Beth was commissioned by Kensington & Chelsea Social Council (KCSC) to conduct a fundraising scoping exercise to assess the potential opportunities for the organisation. I was impressed by the speed in which Beth understood the needs of KCSC having outlined a mix of key objectives which needed to be incorporated into the scoping exercise having had just one meeting with the senior management team.
Beth understood quite clearly the challenges facing an organisation like KCSC where funding for our core service has become less attractive to funders resulting in less funding generally. She understood our values base and worked to find funding opportunities that fit within it.
I found Beth a pleasure to work with, she was quick and efficient and was able to deliver work earlier than scheduled. I would recommend Beth to any organisation that wants a strategic thinker but also someone that commits to working at pace with quality at the forefront.
Angela Spence, CEO, Kensington & Chelsea Social Council
Beth conducted a property options appraisal for the Stroke Association in 2017, producing multi-year plans and income and expenditure budgets for various service-delivery and fundraising scenarios. She developed capital fundraising projections and worked with service delivery colleagues to understand the potential for supporting stroke survivors both within the building and across the wider community.
Beth worked with myself and my Executive Directors Team to support the analysis, development and communication of a comprehensive options appraisal, with recommendations developed and presented in a full paper to the Stroke Association Board of Trustees. Beth developed and maintained a cross-organisation project plan with several workstreams involving multiple teams. She also coordinated the communication of the decisions to all stakeholders internally and externally.
Beth proved herself to be a strong analyst and strategic thinker. She worked well with all teams and kept the project to task and time through a systematic project management approach. I was impressed by her professionalism, ability to balance big picture thinking with attention to detail, and her relationship management skills. I would be delighted to work with Beth again.
Juliet Bouverie, Chief Executive, Stroke Association
Beth supported our fundraising department over a period of nine months in 2017, working with colleagues across service delivery, finance, facilities, marketing and external communications and fundraising. She conducted project reviews, identified how we could best resource our fundraising for specific projects, worked on a health & safety process review for our community fundraising events, wrote job descriptions, supported our compliance work, reviewed our retail activity and provided interim support as a case for support writer when we introduced this new role.
Beth primarily worked across community/regional fundraising, corporate and T&F fundraising. She provided both challenge and support, enabling us to have realistic and robust proposals and corresponding budgets for projects. Beth was based remotely but was part of the team. She worked quickly and communicated effectively with our staff during a time of change. Importantly, Beth was happy to turn her hand to various – sometimes challenging – briefs and still point out where she felt elements of projects should be led internally.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend getting in touch with Beth for robust and reliable support for your teams. She makes it easier for your organisation to achieve in an increasingly demanding sector and environment.
Nina Walker, Fundraising Performance and Strategy Director, Stroke Association
It was great working with Beth when we needed someone to fill in for a period between Fundraising Managers at Grandparents Plus to work on some specific trust funding applications. She got up to speed very quickly, used her initiative and judgement to get on with work remotely and delivered more than anticipated. She only worked with us for a short time but managed to make a big impact! I would highly recommend her and would definitely work with her again. Thanks Beth!
Kate O’Brien, Director of Programmes and Business Development, Grandparents Plus
I worked with Beth in her role as Head of Development at Toynbee Hall. Beth’s brief was to develop and implement a new fundraising strategy for the organisation. This included diversifying and increasing the organisation’s voluntary income to support operational delivery as well as the development and implementation of a fundraising plan to support Toynbee Hall’s £15m capital redevelopment.
Through the delivery of the strategy, Beth restructured the incumbent team as well as recruiting new staff. She also worked with the Senior Management Team and Trustees to gain buy-in, as well as the wider staff group to re-position the role and importance of fundraising across the organisation. Alongside this, she developed both new fundraising relationships as well as much improved, sustainable process to support fundraising across organisation.
As a result of Beth’s fundraising leadership Toynbee Hall saw a significant increase in corporate and major donor fundraising, securing our first multi-year and six-figure gifts in these areas. Alongside Beth’s aptitude as a fundraiser, she is an extremely capable strategic thinker and innovator.
Chris Triggs, Commercial Director, Early Intervention Foundation
The JMK Trust is a small charity which works to support young and emerging theatre directors. We worked with Beth when she was a consultant at NCVO and she helped us to develop a case for support and fundraising strategy. Working with Beth was brilliant for a small organisation like ours. She took time to listen and understand our work, was great at giving an objective perspective and encouraged us to come up with new ideas and strategies. Working with Beth was a real step change for our organisation and paved the way for us securing further funding to develop the organisation and its work.
Jo Holding, General Manager at the JMK Trust
I worked with Beth whilst at RNIB on a variety of projects within the fundraising team. Our remit was to run cross group projects that required significant knowledge of multiple fundraising streams and also coordinating numerous stakeholders, interests and budgets. I always found Beth to be an extremely level headed, calm and effective colleague who made these projects not only the most popular ones to be involved with but also deliver some significant results.
Tom Lewis-Reynier, Director of Corporate Strategy and Communications, Catch22
Beth Crackles 