35 years of impact, insight and influence
We are delighted to be celebrating 35 years of empowering charities with the confidence and capability to thrive
Celebrating our 35th anniversary and looking to the future
In 1988 HRH The Princess Royal challenged staff, students and alumni of Cranfield University to use their skills to benefit the voluntary sector. As a result, Cranfield Trust was founded. In May 1989, Cranfield Trust became a registered charity with the vision to build successful charities. As Patron of the Trust, HRH The Princess Royal, continues to be an active supporter and advocate of the Trust’s work.
Since then, we have supported almost 3,000 social welfare charities with 6,000 projects! In the last year alone (2022-23) we conservatively valued our services to the third sector at £2,736,894.
It’s been an honour and privilege for us to work alongside so many inspiring charity leaders and we look forward to being there for them for many more years to come.
We want to use our 35th anniversary as an opportunity to further support charities in order to create strong and resilient charity management and leadership across the sector. we aim to do this by making:
- our core services for charities more sustainable;
- training and learning opportunities more accessible and suitable for the charity managers; and
- better use of our knowledge and insight to influence charities, the sector and further afield.
During May 2024 we will be holding our first #CharityManagementMonth, when we will be offering support, resources and information to help support charities to have the confidence and capability to thrive. Other activities throughout the year will include inviting people to get involved with our fundraising initiative #CharityChallenge35.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chair of the Board of Trustees
“As Cranfield Trust celebrates its 35th anniversary, every day we see the incredible challenges facing the charity sector. Organisations that have barely taken a breath after the pandemic are today facing the impact of the cost of living crisis and deepening hardship faced by so many people and communities.
Cranfield Trust ‘s commitment to help charities adapt and develop remains, and a privilege to help so many organisations strengthen in the face of challenges. Our heartfelt thanks go to all the thousands of volunteers and supporters whose generosity makes this commitment possible today and for the last 35 years.”
CEO Amanda Tincknell CBE
"Cranfield Trust has been providing critical support to thousands of frontline welfare charities over the last 35 years through our pro bono management guidance and advice, mentoring and training. During that time, we have developed the Trust to an incredible scale. Last year we worked with over 700 organisations through our consultancy and mentoring services, it’s a privilege to work alongside so many vital frontline services.
We are marking our 35th anniversary at a difficult time for the sector with frontline social welfare organisations under greater pressure than ever before. In Charity Management Month, we hope that leaders and managers will take some time to explore ideas around developing their organisations and themselves as managers.
Just an hour of learning can bring new ideas to help us feel more confident in our roles as leaders and managers, helping our organisations adapt to keep pace with our fast-changing world. Cranfield Trust is committed to providing support to essential voluntary sector organisations and the people who work in them - I hope that many people will join us in taking time for development and building confidence during our first Charity Management Month."
The learning opportunities are endless!
To mark the first ever Charity Management Month, we are delighted to launch our new and refreshed on-demand webinar library in celebration of our #35YearsOfImpact.
We know just how important these webinars are to our charity clients – in 2022-23 alone, almost 1,500 delegates attended the 12 FREE online learning opportunities we delivered.
Our new on-demand library means you can easily locate and access past webinars at the time and place most convenient to you – and can also pause, re-wind and watch again as many times as you like! Even better, it is completely FREE.
