Simon Pennington

I hope I’ve helped some new universities and schools to get started, older universities to see their true potential, and charities to understand why someone might give a very large gift. I want to feel that what I’m doing is helping to do good.

One thing that brought it home to me was seeing a class of people on an MA in Electronic Communication & Publishing at UCL. We had long wanted to start this course, but it was only my going out to meet a guy from Xerox about a personal gift that started the conversation about the company funding it. The gift was the start of a career for that lecturer and a learning opportunity for all those students.

Perhaps the most satisfying part of my job is working with people who are fairly new to fundraising and helping them make their first ask or secure their first donor. I think that to be a good fundraiser you need to like people, see the potential in every meeting and send and return positive energy. At least, that’s what one of my biggest donors said he liked about me!

Areas of expertise

Listening and finding areas of common ground; encouraging positive thinking; helping to shape strategies to unlock very large gifts; working with new fundraisers; mentoring volunteers – both one-on-one and working on volunteer boards; bringing major-gift confidence to the charity sector; helping to get development started – sometimes in places where it previously failed.

More clients

Bournemouth University; Brunel University; Cancer Research UK; University of Cambridge; Downing College Cambridge; The Healing Foundation; HEFCE; Latymer Upper School; London Business School; Macmillan Cancer Support; Merton College Oxford; University of Nottingham; The Open University; University of Oxford; The Royal Society; Samaritans.

Before More

MA PPE, Lincoln College Oxford; two years at LSE Foundation as Campaign Executive; eight years at University College London as Corporate Development Manager, then head of Fundraising, then Director of Development.

Outside More

Running marathons and taking part in endurance events like the Nokia Coast-to-Coast; following the Spurs as often as I can; cooking and reading and films and all that usual stuff; very occasional volunteering, but I did do pro bono work over several years for the Victoria Climbie Trust.