Meet the Team: Aaron, Funding Consultancy Expert

As part of our London Sport Consultancy’s re-brand, we’re sitting down with the key team members working on our consultancy services. Our 'Meet the Team series' introduces Aaron Dunkley, our Funding Consultancy Expert from Oaks.

So, tell us about yourself?

The first two things that come to mind are: my personal life almost always revolves around playing and watching sport, and I never intended to work in business/fundraising consultancy.

However, I’ve since built a huge passion and, hopefully, ability for it. It was a happy accident when I began working at Oaks in 2015, with no experience or understanding of the third sector or fundraising. 

The benefit of working in consultancy is that you learn much quicker, through exposure to more organisations and projects in a shorter space of time.

What is your role with London Sport Consultancy?

I am an associate supporting London Sport Consultancy, with a particular focus on grant funding and subjects associated to it like community engagement and impact measurement. 

This involves delivering webinars to increase knowledge amongst London Sport’s networks, helps to raise London Sport's profile, and hopefully bring in new business opportunities.

Why choose London Sport Consultancy?

Like I said, my personal life revolves around sport and I’ve built a passion in helping socially-minded organisations secure funds to deliver meaningful work. 

London Sport is a combination of the two, and its network means we can reach an incredibly wide range of organisations across the city.

What are your biggest learnings from your favourite projects and why?

As boring as it might sound, being organised is critical to being an effective consultant.

Your clients expect you, and pay you, to be on top of everything, and they receive a better service when you are. If you’re juggling multiple projects/clients, the only way they'll get that is if you have good organisation skills.

From a socially-minded organisation perspective, it's how important it is to be able to tell a compelling story - a message which appears in most webinars I deliver.

Fundraising is a fiercely competitive marketplace, so the ones who are most successful have a strong narrative around: why a funder should give to them, why their work is needed and how they can make a difference.

What’s your favourite sport/physical activity to do?

I play football, tennis, golf (in summer only) and have recently taken up kickboxing. 

But two sports I particularly love to do – probably as I don’t get to do them often – are cricket and bouldering.

To learn more about our Funding services contact Aaron Dunkley. For more information on what London Sport Consultancy can do for you, email our Business Development Manager Jennie Rivett.