Outstanding Contribution to Fundraising 2025

Kerys Sheppard

This year marks Kerys’ twentieth year as a career fundraiser and third sector volunteer. During that time, she has worked directly for charities in Wales in the realms of hospice care, the arts, housing and homelessness where she has raised millions of pounds, which has enabled a huge amount of impactful and essential work to take place, changing and saving lives. She is currently the Head of Fundraising at Shelter Cymru, where she works to help people across Wales find safe and stable housing. Before joining Shelter Cymru, Kerys was Head of Philanthropy at the Wales Millennium Centre, where she helped support the arts and cultural projects. 

Her voluntary contribution spans even wider and includes education, sport, community engagement, music, domestic violence and animal welfare. She has also given her time as a trustee for the Cardiff City FC Community Foundation, helping run programmes that use sport to support local communities, and has been a long-standing member and volunteer with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIOF), where she has played a pivotal role in raising the profile of the CIOF and the role fundraisers play across Wales. As a former trustee she also played a pivotal role supporting fudraisers during the COVID pandemic, creating spaces for support for fundraisers and supporting CIOF Cymru to deliver its fundraising health checks to charities across Wales.

A passionate and values-driven fundraiser, Kerys is a prominent figure in the fundraising sector in Wales. She is an experienced and well-respected fundraising practitioner, leader and trustee who has developed her network locally, regionally and nationally. She champions fundraising as a career, and more so the people who – in her own words – power the third sector. 

She has dedicated herself to developing the fundraising leaders of the future, ensuring the sector replenishes its talent pool at a time when many people are choosing to leave the profession behind and passionately believes that fundraisers should have a seat at the table when it comes to running charities, as they bring valuable insights and help keep organisations strong. Her work shows a deep commitment to fairness, teamwork, and the idea that fundraising can drive real, lasting change.