Platform speaker, teacher and consultant, Stephen provides creative and strategic support to charities, universities and arts organisations in UK and abroad. He has a special interest in the way charities treat, or mistreat, their supporters.

He is a visiting Professor for Plymouth University’s Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy.  In 2015, he was given the Institute of Fundraising’s Lifetime Contribution Award and in that year, his first book How to love your donors…to death was published. 

Nina Cohen Bohn has 17 years' experience in higher education fundraising, following a 15 year career in advertising sales and marketing in television, custom magazine publishing and professional sports teams. She began her career in fundraising in 2001, at MIT's Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, MA, which led to a move overseas in 2005 with her young family to lead the major gifts team at the London Business School. In 2013, LBS launched their first ever comprehensive campaign to raise £100m, and Nina became their Deputy Director of Advancement leading the principal gifts fundraising in London and Asia Pacific, managing the twenty person global campaign committee and prioritising the collaboration of school-wide initiatives which involve and enhance Advancement's priorities. By September 2015 the team had achieved 90% of their goal, and closed the campaign in Spring 2016 with £125 million raised for a new building, research and scholarships. Nina's extraordinary success with principal gifts as well as her institution wide approach to donor engagement were key to this success.

Throughout 2016-2018 Nina has led strategic fundraising programs and organisational structural changes at two major organisations; The Royal College of Art, and the City Literary Institute. She has also consulted on best practises for fundraising teams including training of front line and board members for a variety of cultural and educational organisations, and has lectured on the MA in Philanthropic Studies for the University of Kent.

As a student caller back in the late-noughties, Sam developed a fascination with the expansive world of higher education fundraising. After graduating, he managed Warwick’s student fundraising team, followed by an eventful 18 months in prospect research, covering the implementation of new data protection policies. Now, as the Warwick’s Leadership and Regular Giving Manager, Sam aims to steer the team through whatever comes next, into a period of sustained growth and success in regular giving at Warwick.

With more than a decade of experience in Higher Education fundraising, Heather has held various roles at Imperial. In October 2019, she became Deputy Director for Advancement Operations overseeing Data and Insight, Gift Accounting and Administration, Legal Services, Regular Giving, as well as strategy and planning across the Division.

With a background in Regular Giving and managing programmes at Imperial and the London School of Economics and Political Science, Heather has led programmes which use direct marketing techniques and a data driven approach to drive income across all channels including direct mail, telephone, email, web, mobile and social media.

Heather first fundraised as a student caller for her own university’s Annual Fund.

Hannah began her fundraising and donor relations career early, collecting for the National Children’s Home (now Action for Children) at the age of 5! In a professional capacity, she has worked across Oxford colleges, schools, and national charities; currently leading the Development and Alumni Office at the Royal Agricultural University.  She has a particular passion for scholarships and leadership giving.

A seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in higher education and schools, Emily manages the leadership giving and reunion giving team at INSEAD, The Business School for the World. Previously, she led an integrated advancement department at the American School of Paris, oversaw the Major Gifts program at Bryn Mawr College, and began her career at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School. She has also served on the board of the Ecole Française Internationale de Philadelphie. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Penn’s Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, Emily holds a Master’s degree with Distinction from University College, London. You can follow Emily on Twitter @emilyarobin.

Kat Carter has worked within the Higher Education and Not for Profit sectors for over 11 years. As Hubbub's resident digital fundraising specialist, Kat is passionate about empowering those she works with to feel confident in their own success - providing best practice guidance and strategic insights that deliver results worth celebrating. Previous to joining Hubbub, Kat managed the Regular Giving programme at the University of Southampton where she helped to launch one of the first UK crowdfunding platforms.

Rosie has worked in higher education fundraising for over 18 years and is a partner at More Partnership, having previously been both head of development services, and head of regular giving and stewardship at the University of Bristol. She co-developed More Partnership's Regular Giving Benchmarking project and has provided analysis and reviews to 37 UK and Irish universities, 18 Oxford colleges, and 8 Australian universities.

Her areas of expertise are in regular and leadership giving, donor stewardship, benchmarking, direct marketing, telephone fundraising, donor journey planning, database management, and analytics. She is a strategic manager and forward thinker who has combined donor-centred approaches with data driven strategies to successfully grow regular and leadership giving programmes, focus engagement activities and build long-term donor loyalty.

Laura Fairbanks is head of philanthropy at the University of Birmingham. Fairbanks has been at the University since 2008 and has spent the majority of her career developing the University’s regular and legacy giving programmes. Recently she has taken lead of the major giving team ahead of the launch of the University’s ambitious £400m fundraising and volunteering campaign.

Simon Fairbanks has over 14 years of experience in the Higher Education sector. This includes recruitment, marketing, and events roles on four different campuses: Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry.
 
He recently spent two years working at Pickle Jar Communications, where he advised international schools, colleges, and universities on their content projects. He provided strategy, research, creative content, and training to help the education sector share its stories through digital communication channels.
 
Clients who have benefited from his expertise include AHUA, Bangor University, City & Guilds, Emory University School of Medicine, the University of Liverpool, the Office for Students, Queen Margaret University, UCL, United World Colleges, and Zurich International School.
 
As a published author, Fairbanks is particularly interested in storytelling, and how content strategy can deliver stories with greater impact. He spends his free time writing, running, and watching Hey Duggee with his two young children.

Kat is a Senior Philanthropy Manager in the Leadership Giving team at Cancer Research UK, raising gifts of £5,000 - £100,000+ through major donor relationships. Her role focuses on donor acquisition through CRUK’s 'Catalyst Club' giving circle and developing relationships with Senior Volunteers and Board members to meet new prospective supporters through their networks.

Before CRUK, Kat fundraised in the Arts & Culture sector at English National Opera, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She was also a Trustee of Hammersmith & Fulham MIND for three years. Across these roles, Kat has gained experience in charity governance, individual giving and memberships, campaigns, trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships and event fundraising.

Georgie Grant Haworth has been a professional fundraiser for nearly twenty years, specialising in establishing fundraising operations or revitalising ones that have gone awry. Development Director of RGS Guildford since January 2014, she has been responsible for a 650% increase in regular donors in the last four years and recently launched one of the first Giving Days in the UK independent schools sector, raising £125,000 from over 400 donors. A major donor fundraiser by experience (and possibly nature), Georgie previously held Development Director roles at LAMDA (the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Georgie is joint Vice President of the IDPE Surrey Region and is particularly interested in the opportunities offered by independent schools development to change the educational landscape nationwide and improve education for all.

Matthew has recently taken the position of Advancement Officer, Cancer Research at Newcastle University.

He was previously Student and Young Alumni Officer, where he was responsible for fundraising with, for and from student and young alumni constituencies. He lead on the crowdfunding, community giving and Giving Day programmes at York, and regularly advised other UK higher education institutions on their programmes. In 2019, Matthew was the recipient of CASE Europe’s Iain More Award for emerging fundraising professionals.

Will started his HE fundraising path at Oxford Brookes in 2016 and moved to Wadham College, University of Oxford, in September 2018. He currently manages Wadham’s telephone, direct mail and Giving Day campaigns. He brings a strong background in communications (journalism, copywriting, photography and, more recently, video) to fundraising, helping to bring compelling stories to life.

Liz Reilly is director of philanthropy and donor relations at the University of Edinburgh; she joined the team in January 2015. Reilly moved from Seattle, where she was Director of Development for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, a health care provider serving patients in 30 clinics across three states. Reilly has also been a campaign director, a fundraising consultant, and a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching at a secondary school in Malawi.

Alice Sockett is consultant at Graham-Pelton and works with a way array of schools and universities. Previously, she was responsible for revamping the legacy and in memoriam gifts programme at Cardiff University. This was crucial in underpinning Cardiff University’s ambitious strategy to treble new funds secured from philanthropic sources. Previously, Alice held development positions with Cardiff Metropolitan University, including managing the Development and Alumni Relations team and deputising for the Director of Development. She significantly increased alumni giving through targeted fundraising appeals and campaigns, as well as developed, managed, and evaluated fundraising strategies and action plans. Alice began her development career at Courtyard Centre for the Arts. 

Rachel Third is head of philanthropy at Loughborough University, leading the award-winning team responsible for fundraising and stewardship at all levels. She has a background in major gift fundraising with individuals and has worked at King’s College London, University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. Rachel sits on the Fundraising Committee at her alma mater, Regent’s Park College in Oxford, where she started her fundraising journey eight years ago as a student telethon caller before taking up a place on the CASE Europe Graduate Trainee programme. Rachel is a regular speaker at the CASE Spring Institute for Educational Fundraising and has sat on the Research Advisory Board for the 2018/19 Higher Education Donor Experience project.

As the Footsteps Fund officer, Beth is responsible for all aspects of the Regular Giving programme at the University of Leeds, including direct mail, telephone and crowdfunding fundraising appeals and demonstrating impact to supporters. This year Beth has developed and implemented a new strategy for the Footsteps Fund which puts alumni and supporters at the heart of all communications, providing a personalised journey aiming to maintain a strong relationship with the University of Leeds.
Beth started her journey in 2011 as a student caller and supervisor for the Footsteps Fund and spent her year in industry as the Alumni Volunteering Intern, all at the University of Leeds.

Andrew Flather is a Senior Development Manager at Loughborough University. The core of his role is Major Gifts Fundraising but he also line-manages colleagues in the Trusts and Foundations, and Regular Giving fundraising streams, and feeds into overall fundraising strategy at Loughborough. Andrew began his fundraising career as a Development Officer at Selwyn College Cambridge in 2013 before moving to Imperial College London as a Regular Giving Manager in 2016, and joining the Philanthropy Team at Loughborough last year.

Daniel has worked in fundraising and alumni relations for nine years, having previously managed the regular giving programme at King Edward’s School in Birmingham. Daniel is currently Regular Giving Manager for the University of Birmingham – and is looking forward to the launch of the University’s new Birmingham In Action fundraising and volunteering campaign.

Chris leads the business development team at Buffalo and has over six years’ experience in regular giving fundraising. He has personally worked with schools, Universities, Theatres and Arts organisations up and down the country, as well as many Oxbridge colleges. His role focuses on working closely with our clients and with Buffalo staff to ensure that each service we offer is robust and effective. Chris understands what makes a regular giving programme resilient and ambitious and works tirelessly to support our clients to achieve their goals and grow their development programmes. He first discovered his passion for fundraising and development as a caller for his old School.

David started his fundraising career as a student caller at the University of Sheffield. After graduating in 2006, he was appointed as the Caller Manager and directed the fundraising team.  Since 2009, as a Development Officer David is responsible for Legacies, Stewardship and Community Fundraising. David also holds the ILM Certificate in Legacy Administration.

James is Head of the Development & Alumni Relations at Sheffield Hallam University where he established the University’s fundraising operations 5 years ago.  He has over twenty years’ experience of across advancement from roles in development services to alumni engagement and major gifts and is passionate about the transformative role that Development & Alumni Relations teams can play in shaping our universities response to the challenges highlighted by Covid19.

Rachel began her fundraising career without knowing it when she applied for ‘the best paid job on campus’ as a student caller at Durham. After going on to lead the Regular Giving Teams at Durham and Edinburgh, she headed south for a change of climate and sector.

As Head of Fundraising at Tate St Ives she was responsible for all areas of fundraising, and saw through the completion of a large scale capital project to double the size of the gallery.

Two years ago she returned to Higher Education as the Head of Development and Alumni Engagement at the University of Plymouth. Now responsible for everything from the alumni magazine to million pound pledges, her work mantra is ‘done is better than perfect’.

Rachel is a true phonathon expert benefitting from a long and varied career in tele-fundraising. Over the last decade she has graduated from student caller, to professional tele-fundraiser, to phonathon manager and now phonathon advisor and consultant. In her present role at VanillaSoft she works closely with more than 50 universities around the world on a wide variety of telephone-based campaigns.

In previous roles she has managed teams of 40 telephone fundraisers, worked with the likes of Oxfam, Unicef, NSPCC and Cancer Research UK, and set telephone campaign records from the most funds raised to the best campaign ROI.