Helen entered fundraising through her career as one of the country’s foremost performing musicians and as founder of a rural music education and performance programme in the Eastern Cape. In the close to 15 years since then, she has gained extensive experience as fundraiser. The GIBS Social Entrepreneurship Certificate Programme, which she completed in 2015, offered a significant opportunity to deepen her knowledge base. Her fundraising experience extends to building relationships with corporate, government and philanthropic bodies, both inside South Africa and abroad. Fundraising gives her an opportunity to link people’s innate desire to do good with a cause close to their hearts.

Asna is a social worker by profession and has a postgraduate degree in Social Science. She has worked in the development sector for 25 years. The past 15 years has been in specialising in building strong and sustainable organisations through effective fundraising. With a deep understanding of the NPO sector and its unique assets and challenges, Asna works in an incisive way, starting from a continuum of what we have and what we know – all the way to growing donor confidence and engaging new donor interest. It is within these core values that Asna works at fundraising strategy development, action planning, implementation and measurement. This together with a cohesive team has delivered vibrant and meaningful funding partnerships. The type where an enduring donor community is created.

Catherine has worked in the non-profit and fundraising sector in South Africa for over 20 years in the roles of Project Leader, Fundraiser, Co-Founder of an organisation and Fundraising Coach. She has extensive experience in developing relationships with donors, writing proposals and reports, building donor bases and developing sustainable fundraising strategies for NPOs. She has also worked on the other side of the funding desk as a Grants Officer for an organisation managing the CSI funds of some of South Africa’s biggest multinational companies. This work gave her a bird’s eye view of the development sector in South Africa and an understanding of the inner workings of a CSI department.