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Your radar for grant funding and charity relationships
To bring you the best in personalised support, On Radar has teamed up with Sam Davies to offer bespoke consultancy for the third‑sector.
Sam has 26 years' experience of leading strategic fundraising and stakeholder engagement. Her fundraising career began during her final year at the University of Warwick in 1997. Following graduation, Sam spent two years managing telephone campaigns at 22 institutions as a consultant, including campaigns for Oxbridge colleges and independent schools.
She then joined Warwick full‑time and built up one of the UK's most successful regular giving programmes. In 2008, Sam accepted the challenge of establishing a fundraising and alumni engagement operation from scratch at the University of Brighton and during her tenure, the team received national and international awards for fundraising progress and innovation and Sam personally secured Brighton's first major grant from the Wolfson Foundation ‑ £500,000 for the Advanced Engineering Centre.
In 2019, Sam moved to the independent schools' sector to serve as the Head of Philanthropy & Alumnae Engagement for the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) and led on bursary fundraising amongst alumni, parents and other stakeholders, achieving a five‑fold income increase in only 3 years as part of the GDST's 150th anniversary. She acted as a de facto consultant for the GDST's 25 schools to help each build capacity and results locally, considering their unique context. In total, Sam led on the generation of £10.6million in just under four years and directed alumnae engagement activities during the pandemic to maintain a sense of belonging and the GDST spirit.
Sam has been a sector advocate throughout her career as a speaker, volunteer and mentor via professional bodies, such as CASE Europe and the IDPE. She served as a member of faculty for the CASE Europe Spring Institute in Educational Fundraising from 2013 until 2019 and was awarded the CASE Crystal Apple for Teaching Excellence in 2015.
Sam is passionate about the power of philanthropy, having benefitted directly from a fully funded independent school education from age 11 to 18. Social mobility, equality of opportunity and diversity are causes close to her heart and she seeks out projects where it is clear she can make a tangible difference to the lives and outcomes of individuals.
Sam lives in Shoreham‑by‑Sea, West Sussex with her 11‑year‑old daughter and in her spare time, Sam enjoys live music, comedy and participating in local community activities.
In October 2023, Sam founded Graced Consulting with the mission of helping individuals and organisations create meaningful change through philanthropy. Sam offers a range of services that can be tailored to the specific needs and contexts of organisations, including case for support development, fundraising strategy workshops, prospect research and cultivation plans, major gift training and interim support. Sam collaborates directly with each potential client to identify the best solutions to address their goals, both in the short and longer term.
If you wish to discuss how Sam's extensive experience might help take your organisation to the next level, drop us an email
Send an email to consult@onradar.uk
