Liam Fisher-Jones

Adorning an entire wall behind the world’s most successful hedge fund manager sat a map of a world. Shading illustrated the regions where large trades were taking place that day. I pointed to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare and home to my employer at the time, the Royal Shakespeare Company.

It had taken three years to secure this appointment. All I got was a grilling about why the RSC was leaving the Barbican, its London home. I’d pointed to the wrong spot.

It took another three years to achieve a gift. Meticulous research (largely courtesy of a 17-page article in the New Yorker magazine) and dogged persistence finally paid off. This hedge fund manager could just as easily have become a world-renowned classical musician. He recognised the crucial importance of extended rehearsal and training periods and has subsequently invested millions in this process for the RSC.

Not only is fundraising about understanding the essence of your own organisation; it is about what truly motivates an individual to do something extraordinary. The world is full of such people. We simply need to find them, and very considerately, involve them in our work.

Areas of expertise

Strategy; capital campaigns; major gifts; solicitation planning; coaching; sponsored bike rides.

More clients

Balliol College Oxford; Bush Theatre; Chichester Festival Theatre; The Climate Group; International Medical Corps; London Library; The National Archives; National Museums Scotland; Royal Court Theatre; Royal Society of Literature; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Pegasus Theatre; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; SOAS; World Cancer Research Fund.

Before More

Ten years running the Royal Shakespeare Company’s £112m capital campaign; five years working at the London School of Economics, principally helping to establish interdisciplinary research centres; a degree in International Relations, coupled with running a student nightclub; rowing, a lot.

Outside More

Riding bicycles; stretching briefly, when I awake; theatre; interesting buildings; looking after my five-year old nephew’s olive tree; learning ki-swahili; trustee of AMREF (UK) and advisor to AMREF (HQ), Africa’s largest home-grown health organisation.