Who we are

• Peter Stone

  Lead consultant

  Prior to developing his own consultancy five years ago, Peter worked for over twenty years in positions of responsibility in the Voluntary Sector. He served as Chief Operating Officer of The Aegis Trust, an international NGO working in the field of worldwide genocide research and prevention and as Director of Development for the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (the umbrella body of The Wildlife Trusts).

  Prior to holding these posts, Peter was the Chief Executive of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust where he was responsible for the turnaround of this charity into a major player in the region as well as the re-development of a listed building from its derelict state into an award winning £2m headquarters. Previously he held the post of Director of Marketing and Customer Services for the Woodland Trust responsible for the generation of over £4m+ p.a. and the management of relations with over 320,000 supporters.

  Since developing his own consultancy, Peter has applied this proven experience to a wide range of projects for clients throughout the UK in both the voluntary and corporate sectors ranging from business planning, reviews of financial structures and procedures, governance reviews and most recently feasibility studies of property projects for Sheffield City Council and The Big Issue. He also regularly works as a business advisor/assessor with the government-funded body Futurebuilders. Peter’s wealth of experience of heading large charity and voluntary organisations helps him offer mentoring and coaching advice to others in similar positions of responsibility.

  Peter is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Derbyshire Dales CVS in his spare time which helps him see problems from both sides of an organisation. He also supports Young Enterprise, a scheme which seeks to introduce young people to the challenges of running their own business.

• Sara Main

  Associate

  Sara has 15 years experience of working within the Voluntary Sector and a particularly wide range of experience of all types of fundraising, having worked for both local groups and national charities. For the past 7 years Sara has been a grant assessor for a range of organisations such as the New Opportunities Fund, Millennium Awards, Children in Need and Futurebuilders. This experience as both a fundraiser and assessor gives her a unique and valuable perspective, providing the skills and insight to give effective funding advice.

  Sara also has experience in designing and implementing user participation schemes to strengthen funding applications. She has advised on PR and marketing, financial management and forecasting, strategic planning and development of funding strategies.

  Sara also has particular experience of organisations from the Black and Minority Ethnic communities.

• Deborah Oddy

  Associate

  Deborah founded and ran a local community transport charity for seventeen years, responsible for a turnover in excess of £450,000 and employing 30 staff and 150 volunteers; this group continues to thrive today and is a source of independence for a large number of people.

  She previously worked for local council and community groups giving her valuable working knowledge and understanding of these bodies.

  More recently, we were very pleased to be able to include Deborah as one of our associates when she undertook to work as a self-employed Business Coach & Consultant specialising in the Voluntary and Charity sector. Her projects to date have included working with Community Transport Projects in Northumberland and Derbyshire, a local Community Trust group, Arts sector support and training for Derbyshire Dales CVS. She is committed to the personal and professional development of people, and has recently undertaken coaching training to enhance these skills. Deborah is an associate member of the Association for Coaching and Women in Rural Enterprise.

• Lindsay Allen

  Associate

  Lindsay has a number of years of successful project management experience including a wide range of knowledge and experience of financial and performance management of large regeneration programmes. This includes major capital projects and voluntary and community sector based project development.

  Her recent consultancy commissions include evaluations of regeneration projects and frontline services; applications to large funding bodies including The Big Lottery, Arts Council England and feasibility studies and business planning for social enterprises. She also serves as regional co-ordinator for East Midlands Voluntary Youth at regional policy level and works closely with Infrastructure Consortia in the East Midlands.  Lindsay has developed knowledge particularly in youth support, comissioning and procurement, business planning and evaluations.