The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust is an endowed grant making charity with a spend down philosophy and grant making of £1million per year. Kate Baldwin is also a Trustee and the Vice Chair of the Willow Foundation which is a charity for seriously ill young adults with an annual income of £3million. After reading history at Oxford, Kate had a career in the voluntary and statutory sector in both overseas development and health and social care planning in the UK. During a career break to bring up her three children she completed a psychology degree before returning to work as a grants manager for a community foundation. After working for the community foundation, she assumed her current position. Kate has a severely autistic son and is on renal dialysis which gives her an empathy for many of her beneficiaries.

Gary Beharrell is the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Grant Manager for the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales and is responsible for initiating, developing and evaluating grant applications and delivering the Foundation’s grant making programmes in his area. Gary has been in the grant making sector for ten years and prior to that worked for Loughbrough and Nottingham Universities. He has over twenty years’ involvement with the voluntary sector and is a trustee of a number of charities as well as Chair of the East Midlands Funders Forum.

Hamish Donaldson MA DL (72) is active in the voluntary sector and holds the posts of Chairman of Haslemere Festival (a broadly based arts festival in May every other year with typically 75 events), Chairman of Surrey Churches Preservation Trust (raising money through an annual sponsored Bike Ride and giving grants to needy churches), Chairman of Guildford Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches (aesthetic, liturgical and mechanical planning advice for churches in the Diocese), President of Haslemere Players (a successful amateur operatic society) and a Governor of the Royal School Haslemere (senior and junior girls` boarding school with 350 pupils). He is a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey, Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and a Freeman of the City of London. Before retiring he was Chief Executive of Hill Samuel Bank and a director of TSB plc.

Ray Emmans is the Grants Director for the Berkshire Community Foundation. The Foundation is one of a network of growing organisations that tackle local need through grant making managing both local and government funds. Ray has worked in the voluntary sector for 9 years the past 4 years managing the grants programmes in Berkshire. Over £2 million has been distributed to small and medium sized voluntary groups and charities during his tenure, with particular emphasis on building long term relationships with groups. Prior to joining the Foundation Ray was National Secretary of the Air Ambulance Foundation managing a £10 million sponsorship arrangement to launch 5 new Air Ambulances in England and Wales. Before that Ray was a Senior Manager with the Automobile Association. He is a Trustee of Connexions Thames Valley and a Football Referee where he officiated at Conference League Level.

Mr King has spent the last 12 years as administrator for the Woodroffe Benton Foundation. The Woodroffe Benton Foundation gives some 200-300 small once-off grants annually to UK charities for the benefit of the environment, the disadvantaged, and the elderly, not individuals. Prior to that, Mr. King spent eight years as Director of Public and Professional Affairs for the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. He has also worked for 28 years in the food, drinks and catering industry in IT, marketing and the management of change.