Who We Are
Our Network
We work with a network of consultants, freelance experts and professional firms to form teams combining appropriate skills, according to the requirements of individual charity clients. We operate throughout the UK, with some projects in the Developing World.
Our Principal, Marion Allford, acts as the Strategic Adviser to most clients. The delivery of our services is undertaken by the appointed Managing Consultant, who may be backed by a Prospect Researcher and other consultants, depending on the scope of the client’s needs. This group approach, which is scaled down for smaller, not-for-profit organisations and charities, gives all our consultants the benefit of a wider knowledge base, shared experiences, informal discussions with other experts and access to our methods of best practise, developed since 1990.
The Team
Our consultants have an array of skills and experience gained over many years working in the commercial and not-for profit sectors, with both large and small organisations. A selection of our consultants is listed below
Marion Allford is the founder and Principal of Marion Allford Associates, a network of highly experienced management, marketing and fundraising consultants serving the charity and not-for-profit sectors. Marion is the Strategic Adviser for most of MAA's clients.
Marion is best known for her role as Director of the Wishing Well Appeal for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, for which she devised the strategy and successfully ran the £84 million capital appeal. In 1990, she was appointed Managing Director of a new charity advisory service, set up by Business in the Community. During 1990 and 1991 she also spent time advising HRH The Prince of Wales' office on fundraising for his special interest charities and writing her “how to do it” book – Charity Appeals: The Complete Guide to Success.
Before this, Marion ran several capital appeals, including a £5 million campaign for the Charing Cross Medical Research Centre and a £1 million appeal for a Guinness Trust housing scheme in the East End of London, both of which exceeded their targets.
Marion has lectured extensively and has held various honorary posts and trusteeships. She is a fellow and founder member of the Institute of Fundraising, a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Lizzy joined MAA as Office Manager and Personal Assistant to the Principal, in August 2009 following a range of roles in lifestyle management and completing a masters degree at Edinburgh University. She has since been promoted to the role of Project Manager ensuring the delivery of MAA’s work, on time and to budget. She has a background in business administration and her previous experience includes Account Management and Project Administration. She also undertakes Prospect Research and profiling for MAA. This is Lizzy’s first job in the charity sector and she hopes to develop a career in this field.
Katharine has spent all of her working life in health-related fields and is a marketing professional with over 25 years' experience in both commercial and not-for-profit organisations. After working within large corporations for 17 years in senior marketing roles, she applied this experience to the not-for-profit sector as a consultant for organisations which include the Royal College of Nursing, working with MAA, the NHS and the Amarant Trust. She has experience of increasing income generation through the development of commercial partnerships, sponsorship relationships and member fundraising. Katharine uses her coaching and facilitation experience to work with not for profit organisations to enable the organisations to sustain the changes they make. In addition, she has taken on senior interim management positions to assist organisations following the departure of key members of staff.
Graham has 27 years of experience working as a professional fundraiser with over 100 different organisations, including the Red Cross and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. Graham runs training courses for the Institute of Fundraising, as well as advising and mentoring charities in practical fundraising, consultancy, grant-giving, trusteeship and management. Graham has worked with MAA since 2004, specialising in mentoring fundraising practitioners within smaller organisations.
Sarah was formerly Head of Corporate and Trust Fundraising for NCH (National Children’s Homes) and Marie Curie Cancer, and has provided consultancy services to national and local charities for nine years, including the Samaritans and WWF. She is the Founder and Director (Trustee) of an overseas education charity. She also provides recruitment advice and new staff mentoring for voluntary organisations.
John Hart was invited by the Rt Hon Christopher Patten to help launch a new national charity, the Healing Foundation, to champion the cause of people living with disfigurements. As the Director, he worked closely with MAA to set up and launch this charity, alongside a major capital campaign. The charity is now well established and funding major research projects. Before his retirement from the Navy, John commanded HMS Nelson, the naval barracks in Portsmouth, and was promoted to Commodore. This appointment included Chairmanship of five naval charities. John specialises in Charity Governance, fundraising strategies and undertaking Interim Management roles.
Simon has 12 years experience in fundraising management supported by 12 years commercial marketing and business development experience. His recent work as a consultant includes project managing a £2.5m capital appeal for a community centre in Bristol and securing funding for two years’ salary for an emerging charity, Partnerships in Health Information. As head of fundraising at the Soil Association Simon realised the fundraising potential following the devastating Foot and Mouth outbreak and recruited and worked closely with a statutory grants manager to secure £1m for rural capacity building initiatives. Simon specialises in feasibility studies and applications for lottery funding.
Valentine has over 18 years fundraising management experience supported by 10 years in the commercial sector. Prior to working in the voluntary sector, Valentine was a Merchandising Manager in the music and entertainment business. In 1992, working for CARITAS, he went to Romania where he set up the first street children project in Bucharest and began his fundraising career. On his return to England, he became Fundraising Manager for the children's mental health charity Young Minds, helping the charity to double its size before taking up a new post of Midlands Campaign Manager for the NSPCC's Full Stop Appeal. Valentine then successfully led a £2.5million capital appeal to build a new, young people's theatre in Bath. Subsequently, he became Development Director at the food and environmental charity the Soil Association, leading their £20 million campaign, which was chaired by HRH The Prince of Wales. Valentine has been a member of the Institute of Fundraising for over 16 years and is mentor to a young fundraiser manager in the South West. He has made presentations to members of the Institute of Fundraising on major gift fundraising and capital campaigns.
Nicola has been working as a consultant with Marion Allford Associates since 1995 and has helped to set up a £4 million capital appeal to build a foyer in Newcastle; establish a revenue fundraising strategy and structure for the Big Issue in Manchester; and advise a national medical charity. Nicola regularly undertakes the prospect research and writing of the Cases for Support for various MAA projects. Her other major clients have included Tyne and Wear Museums, the Northumbria Coalition Against Crime and The AfriCat Foundation. In 1996 she was awarded the title Professional Fundraiser of the Year.
David is a law graduate and chartered public finance accountant. He is an experienced management consultant, finance director and finance manager.
Since 2000, David has been a Director, then Partner at Grant Thornton, the UK's 5th largest audit and advisory practice. In this role he was responsible for the firm's consultancy services in the education, social housing and charity sectors as well as the financial management of the firm's consulting practice and the management of a team of 50+ consultants.
Prior to this, David worked in a variety of roles for Ernst & Young in roles of increasing seniority. These positions involved at various times financial management and consulting projects in local government, for NHS clients, Government departments, Charity and not-for-profit organisations.
He represented the UK on Ernst & Young's Global Healthcare Group and has taken on secondments in the role of Finance Director for various clients including Great Ormond Street Hospital's 'Wishing Well' Appeal, where he was responsible for the establishment and management of the administration for this £84m appeal, and a number of NHS trusts
Before the 'Big Four', David worked for ten years for local authorities in a variety of accounting positions gaining experience in accounting, audit, financial management, public stewardship, value for money initiatives and implementing financial systems.
James has been working with MAA since 2004 and has been Finance Manager since the Autumn of 2007. He has a degree in law and is in the final stages of completing his accountancy qualification.