The 2024 Award winners

In February 2023 Islamic Relief UK launched its most successful fundraising appeal to date, securing just under £10 million in donations in response to the Türkiye Syria Earthquake. The campaign engaged online and offline donors to secure funds to deliver immediate and long-term relief to the over 15 million people affected by the earthquake.

The emergency appeal was launched within 12 hours of the earthquake taking place and received donations from communities across the UK. The campaigns success was recognised by Their Majesty’s The Prince and Princess of Wales who visited Hayes Mosque to thank them for their efforts raising funds for Islamic Relief’s emergency appeal.

You can watch their winner video here.

Anna continually demonstrates creativity, innovation, and a relentless passion for their mission. Within the first year of joining Mary’s Meals, Anna increased income in the region of Liverpool by 40%.

From turning famous landmarks in Liverpool blue, to being gifted a religious artefact by a priest which raised £35,000 at auction, to creating a Faith in Action resource which is used by 2000 young people, to appearing on BBC radio three times in the last 10 months, Anna has hit the ground running and has delivered results that seasoned fundraising professionals would be proud of.

Anna has a can-do attitude and always finds a way to be ambitious yet supportive of her volunteers.

You can watch their winner video here. 

Charlotte has delivered extraordinary results for the cultural sector in Scotland. Charlotte was a pioneer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, has led teams at Scottish Ballet, Festivals Edinburgh, National Museums Scotland, Glasgow Life and Capital Theatres.

Her expertise has quite literally shaped the Scottish landscape – delivering transformational capital appeals: the £69m redevelopment of the Award-winning Burrell Collection in Glasgow, and a £36m campaign for Capital Theatres in Edinburgh.

This nomination acknowledges Charlotte’s successes and achievements as a phenomenal fundraiser, and also her tireless commitment to supporting, connecting, mentoring and promoting fundraisers in the cultural sector.

“When I moved to Edinburgh, Charlotte welcomed me like a friend, helped me find my feet socially and professionally, connected me, supported me, championed me, mentored me and inspired me. I have met hundreds of fundraisers during my career; she is truly remarkable and I am deeply grateful to know her.” Alice Samtoy, Fundraising Consultant.

You can watch their winner video here.

Since the start of the cost-of-living crisis Citizens Advice has secured £23.5 million in additional income from corporates, trusts and foundations and individual givers.  

The additional funding secured has supported the Citizens Advice network of 243 offices and helped an additional 400,000 clients.  

This has all been achieved by a small and dedicated team of just 5 people! Citizens Advice is working hard to be recognised as a charity and is investing in its fundraising department to ensure the momentum of this great work continues. 

You can watch their winner video here.

Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year

For any individual or group who has made a major contribution to fundraising, over a significant period, for one or more organisations without remuneration.  

This Award is for someone, or a team of people, who by their hard work, dedication and example have made a difference to the charity or charities for which they have worked on a voluntary basis.  

Entries can be made either by the charity for whom the volunteer has worked or by the volunteer themselves.  

Successful entries should include some or all of the following information:  

• The background story in respect of the nominee’s work for the charity  
• The length of time that the volunteer has been involved with the organisation  
• The nature and extent of the fundraising undertaken  
• The significance and difference this fundraising has made to the organisation or a particular community  
• The ways in which this contribution has already been recognised by any other body or agency  
• Innovative approach to fundraising  
• Ways in which the volunteer has been an inspiration to others  

Judges' insight:

"Important to demonstrate impact on the charity/ community beyond just income raised or number of years volunteering."  

Please note: each question box has a maximum count of 3000 characters, which is approximately 300 words.

The RNLI’s In-house Face-to-Face Fundraising relaunch was an extremely effective and impactful Individual Giving Campaign that demonstrates the power and benefit of face-to-face fundraising as a mass engagement fundraising and awareness tool. It fundamentally changed how this widescale team operated, switching from a Summer focused campaign to a year-round model, recruiting a far more diverse demographic of fundraiser.  

The campaign beat all expectations with over 36,000 new direct debit donors recruited, the average amount given more than doubling to over £80 per annum and the overall pledged income being almost £2.9 million per annum. The campaign also delivered over 300,000 water safety messages which had a demonstrable impact on keeping people safe and even saving lives. The campaign was delivered with only two complaints, a low cost per acquisition of £110 per donor and has built the foundations for ongoing development and success for the RNLI in-house Face-to-Face team. 

You can watch their winner video here.

Legacies fund over half the RSPCA’s work to protect animals, and maintaining this level of income remains a challenge in an increasingly competitive market. The objective was to generate quality leads (enquirers and pledgers) for onward stewardship in order to build our future legacy income pipeline.

Calling on the expertise and collaboration of internal teams as well as trusted supplier partners, this legacy campaign embodied several ‘firsts’ (a new data segmentation approach, a head to head proposition test and the trial of telemarketing and email channels) - generating a high volume of leads that beat targets and delivering a substantial amount of potential future income.

You can watch their winner video here.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charity’s dragon boat race is a standout, cultivation event designed specifically to engage new corporate supporters from across the West Midlands in an inclusive team building event a whole organisation could get behind. 

The event had bold objectives: 

1. To deliver the biggest amount raised by the charity in a single event. 
2. To be cost neutral. 
3. To cultivate new relationships. 
4. To deliver a great experience. 
5. To make it the FOMO event of the region. 

The event hit capacity through word of mouth only, surpassed all financial targets, but more importantly established itself as the biggest corporate fundraising event in the West Midlands. 

You can watch their winner video here.

The transformative partnership exemplifies a groundbreaking partnership, which has trailblazed ‘autism confidence’ in the insurance sector, creating long lasting change for autistic young people and systemic change for employers.

The partnership addresses the shocking issue that only 29% of autistic people are in employment. Since 2021, they’ve collaborated to set the ‘gold standard’ for inclusive employment practices and developed an ‘autism confidence’ framework for others to adopt to tackle this high unemployment rate. The partnership has driven multiple mutual benefits for each organisation, allowing each to fulfil goals and grow together.

Together they’ve been able to amplify the voices of autistic young people, provide life changing job opportunities, enrich our cultures, bring fresh perspectives and enhance employee engagement through fundraising/volunteer opportunities and autism awareness training.

You can watch their winner video here.

Across his 35 years in the fundraising profession, Bruce Tait has been a leading figure in developing and championing best practice and ethics in fundraising, across the UK. During a period of significant regulatory restructure in Scotland, Bruce and his supporting committee were instrumental in the creation of the positive regulatory environment that charities fundraising in Scotland enjoy to this day.

Bruce has twice been voted Scottish Fundraiser of the Year, set up Scotland's leading fundraising consultancy and supports dozens of charities through his volunteering and pro-bono work. He has served on numerous working groups and panels, and as Chair of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Scotland. He led the volunteer committee that enabled the Chartered Institute to open an office in Scotland and appoint its first Scotland Manager.

The funds he has raised, charities he has led, training he has presented, support services he has developed and fundraisers he has encouraged are incredible contributions to the profession he loves and has helped shape.

You can watch their winner video here.