EUConsult Information Service
2008 October
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Member Profiles
Elizabeth Mills, Éminence Grise
Position: Principal
Company: Éminence Grise
E-mail: elizabeth(at)eminence-grise.co.uk
Web: www.eminence-grise.co.uk
FACT FILE
- Date business started: 2001
- Main business areas: Strategic planning, fundraising, communications, recruitment
- Number of consultancy staff: 1 (plus 3 associates)
- Countries of operation: UK
THE BUSINESS
What range of clients do you serve?
Small and medium-sized not for profit organisations with a particular focus on those working with older people.
How has your business evolved since it was started?
When I started the business, I intended to focus exclusively on charities working with and for older people. This has remained the core business, but we have also worked in other sectors including an animal rescue, a children’s charity, policy making organisations and so on. The addition of 3 associates has helped to broaden the expertise of Eminence Grise.
Where will your consultancy be in a few years time?
I have no driving ambition to “build a brand” or grow the business substantially. I envisage it will continue to provide a full range of consultancy services to small and medium sized organisations for whom the major consultants are too expensive.
Which opportunities and threats do you see for your work in the sector and for the development of NPOs?
We are all going to find the traditional sources of income from charitable trusts and businesses will be reduced substantially over the next five years. The most important opportunity for all my clients will be internet fundraising. The burden on NPOs in the UK of increasingly draconian regulation and legislation, and the public’s perception of charities as simply being a branch of government, delivering public services to a political agenda, will all go against the sector. This will certainly have a knock on effect for all consultants.
Can you recommend any sources of information that you find useful in your business (websites, books, publications):
NCVO, Trustee Network, and www.trustfunding.org.uk are my daily reference websites; Third Sector and Professional Fundraising magazines keep me up to date with what’s going on in the sector.
EUCONSULT MEMBERSHIP
Why did you join EUConsult?
The networking opportunities are great, and the conferences provide excellent “time out” to learn and think.
Have you had the opportunity to cooperate with other EUConsult members?
I have been fortunate in having access to advice and help from Bill Conner at Brakeley and Richard Crossland of ABL Cultural Consultants, who I invited to join Eminence Grise in making a pitch to a prospective client. This was ultimately unsuccessful, but it was a very useful experience.
BACKGROUND INFO
Where and what did you study?
Following school in Farnham, Surrey I did an intensive secretarial course in London; after five years as PA to a politician, I joined the Conservative Party and qualified as a constituency agent which is where I got my first taste of fundraising and volunteer management.
How did you first get involved in NPO consultancy?
I joined Research into Ageing as their first fundraiser and administrator in 1985, and was appointed Director in 1990. I grew the charity from tiny to small! By 2000 we had a staff of 14 and a donor base of 50,000 with an income of £1.5m In 2001, following the merger of Research into Ageing with Help the Aged, I decided that I didn’t want another full time job, but would like the variety of working with a range of organisations. The opportunity arose to undertake a piece of work for the Science Museum in London, looking at the way in which the museum related to older people – as visitors, as volunteers and as staff. This gave me the chance to see if I could make the move to self-employment. I haven’t looked back!
What interests you most about staying in the field?
Always being able to help other people. “There is no better way to find yourself than lose yourself in the service of others” (Mahatma Ghandi) is definitely my philosophy too.
What do you do to relax and forget your consultancy work?
I stay grounded in the sector by being a committed volunteer myself – a prison visitor at HMP Bullingdon. I am webmaster for the local residents’ association. I am a school governor of a large comprehensive school in Witney, Henry Box School. My husband and I are practicing Catholics and are very involved with the Oxford Oratory where we worship. We are also committed to our bulldog, Max, who came from Bulldog Rescue four years ago.
I am also a keen genealogist, and, with my sister, have spent many happy hours researching our family history. I have managed to go back to the end of the 18th century on most strands of the family and have found some fascinating people including Sir Charles Whitworth, the first Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital (later the Thomas Coram Foundation) and Patience, an African born slave in Jamaica. But one strand continues to elude us – we were born Rowntree with roots in Yorkshire, but cannot find a link with the great philanthropist, Joseph Rowntree! Such a pity.
