ABOUT
Sophie Buck Consulting provides charities with professional, sound and practical guidance, advice and support to enable organisations to grow and further their aims.
Over the years, I have achieved demonstrable success as a fundraising leader, as well through practical hands-on fundraising, in a broad range of organisations. Some examples of my achievements include:
Senior leadership
I have held a number of senior fundraising positions and more recently, while holding the position of Director of Fundraising for a multi-million pound national charity, I navigated my multi-disciplinary team through the pandemic - the most challenging fundraising environment in modern history - enabling them to not only break the charity’s income records but also be named the Institute of Fundraising Chiltern Awards Fundraising Team of the Year.
Programme development and bid writing
Over my career I have secured millions for charities through effective prospecting, programme development, bid writing and funder stewardship from a broad range of funders including statutory grants, National Lottery Community Fund and private, corporate and family trusts. An example includes developing a national support service for children of alcohol dependent parents, based on an existing evidence base of what provides the best outcomes for this beneficiary group, then securing over £200k from DHSC to fund its implementation.
Corporate fundraising
I have been fortunate to manage major corporate partnerships such as with Nomura and Incisive Media while also gaining invaluable insight through managing charity partnerships from within a corporate organisation. For example, I worked within one of the largest airline’s in the UK to raise over a million pounds each year for UNICEF, while developing innovative and creative opportunities for 15,000 staff to engage with the partnership, including taking staff to Cameroon and the Gambia.
Policy work
Holding a Degree in European Politics, my background includes co-presenting the ‘Charter for Change’ to the Drugs, Alcohol & Justice cross-parliamentary group, which highlighted the need to advance a more evidence-based approach to drug and alcohol issues, to help save and transform more lives, as well as ensuring young people with drug or alcohol problems have their voices heard by DHSC, NHSE and PHE policy stakeholders by being Addaction’s lead on the Young People’s Health Partnership.
Communications
I have worked agency-side supporting third sector clients to develop creative communications campaigns to drive engagement in organisational purpose, as well as delivered on project-specific communication pieces, such as scripting the CEOs weekly podcast at a FTSE 100 and providing social media moderation on virtual fundraising events.
Event management
My vast experience in online and in-person events includes working on a large £200,000 budget gala dinner for 500 people from 23 countries, as well as managing corporate conferences and away days, including virtually.
Organisational design
My experience of restructuring, redundancies and team growth means I can advise organisations on the structure and strategy of their fundraising department, including recommending the strongest income streams to place ‘first hires’ for budgetary-constrained organisations, as well as restructuring an existing fundraising department.
Sounds like something your organisation may need support on? Get in touch for a chat today by filling in the contact form below!