Craig first came to Explore in 2004, deeply inspired by meeting like-minded people bringing their own magical ideas to life, and by the risk management session! Each Explore was a huge stepping stone but it took him until 2011 to get to the start line. In many ways that bit was harder than cycling 17,000km to Cape Town from London.
Craig has three decades of funding partnership experience in some of the world's most challenging environments and 120+ countries: major programmes in Somalia, Myanmar, Venezuela, northern Nigeria, northern Uganda, Sudan, Palestine, The Gambia, and Hackney. Getting the crack clinic in Hackney funded was much harder than raising 10m for a university.
He's done every type of fundraising there is: chugging, individual giving, crowdfunding, legacies, wealthy individuals, corporate and major media partnerships, trusts and foundations, government and European Commission funding, capital campaigns, social enterprises, carbon credits, climate adaptation funding, blended finance, and soft loans from development banks. Funding his own projects has always been the hardest.
Craig now shares what he's learned walking alongside hundreds of civil society leaders in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, and convenes altFund, the award-winning fundraising and partnerships training and mentoring programme for leaders seeking a purpose and values-based approach to fund their impact, diversify income, build better partnerships, and move beyond financial resilience, towards sovereignty.
The things he's learned on this longer funding journey: there is joy in being Un-Funded, and funding partnerships are a choice. Funding can accelerate and amplify our impact, but only if it is done well. What's possible for us to raise will be very different to the person sitting next to us. And our purpose and values don't limit us, they guide and guard us towards partnerships that fit, and that raise us all.
