Katherine Crowe has been appointed to the new post of Development Director at Cumberland Lodge, to lead a fundraising drive to help us support and expand our programme of educational activities and secure the future of the foundation.
Katherine joins us from the University of Oxford, where she was Senior Development Executive for Corporations. She was previously Head of Development for the university’s Department for Continuing Education and a Marketing Manager at Oxford University Press.
‘Fostering learning and critical thinking’
On taking up her new role as Development Director, Katherine said: “The vision the charity has of a more socially cohesive society really resonates with my personal outlook. It's particularly exciting to be joining the Lodge in its 70th anniversary year, and I look forward to supporting it's work in fostering learning and critical thinking via its educational activities, in pursuit of this aim.”
Originally hailing from Scotland, Katherine has a history degree from the University of St Andrews and a Master’s degree in publishing from Stirling University.
Katherine will be leading our development plan, which is being launched in our 70th anniversary year as an educational foundation, as part of a wider initiative to develop and expand our educational work and increase our impact for the betterment of society.
This will involve building a £7.5 million endowment fund and Katherine will be working closely with our fundraising consultant, Christopher Mann.
‘A safe and calm space’
As both a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, Cumberland Lodge operates on a not-for-profit basis, with commercial bookings for venue hire helping to support our charitable activities.
As a charity, our mission is to bring people together to equip and inspire them to tackle the causes and effects of social divisions through learning and constructive dialogue.
On launching our five-year plan in 2016, Sir Stephen Wall, our Chair of Trustees, said: “Our obligation as a charity is to be true to our founding objectives. Our founder, Amy Buller, saw how, in pre-war Germany, a divisive and immoral ideology had somehow captured the hearts and minds of Germans, including young and idealistic Germans. Cumberland Lodge was set up to ensure that it did not happen again.
“Today we are undergoing huge changes in society and some of the pressures young people face are insidious. So, the trustees and staff of Cumberland Lodge have thought hard about how we can make what we do more relevant to today’s challenges, so that we can provide a safe and calm space where difficult issues can be discussed by young people and by older people with leadership roles in society – and how we can bring young and not so young together to try to find answers to some of the challenges that we face.”
Find out more about the work of Cumberland Lodge here. Copies of our 2015/16 Annual Report will be published shortly. To request a copy, contact Katherine at kcrowe@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk or on 01784 220526.
Please note that Katherine works part-time, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In her absence, please contact Helen Taylor, Press & Communications Officer, on 01784 770556.