King's College London

You joined King’s in November 2024 from the University of Cambridge. Tell us about your first five months at King’s.

It’s been a busy five months, but I’ve been blown away by how much we’ve achieved as a directorate in that time. The team’s enthusiasm and commitment have made it very easy to get going and I am delighted with our progress.

One of my favourite things has been getting to know people, both within P&A (Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement) and across faculties and other directorates. Philanthropy is a team sport, and I’ve been struck by what a friendly and collegial place King’s is. It feels as if everyone is pulling together to achieve the best for the University.

I have also enjoyed working so closely with the Vice-Chancellor's Senior Team. To have insight into the strategic challenges and opportunities of the institution from that vantage point is invaluable, and helps me to better understand how philanthropy and alumni engagement can support King’s to deliver on its ambitions.

Your Directorate recently changed its name from Fundraising & Supporter Development (F&SD) to Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A). What was the thinking behind this change of name?

On the one hand, it reflects the evolution of the Directorate and our transition to a new structure. For a number of years, the F&SD team undertook, in addition to our own philanthropic activities, fundraising and supporter engagement activities for, and in partnership with, some of our hospital partners. That meant that our name had to work for the hospital charities as well as King’s. Since summer 2024, however, we have been more tightly focused on philanthropy for the University and the King’s Maudsley Partnership. Although we continue to work closely with our hospital charity partners, the new name is more commonly recognised within the higher education sector.

We were also keen to emphasise the importance of alumni relations to our work. Alumni are our largest permanent stakeholder group, and we do a huge amount of work with them. They have always been central to our purpose, and now we have a name that reflects that.

This was something I felt strongly about, but we landed on our new name very democratically. After reviewing peers in the sector and creating a shortlist, the entire Directorate voted on the final outcome. It was important to me that everyone felt they had input into that process.

What are your ambitions for the future of the Directorate?

I want to create a real step change in philanthropic support for King's. We’ve had significant success with our fundraising efforts, particularly in major gifts, and we want to accelerate that to create a sustainable source of income for the future.

I am also passionate about alumni engagement. We have an incredible, global community of alumni who are our ambassadors, and their contributions go beyond financial support. They also donate time and expertise, and we are looking at ways to deepen their involvement with key strategic areas, such as student career support, employability, and King’s Edge activities.

A world-class philanthropy programme starts with alumni engagement, and creating opportunities for them to have a meaningful, lifelong relationship with us is vital.

How do you identify and prioritise areas in need of philanthropic support?

Our work is institution led. Whilst we might advise and initiate conversations, we are guided by the priorities of the University and King’s overarching education and research mission. We have a team, for example, that works directly with faculties to identify and support their philanthropic priorities. We don’t choose these, but we can advise on what will appeal most to donors and proactively fundraise for those projects. We support colleagues by making it as easy as possible for them to engage with potential donors and alumni.

Our University-wide Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement campaign, which we are in the process of designing, builds on efforts to work in a ‘bottom-up’ fashion with colleagues across King’s. We want to develop an inclusive campaign with clear themes that tie into our Impact Priorities. But it’s not all about research. It will also be about our home - where our community spend their time – and our students. How do we enable the best and brightest to come to King’s, and help them to thrive while they are here and when they leave?

The timing of the campaign is really exciting as it will coincide with King’s Bicentennial in 2029 - a celebration of our history alongside a campaign that looks to our future.

What role do philanthropy and alumni relations play in higher education?

Philanthropy and alumni engagement are critical to the higher education sector. Research clearly demonstrates the correlation between institutional investment in this work and increased philanthropic income, and there’s been a huge expansion in advancement functions within UK universities over the last 10 years.

Philanthropy can be a difference-maker in terms of helping an institution achieve its goals; it can take risks and make things happen that might not otherwise be possible. That’s what I find so motivating about the work our team does - it has real world impact. And it’s not just about major gifts; donors who contribute £5 or £10 a month play an incredibly important role in building a culture of philanthropy.

What motivated you to pursue a career in philanthropy?

I was quite an idealistic teenager – I wanted to change the world, but I didn’t know how to do it. After graduating, I briefly worked as a recruitment consultant, and it was reading the job description for a charity fundraising officer that made me realise - I could do that! And I did go on to work in the charity sector for several years. But what's kept me in higher education is not only the impact that philanthropy can have on a university’s mission, but the sheer variety - especially at a comprehensive university like King’s. One day I might be talking about cancer immunotherapy, AI or medieval manuscripts, and the next - public policy and law. I’m a bit of an intellectual magpie – I like to know a little bit about everything!

What would it surprise people to know about you?

It’s not a very well-kept secret, but I am the lead singer in a band. We write, record, and release music, and occasionally do gigs. Our lead guitarist is actually a King's alum! We don't expect to make a career out of it, we just do it for the love of it – although it’s a very time-consuming hobby!