Gill Astarita was a widely respected fundraiser and chief executive of Volunteer Reading Help, who lost her battle against cancer last year. The Fund was set up Gill’s husband Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, and run (as part of The Fundraisers Fund) by global capacity building charity and organisers of the IFC, the Resource Alliance.

The Fund aims to raise standards of fundraising in the developing world by awarding bursaries for fundraising training.  It is designed to ensure that fundraisers working for social causes are able to take advantage of appropriate training and development to improve their skills.

To date, the Fund has provided bursaries for over 20 indivdiuals from 8 countries to attend the 9th International Workshop on Resource Mobilisation (IWRM) in Bangalore, India in May and for 30 individuals to attend the 15-day intensive course on resource mobilisation and communications in India, Malaysia and Africa.


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