TFA was founded by Arun Sharma & Justin Leahy in 2015. Between them their extensive experience in both the commercial and not-for-profit sector are backed up by a team of experts across every area of income generation, communications and operations. Please do get in touch to speak with us.
Founders
CEO & Co-founder
Arun Sharma
Arun’s extensive experience stretches across both commercial and not-for-profit sectors. Following a ten-year career in the private sector, he held senior fundraising positions at Marie Curie, Shelter and Age UK. In 2013, Arun joined the ITV CSR team, where he helped grow their philanthropic giving. Having worked as a fundraiser and funder, Arun set up TFA Limited with Justin, in 2015 and now works closely with companies, NGO’s and Government Departments providing strategic and operational support to help them strengthen their philanthropic activity, talent development and digital engagement.
arun@tfaltd.co.uk
☎ 0333 4441189 | 07841 644828
Strategy Director & Co-founder
Justin Leahy
Justin has a commercial background and was part of the team at Oliver Wyman developing their positioning offer. His experience cuts across business strategy, positioning, business development and communications. Since founding TFA with Arun, Justin has been supporting not-for-profit organisations with strategic and operational support to enable whole organisation to fundraise effectively. Justin is also a strong facilitator and helps not-for-profit teams build consensus around key issues such as business strategy, organisational positioning, fundraising and theory of change.
Justin@tfaltd.co.uk
☎ 0333 4441189 | 07855 754879
Rebecca Millburn
Corporate & Events
Rebecca has more than 15 years of experience in fundraising and management, spanning both not-for-profits and consultancy. Having worked for charities such as British Heart Foundation, Save the Children, Marie Curie, and the ICR, she is now a consultant for TFA. In addition to her strategic and operations fundraising knowledge, Rebecca provides extensive knowledge in the delivery of TFA’s event and virtual event portfolio, plus manages the planning and delivery of the digital communications around them.
Roland Bush-Cavell
sponsorship & trading
Roland has held senior corporate and consultancy roles at Shelter, Marie Curie, British Heart Foundation, and Comic Relief. His roles have involved establishing seven-figure commercial partnerships with brands such as M&S, Tesco and Unilever, growing direct and online retail and securing long-term strategic partnerships. Roland knows clearly how to structure and implement a successful Trading and Commercial fundraising strategy that delivers increased profit and opportunity while negating risk and financial exposure.
Effie Blythe
digital & marcomms
Effie has worked in charity comms for over a decade and brings extensive experience of how organisations can best target audiences, communicate their impact and stories of change. As Director of Communications, she led teams to deliver highly successful media and digital campaigns and produce high-profile events both in the UK and internationally. As a natural leader, Effie has advised organisations and philanthropists on strategy, risk management, reputation and is focused on achieving the best possible outcome for all involved.
James Spears
individual giving
James has over 16 years’ experience in fundraising and marketing. After a number of senior fundraising roles at Shelter, James went on to be Assistant Director at Clic Sargent. James oversaw significant change projects, managed a multi-million-pound budget and was responsible for £10m in annual income. As a consultant, James’ main focus is individual giving, team management and data analysis. James uses his problem-solving and supporter focused approach to add value and drive growth to help achieve stronger results for donors and beneficiaries.
Jane Tingle
trusts & foundations
Jane has 20 years’ experience of raising funds from grant-giving bodies in the not-for-profit sector. After heading up the trusts and foundation team at Addaction, she spent a decade at Farm Africa, during which time she quadrupled income from trusts and foundations and managed a team responsible for raising £7 million from UK, US and European trusts and foundations. Jane has great attention to detail, coupled with an instinctive flair for crafting stories and summarising complex information, has seen Jane raise funds for prisons, conservation areas, women’s & young people’s mental health, agricultural and adults with learning difficulties.
Molly Morrison
International grants
Molly is an experienced bid writer with extensive international experience. Being someone who is multilingual (French and Chinese) and project management professional with experience in designing and implementing projects with social impact in North America, Africa and Asia. Her core competencies include project financing, written communications, project design, project management. Molly is also a communications specialist with more than seven years of experience in communications, grant writing, donor relations and consulting for international organisations, NGOs and social enterprises.
Helen Strachan
trusts & big Lottery
Helen specialises in bid management. Her experience includes supporting corporates to win contracts and a decade at employment charity Tomorrow’s People, where she secured £6 million of the public sector and foundation funding. She enjoys working closely with organisations to understand their achievements and ambitions and creating compelling bids that effectively demonstrate the excellence of their work to funders. Helen’s ability to research and grasp new sectors rapidly has really helped her to secure funds for a variety of sectors including employment, education, health, social work and justice.
Brian Curran
Corporate & Community
With 26 years of fundraising experience, Brian has worked at every level of fundraising in small, medium and large charities. Starting his career as a Social Worker to work for Age Concern Marie Curie & Candlelighters. Brian’s experience spans corporate & community fundraising, high net-worth and events. Brian has been part of managing national partnerships with Tesco, campaigns with local hospices and teams of fundraisers of all experiences. His experience and input into fundraising has been recognised by the Institute of Fundraising in Yorkshire & Humberside when he was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Fundraising Award.
Rachel McKenna
Digital & social media
Rachel has over five years’ communications experience within the charity sector and has a comprehensive background in developing and implementing targeted social media strategies. With a portfolio that spans across leading charitable organisations, Rachel has a wealth of knowledge in delivering multi-channel social media campaigns that produce tangible results. Through keeping up with the ever-evolving world of social media, Rachel is able to generate and execute organic and paid content that is topical and engaging.
Charlene Asamoah
Corporate & events
Charlene has over two decades of not for profit, development & humanitarian work experience. She has worked, The Gorilla Fund, Marie Curie, Parkinson's UK, WaterAid UK, WaterAid Ghana and Saferworld. She has experience in areas including human rights, health and peace-building. Her extensive work spans fundraising in the UK & Africa and international grant management. Charlene also holds an MSc in International Business and Economic Development and a bachelor’s degree in Music Management and Marketing.
Kate Sharma
Copywriting & comms
Kate’s experience cuts across all areas of communications. As a former director of communications, she’s as comfortable liaising with the press, writing copy for a newsletter to helping organisations develop a consistent tone of voice. For the past eight years, Kate has helped a range of charities, companies and social enterprises to develop their story and effectively engage with a whole range of audiences. Kate frequently works alongside our team of web developers, designers and video producers to plan and deliver creative projects for clients.
Caroline Szumilewicz
professional coach
Caroline has more than 20 years of experience in HR in the Insurance & Banking sectors. As a personal and professional coach, Caroline is a member of the International Coaching Federation and clients include Marie Curie, Coram & Surrey Wildlife Trust. She supports clients with thinking, clarity, accountability and making important decisions about work-life balance. She also develops strategies to support growth, restructure & transformational change. Her value is to enable leaders to create great places to work through a focus on employee engagement, talent development and organisational design.
Sam Jenkins
Events & Marketing
Sam's vast experience spans across communications, sales, events and client management. As a qualified comms and marketing professional, she has over 13 years experience working as a travel consultant, for global brands such as Trailfinders and Corporate UK. In addition to Sam is a trained wedding celebrant and a passionate charity runner. This combined experience, along with being from Bristol, gives her the perfect understanding and knowledge to join TFA to support the expansion of its events portfolio in the South West, Midlands and overseas.
Sarah Grant
consultant
Sarah has recently graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in Politics and is looking to embark on a career in the charity sector. Having previously completed work experience at TFA, she has now returned as a Junior Consultant and is eager to utilise her existing skillset as well as gain more insight and knowledge of the not-for-profit sector.