THE TEAM

The Bright Spot Team

“As a director, I’m always looking for the very best, so I’ve used Bright Spot training every year for the last six years. They really lift your fundraisers’ confidence, so that they can raise their game.”

Andy Harris, Direct of Income Generation, Shelter UK

We’ve found that although fundraising is often difficult, there are always things you can do to make it easier.

In particular, we love to find examples of what is possible -‘bright spots’ – and help you apply these ideas in your own fundraising.

Bright Spot trainers and coaches are all experienced fundraisers, so we understand that the context you operate in is often tricky. Whatever your situation, we love to help you build your momentum, raise more money and enjoy your job.

Rob Woods

Director

Rob has worked in fundraising since 2000 and has spent nearly two decades honing ways to help fundraisers improve their skills and raise more money. During that time he has helped more than 30,000 fundraisers, directors and chief executives from hundreds of charities.

The Major Gifts training programme Rob created for the NSPCC helped secure an increase in major gifts income of 29%, for which he received a UK Skills National Training Award.

He is the author of several books, including The Fundraiser Who Wanted More.

Rob’s fundraising podcast, Fundraising Bright Spots, has been listened to more than 130,000 times.

He is a keynote speaker having delivered plenary sessions for numerous conferences, including in Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Italy and the Hospice Income Generation Network. He has spoken regularly at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Convention and the International Fundraising Convention.

Rob started his career as a fundraiser for the NSPCC during the FULL STOP Campaign and then was appointed Fundraising Training Manager. Since becoming an independent trainer and coach, Rob has worked with organisations of every size, from tiny charities to some of the world’s leading non-profit organisations. His clients include Cambridge University, Oxfam, British Heart Foundation, TATE and UNICEF.

Rob founded Bright Spot in 2007 to provide services that support fundraisers at all levels, from front-line fundraisers to chief executives, to help you increase fundraising income and enjoy your job.

Media Kit
This kit provides information about Bright Spot and its founder, Rob Woods, as well as approved brand assets to use as needed.

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Ben Swart

Director of Training and Consultancy

Ben Swart has been a lead coach and trainer for Bright Spot Fundraising for 8 years. He has over 17 years experience in fundraising. Predominantly as one of the NSPCC’s most successful fundraisers and leaders, including roles in supporter care, major gifts, corporate partnerships and learning and development.

He was responsible for the learning support of the Fundraising Department at the NSPCC. Building the award-winning ‘Explaining the Strategy Through Story’ programme which was rolled out to over 2,000 members of staff. For a decade he was Head of New Partnerships in the Corporate Partnerships Team, securing and growing valuable partnerships including O2, Lidl, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, The Paddington Film and many more. As well as winning numerous awards for his work and partnerships, his team won over £30 million worth of partnerships income and saw growth of over 300%.

He is an experienced international speaker, including the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) Amsterdam, the Portuguese, Norwegian and Scottish Fundraising Conferences, Showcase for Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration, the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Convention, and many more.

To see him in action click here To see him in fundraising action click here

To see the result of various million pound pitches he’s won click here or even here.

Gemma Armstrong

Training Manager and Partnerships Specialist

Gemma is an experienced coach for Bright Spot’s Corporate Partnerships Mastery Programme, helping dozens of corporate fundraisers in recent years.

She is Associate Director of Charitable Partnerships at the University of Birmingham and has almost a decade of experience in both major donor fundraising and corporate partnership fundraising.

Gemma has experience working at National Charities including the NSPCC and Marie Curie, where she has pitched and won £1million + Charity of the Year partnerships such as KPMG, while also leading a team to win multi-million-pound strategic partnerships, including a £2million strategic partnership with the Gas Distribution Networks and partnerships with commercial organisations such Sky, Tesco and Interflora.

Gemma has a real passion for helping fundraisers solve key challenges around securing those all-important prospect meetings and has a wealth of experience in building networks and using creativity to get in front of the right people.

Rachel Molho

Rachel has over 17 years of major gifts fundraising experience, starting her career (with Rob Woods) at the NSPCC during the FULL STOP Campaign. Rachel’s first role was as a PA for one of the FULL STOP Campaign managers, before becoming a major gifts fundraiser herself – working on big and small events, trust applications, major donor relationships, and project managing the creation of a £20m proposal for a donor. She then went on to manage a team of five major gift fundraisers, raising an annual income target of over £2.4m and setting up a new mid-value programme there.

After five years at the NSPCC Rachel moved to Christian Aid to take on the role of Appeal Manager for a new £25m fundraising appeal. Rachel managed the appeal’s volunteer board, recruited new board members, and developed the case for support and programmatic proposals. She then moved to Plan International UK to manage the Philanthropic Partnerships team there, almost doubling the team’s income during that time and growing the team from six to eleven fundraisers. Rachel did this role as half of the organisation’s first job-share, allowing her to work part-time alongside raising a young family.

Now at Compassion in World Farming, Rachel works at International Head of Major Gifts, managing a team of four fundraisers and raising funds from major donors, trusts and foundations within the UK and internationally.

Charly White

Charlotte launched her fundraising career on the NSPCC’s prestigious fundraising trainee scheme before choosing to specialise in the area of major gifts. Over five years, she honed her major gift fundraising skills and became joint Head of High-Value Donors, managing relationships with international business leaders and the UK’s top philanthropists.
Keen to experience fundraising in a smaller organisation, Charlotte moved to New Zealand to start a major gift fundraising function from the ground up for Mary Potter Hospice. She implemented a sustainable major giving strategy in a domain where this area of fundraising is new and largely underdeveloped.

Charlotte’s key achievements include:

Leading a team of fundraisers to secure over £4million in one year from individual and charitable trust donations.
Developing and delivering major gift training for trustees and key advocates, launching peer to peer fundraising that in two years secured $2million in donations from corporates, individuals and trusts.
Managing senior volunteer development boards and facilitating the delivery of £1.4 million from events and donations.
Implementing a mid-level giving strategy resulting in an upturn of 140% in income from regular gifts.

Most recently, she moved back to the UK and joined the National Trust as Head of Major Gifts.

Craig Linton

Craig has spent more than 17 years in fundraising working out how to delight donors and increase income. As a successful fundraiser and well-respected fundraising consultant, he has a passion for individual giving and creating great supporter experiences.

He is the co-author of Donors for Life: A Practitioner’s Guide to Relationship Fundraising that was published to critical acclaim in 2017 and is behind the popular Fundraising Detective blog.

He delivers Bright Spot’s Individual Giving Mastery Programme alongside Rob Woods.
Craig was a project lead in the Commission on the Donor Experience and is a fellow at Rogare, the fundraising thinktank.

His current clients include Breast Cancer Care, CARE International, Doctors of the World, Equality Now and a number of other smaller organisations.

In developing individual giving at high achieving organisations, including Amnesty International and Sue Ryder over the last 17 years, there are common mistakes and pitfalls that I’ve learned to overcome. Most fundraisers usually work incredibly hard, but certain problems crop up again and again. When these happen, consistent financial results become very hard to achieve. And yet, it’s tantalising to me that with the right strategies and support, even the biggest barriers to success in individual giving fundraising can absolutely be solved.

Lynda Harwood-Compton

Lynda loves helping fundraisers think through challenges and find ways to take action. She has been an associate Bright Spot Fundraising Coach for three years, and in that time has helped more than 50 people as part of the Major Gifts and Corporate Partnerships Mastery Programmes.

She is experienced in philanthropy, corporate partnerships and trusts fundraising as well as prospect research. A skilled trainer and coach, she has worked for and with small and large charities – including Guide Dogs for the Blind, New Horizons Youth Centre, St John Ambulance, Opportunity International and Animals Asia.

Lynda is an award-winning, innovative and published fundraising leader. She has been a guest on the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast three times, talking about mid and major donor fundraising strategies, as well as making several appearances as guest expert on live workshops for the Bright Spot Members Club.

She has experience working with charity and corporate partnerships, having spent 18+ hyears in the sector, and runs her own fundraising consultancy, Latch Fundraising.

Anna Sheinman

Anna is a fundraising consultant and freelancer specialising in major giving and trusts, as well as a qualified coach.

She has worked with charities including WaterAid, Refuge, Sense International, Bookmark and Norwood, her current main client is the British Red Cross, where she does both consultancy and coaching.

Coaching: She has been coaching fundraisers and charity CEOs for six years, and gained a formal qualification in coaching 2021. Her favourite coaching tools include an imaginary best friend, and a magic wand.

Fundraising: In fundraising, she loves telling stories (ask her about the kidney heist), writing that is simple and fun, and donor meetings that involve bubbles, specialty baked goods, or the Spice Girls.

Anna’s major gifts career highlights include her and her colleague raising £500,000 in three months at WaterAid with a Development Board for a Department for International Development (RIP) matched funding campaign. Recent trusts highlights include leading a successful application to Garfield Weston for £100,000, and at an organisation where she did interim, with a trust that had given £9,000, through careful research, meeting the gatekeeper, gaining insight, and applying, she raised their giving to £91,000.

Jeremy Gould

As well as coaching for the Corporate Partnerships Mastery Programme, Jeremy is the Senior Corporate Growth Manager at the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), working with companies to help them give more effectively and impactfully. He also judges the annual Corporate Engagement Awards.

Prior to this role, he worked in Partnerships & Philanthropy at the Stroke Association for 6 years in roles including Head of Account Development and Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager. He has worked in the charity sector for 15 years, in other high value fundraising roles at a range of domestic and international charities including Carers UK, World Child Cancer, HelpAge International and FSID (now The Lullaby Trust).

Jeremy began his career in finance working for Bloomberg in London & Switzerland. He was also previously the Chair of the CIOF’s Corporate Fundraising Special Interest Group (SIG) for three years.

Leanne McNulty

Leanne is a seasoned fundraiser with a passion for environmental and social justice causes. She has dedicated the past ten years to fundraising, six specialising in corporate giving.
She has raised over £10 million for charities such as The Spires Centre, Room to Read and Friends of the Earth, through strategic partnerships with Corporates, Trusts and Foundations and Major Donors.
Leanne has a certificate from the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and has taken part in the CIOF mentoring programme, both as a mentee and later as a mentor.
Leanne took part in the Corporate Mastery Course in 2019 and is still putting all of the strategies into practice with her most recent success seeing Friends of the Earth winning a three year partnership with The Co-op Bank work £1.15million.