innovation, promote best practice, and continue strengthening the impact of fundraising across society. As a charity, we represent and advocate for individual fundraisers, charities, and their partners. We firmly believe that fundraising is one of the most fulfilling careers, offering both impact and accomplishment.
Matt was elected to the board of Trustees in July 2021.
Matt has been a fundraiser since 1999, holding various positions charity side (CAFOD, ChildLine, NSPCC, Bible Society, Blind Veterans UK, Diocese of Westminster), agency side (Bluefrog, where he worked with over 30 different charities) and as a consultant (including Diabetes UK, Save the Children and Ripple Effect). He has broad experience across philanthropy, individual giving, grants and legacy giving. Matt is passionate about feedback-led fundraising, believing that the most powerful words in raising funds are: 'Thank you. This is what you have achieved.'
As Co-Founder of Scenius Consulting and Coaching, he has worked with his friend and former colleague Ann-Mari Freebairn since early 2023. They met as Director of Communications and Director Fundraising in Blind Veterans UK, where they proved that the two functions can collaborate successfully. The sum of the whole was definitely greater than the sum of the parts!
Caroline joined the Chartered Institute of Fundraising as honorary treasurer and trustee in September 2024. She is a finance professional with 25+ years’ experience spanning a range of fundraising charities and private sector businesses. She joined the RSPCA as assistant director of finance in 2022 after 10 years in senior finance roles at Historic Royal Palaces. Caroline spent the first part of her career in the telecoms industry in the UK, the USA and France. She is a qualified chartered management accountant with a lifelong passion for learning.
Caroline volunteers for Inspiring the Future in schools around London.
Sofia was elected as a Trustee in July 2019 and has worked in fundraising both voluntarily and professionally for the last 15 years. Currently Charity Director for RAISE (West Hertfordshire Hospital Charity) she was previously the Fundraising Manager for the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre. She has worked for other small-medium charities in the past. She is dedicated to initiating new ideas and helping to evolve fundraising to keep up with the wider community.
Sofia is a committee member of Parveen’s Annual Cancer Event (a voluntary organisation that raises funds for cancer sufferers in the UK and abroad) and a member of the Chilterns region Committee.
Passionate about using her business degree and her Diploma in Fundraising, she aims to be innovative, achieve sustainable growth and bring about change through an enterprising attitude.
Gary is an experienced fundraising leader, with an excellent track record of developing and delivering diverse, cost effective, income generation activities to achieve growth in sustainable income.
He is currently Executive Director at THINK Consulting Solutions. Previous he has held senior roles at Cancer Research UK, the National Autistic Society, Muscular Dystrophy UK and Children First. As a volunteer with the Institute of Fundraising Gary champions fundraising expertise across the sector and was awarded the Fundraising Excellence Award in 2018 in recognition of his work. Gary joined the Board of Trustees in 2022.
Rebecca was elected to the board of Trustees in July 2021.
Rebecca has over 20 years of working in the voluntary sector specialising in Trust and Statutory fundraising. Rebecca feels fortunate to have worked for other great deaf and disability charities such as Sense International, SignHealth, deafPLUS, Shaw Trust and RNID, where she honed her fundraising skills in this domain.
As a Deaf fundraiser, she is one of 3% who classify themselves as disabled. As a representative of disabled fundraisers, Rebecca is passionate about addressing key inequalities that deaf and disabled fundraisers face in the profession and would like to support the Chartered Institute's aim to increase representation and diversity as set out in their change collective strategy. Rebecca recently wrote an article for the Civil Society about this topic.
Rebecca now works for the British Deaf Association (BDA), a Deaf-led national organisation which campaigns and advocates for Deaf people who use British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL). The BDA’s mission is to protect, preserve and promote BSL and ISL.
Jordan has been in fundraising and marketing roles for more than 11 years. Working for multiple charities across various income streams. From Community & Events, through to Individual Giving and most latterly the ever-growing Legacy and In Memory space.
"This is where my true passion lies and is why after 11.5 years I have recently moved to a role in Agency-side which supports Charity's to improve their acquisition of supporters through multiple channels and means. I'm there as Head of Programme Development to help clients improve their programmes broadly, and to specifically support with the development of their legacy and in-memory programmes. I have wanted to take up a Trusteeship for some time, and when the opportunity to join the Board of the CIOF, an organisation I have been a member of throughout my career, I jumped at the chance! I live in East Cambridgeshire with my Wife, Lizzy, and our 2 year old Border Collie, Wilma."
Damian Chapman (he/they), is a fundraising and communications leader with nearly twenty years of experience in nonprofit organisations and will be taking up a new role as Director of Income Generation shortly. As well as being a Trustee for the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, Damian is Chair of the Rogare Fundraising Think-Tank, a Mentor with The Elischer Foundation, and sits on the CIPR NfP group. He has previously volunteered with CIOF in the Yorkshire and East Midlands Regions, Tech and Corporate SIGs, and is a former Convention Board member.
Monwara has had a varied career in the public and civil society sectors spanning 30 years. She is passionate about leadership and how instrumental it is to developing services for the community and advocating for the most vulnerable in society. In Waltham Forest, London, Monwara has led teams of passionate people, developing ambitious community programmes that tackle social inequality and invested in skills, capability and talent at local level.
Monwara is currently the Chair of the Chartered Institute’s EDI Committee and is the Chief Executive of Waltham Forest Community Hub, a leading charity known for their collaborative and agile approach in working at a grassroots level. Monwara is a Founder and Director of Stow Inspire CIC and she undertakes international development work in Bangladesh focused at empowering women.
Bruce Tait established Bruce Tait Associates (now BTA) in 2007 after a distinguished career as a fundraising director and chief executive at various Scottish charities, coupled with four years of global consultancy experience. BTA is a leading fundraising consultancy and ethical recruitment agency.
With 35 years in the voluntary sector, Bruce is recognised as a respected figure in the fundraising community and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. His current focus is on expanding BTA into a global leader in the charity career development sector and he has businesses in Ireland, Canada and South Africa that specialise in recruiting fundraising staff for non-profits.
Bruce is a Trustee of Falkirk Football community Foundation and also of Zimele – a Cape Town based NPO who help people who experience limb loss.