SOFII (en)

Tahera Mayat

Tahera Mayat is Social Media Manager at Harrison Mann digital marketing agency. Her role is facilitating #CharityHour, which is a weekly themed Twitter chat (Wednesdays 8-9pm). As host of #CharityHour since its inception in February 2014, Tahera grows the hour, learns from and engages charity professionals all the while connecting with organisations and individuals across the sector.

Mike Bartlett

Mike Bartlett (MinstF) is a successful fundraising leader, consultant, mentor and trainer, with 20 years’ experience in the voluntary sector heading up high performing fundraising teams at regional, national and international causes. Mike has coached hundreds of professional and voluntary fundraisers in the art and science of high value fundraising, making strategic decisions, managing teams and donor communications. He is a regular speaker at fundraising conferences across the UK and Chaired the 2018 IoF Major Donor Conference. His sits on the IoF South West Committee as EDI representative and has been an IoF mentor for the last six years.

Jennifer Ruthe

Jennifer Ruthe has almost 10 years’ experience as a fundraiser in health and international development. Starting out in Programme Funding, she has worked with some of the biggest foundations in the world. Expanding her experience outwards, roles have gone on to include broader fundraising and communications across all major income streams. She now freelances as a Charity Copywriter (Written by Jen) and loves to share the benefit of her skills and experience with others.

Lara Joyce

Lara Joyce is the National Campaigns Coordinator at the Irish Cancer Society helping organise large fundraising campaigns implemented across the country. Before moving to Ireland, Lara worked at Sussex County Habitat for Humanity in Delaware, building affordable homes for families and then continuing that work in Massachusetts at Habitat for Humanity Metrowest/Greater Worcester. Originally from Massachusetts, Lara moved to Dublin in 2014 to pursue her Masters of Geography at University College Dublin. Outside of work Lara plays rugby for the Swords Women’s Rugby team.

Erin McGuire

Erin McGuire is Associate Director at the SickKids Foundation.

Erin has been working in the events and food and beverage industry for over 15 years. She completed her degree in Europe and executed events in Switzerland, Dubai, and England before returning to Canada to put down roots. Upon her return to Vancouver, she worked on the social programming for TED Conferences in Canada, the US and UK before starting her own events and catering business. In 2012, she relocated to Toronto where she worked with brands like Budweiser and the Toronto Maple Leafs, planning events and mastering remote event execution.

Erin pivoted into the non-profit sector when she joined the Special Events team at SickKids Foundation in 2015. The Foundation supports Canada’s largest and most prominent children’s hospital, and since joining, she has planned everything from 20km walks to black tie galas to charity sports tournaments. Now the Associate Director of Special Events, Erin oversees a portfolio of five charity events annually, which raised over $4.3M in 2019.

Saleem Tejani

Saleem Tejani has spent more than 17 years working in the UK’s leading fundraising agencies, firstly at Bluefrog, then at Open and now at DTV. He has helped many charities build highly effective acquisition, retention and legacy programmes integrating both on and off line channels. Saleem joined DTV to develop and implement their digital offering, including web optimisation for DRTV, digital donor journey’s and using video effectively for fundraising. He is a passionate fundraiser and loves creative development and digital integration.

Joe Nicholson

Joe Nicholson (he/him) is Head of Copy at Consider Creative – where he’s part of the team that creates inspiring fundraising campaigns for some of the UK’s most well-loved charities. Prior to that, he worked in editorial, individual giving and community fundraising at Christian Aid – which involved everything from managing flagship appeals to cheering his voice hoarse at the London Marathon. Raising money for good causes has excited Joe for as long as he can remember. That’s why he’s so pleased to be speaking at IWITOT this year.

Julia Worthington

Julia Worthington runs Amber Consulting for Fundraisers. Julia helps organisations increase their income through coaching for confidence and performance coaching. She loves working in the third sector, especially with smaller charities - the £1 million to £5 million organisations - because they are agile, creative and in touch with their community. Julia's first paid fundraising job was at The Railway Children where she worked closely with many rail industry companies building meaningful partnerships. In fact, her IWITOT presentation has been influenced by her time at Railway Children, specifically attending the Rail Safety Conference. Who would have thought that it would come in useful in 2020!

Lyndall Stein

For four decades, Lyndall Stein has worked with organisations that are dedicated to fighting injustice and inequality, the liberation of South Africa, the rights of people with HIV/AIDS, people struggling with poverty and homelessness. She was brought up with refugees from Nazi Germany, those fighting the wicked apartheid racist regime in South Africa, and those who had to flee fascist dictatorships in Europe. The courage and resilience of refugees is a cause very close to Lyndall's heart. The human story is always the key element that builds love and compassion from others.

Chloe Green

Chloe Green is a copywriter, digital strategist, and political comms specialist living in south east London. Before joining the lovely team at Forward Action as Head of Creative, Chloe was Social Media Manager for the Labour Party during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. She spends her spare time supporting European Labour parties to get up to scratch on digital election campaigning, helping the parties of Ireland, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden. Chloe earned her chops in the charity and not-for-profit sector with Anthony Nolan, St Mungo's, and NUS.

Felicity Spencer-Smith

Felicity Spencer-Smith is Senior External Affairs Officer at the UK's Institute of Fundraising (IoF). She has specialised in communications for small international charities for the past few years. Felicity currently works with the fundraising community to represent them in media and in government, and shout about all the good work going on in the charity sector.

Megan Townshend

Megan Townshend is a Corporate Partnerships Manager at Marie Curie, managing their partnerships with Pets at Home, Emma Bridgewater, Hotter and SPAR in the North of England. This is Megan’s first role in the charity sector after completing an internship in the Corporate Volunteering team at Macmillan Cancer Support. She has always been passionate about charity and loves to get involved; from cheering at events, taking on ridiculous challenges (VLM 2020 here we come!) to volunteering. She is very proud to have secured a place at IWITOT this year to showcase one of the many charity initiatives she admires.

Joshua Leigh

Josh Leigh (he/him) is director and digital fundraising Specialist at Hynt. With over a decade’s experience in digital and offline fundraising, campaigning and activism, Josh Leigh has helped non-governmental organisations (NGOs) raise millions in financial support and connect countless people with the causes they care about. He now runs a digital marketing and fundraising consultancy called Hynt, where he works with amazing organisations and purpose-led brands to do the right digital things. 

Josh is a former IWITOT speaker and returns in 2024 for another year as your IWITOT host. 

Jess Winchester

Jess Winchester is Group Manager for Fundraising and Membership at Forest & Bird, New Zealand. She feels incredibly privileged to work with people who have such a passion for making the world a better place - because connecting donors with the causes they care about makes magic happen. Jess has worked to secure major gifts and bequests, and headed up fundraising and communications teams at a wide range of charities in her career. Now she is half-a-world away from home in the UK but feels lucky to be managing a team of very talented fundraisers for Forest & Bird, the charity that stands up for nature in New Zealand. The team, and their amazing donors, inspire Jess every day.

Julie Berthoud-Jury

Julie Berthoud-Jury, PhD, is a fundraising consultant at Schomerus in Zurich, Switzerland, with a Diploma in Fundraising from Adrian Sargeant's AFP coursework. Julie is passionate about helping organisations use philanthropy to power growth and influence community change, and a firm believer in donor love. Previously, she worked as a major gift officer at Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders Switzerland, and at the American Red Cross. As a committee member of AFP Global and SwissFundraisingDay, Julie loves to be surrounded by people who are passionate about their work and who think outside of the box.

Diveesha Shahani

Diveesha Shahani is a former-fundraiser turned strategic-partnership-consultant with 8-years experience in the voluntary sector. Diveesha works with 30+ non-profits on the JustGiving platform – coaching them through their digital fundraising strategy, advising them on best-practices and supporting them through changes in supporter behaviour and recent trends. Diveesha is an annual volunteer at Crisis at Christmas, leading on organising the many activities offered in the centre. She lives in London, and is passionate about the environment, social change, tech-for-good, and health and well being.