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Sharon Jackson
Head of Philanthropy (Interim) at Hope and Homes for Children. Director at Jackson Gray Consulting
Professional Background
Sharon Jackson is a highly accomplished charity professional with over fifteen years of progressive experience in fundraising, overseas development, and strategic governance. Throughout her career, she has held pivotal roles within various esteemed organizations, demonstrating her ability to lead and innovate in the charity sector. Notably, Sharon has served as both an Executive Director and Board Chair, contributing her vast expertise to multiple non-profit organizations and overseeing significant financial growth through effective fundraising strategies.
With a demonstrated passion for international development, Sharon has a notable track record of building robust relationships with high-value donors, foundations, and corporates. She has successfully secured five, six, and seven-figure donations, which cumulatively account for millions of pounds contributed towards impactful initiatives. Her strategic thinking and results-driven approach have established her as a respected leader and consultant in the charity and fundraising domains.
Her diverse experience also includes consulting for a range of markets, not just in the UK but across various international landscapes such as the USA, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Brazil, India, Thailand, South Africa, and Kenya. This breadth of experience highlights her deep understanding of global fundraising dynamics and her commitment to supporting underprivileged communities worldwide.
Education and Achievements
Sharon Jackson's academic pedigree includes a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Sociology and Business Management from Leeds Trinity University, achieving a commendable 2:1. Additionally, she furthered her expertise in marketing through a Post Graduate Certificate in Marketing from the University of Wolverhampton, where she gained critical insights into strategic marketing principles applicable to charity and nonprofit sectors.
Sharon's leadership abilities are also exemplified by her active roles on various boards including her current position as a Board Member at The Poundland Foundation. In her past engagements, she has served as a Board Trustee at Build It International, where she was influential in shaping operational and strategic frameworks that align with the organization’s mission.
Throughout her career, Sharon has also taken on significant interim roles such as Head of Philanthropy at Hope and Homes for Children. Her contributions have consistently resulted in enhanced fundraising results and improved organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, her consulting work with departments like ActionAid and WaterAid in major giving has also solidified her status as an expert in high-value fundraising, making her insights invaluable.
Achievements
Among Sharon's many accomplishments, a few stand out in demonstrating her exceptional capabilities:
- Securing Significant Funding: Sharon has successfully cultivated relationships and solicited major gifts that dramatically increased funding levels for various charities, demonstrating her competence and effectiveness in high-value fundraising.
- Global Networking: With her experience across a multitude of countries, Sharon has built an international network that fosters collaboration and partnership among philanthropic organizations, promoting shared goals and sustainable development.
- Strategic Leadership: As a former Executive Director and Board Chair, she has utilized her strategic thinking skills to lead organizations towards fulfilling their missions successfully and engaging their stakeholders comprehensively.
Sharon continues to commit herself to excellence in charity work, and her strategic vision profoundly impacts the organizations she supports. With a focus on innovative fundraising strategies and an unwavering commitment to overseas development, she remains focused on achieving ambitious goals that facilitate transformative change in communities across the globe.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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