Meet the Team - Kurstin Finch Gnehm, Senior Partner

A bit about Kurstin and her career 

Kurstin is a staunch believer in the power of education to change the world. This conviction has driven a 20+ year career as a fundraiser, teacher, mentor and writer, culminating in her appointment as Senior Partner at Cairney & Company. She has honed her skills in some of the US and UK’s most renowned universities, priding herself on her ability to help institutions meet their financial goals and build strong, sustainable philanthropic cultures.

 Kurstin’s fundraising experience, launched as Director of Advancement Operations at Linfield University on the west coast of the USA, now spans campaign management, major and principal gifts, regular giving, operations, event management, supporter care and legacies.  She joined Cairney & Company in 2024 from the Dogs Trust, where she led a 55-member high value fundraising team and oversaw the Trust’s £30m capital campaign, Lead The Way.

Prior to that, Kurstin held senior roles at the Royal Academy of Music (managing the £60m Future of Music campaign), the University of Aberdeen, Imperial College London and the University of St Andrews, where she served as part of the 600th Anniversary Campaign team.

When not fundraising, Kurstin can be found volunteering throughout the sector, and was recently recognised as a Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Laureate and Crystal Apple winner for her contributions to training and service to philanthropy. She has served on a number of boards and programme groups for both CASE and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, and can often be seen speaking at or helping to coordinate CASE and IDPE conferences throughout the UK.

Kurstin is especially passionate about developing the next generation of fundraisers. She is entering her fourth year on the CASE Spring Institute faculty, where she teaches sessions on regular giving, appeal development, legacies, asking, and mental health for fundraisers (where she secretly thinks she makes her biggest contribution). She also developed and leads the new Leadership Accelerator course.

Kurstin believes deeply that in fundraising, soft skills often matter more than hard skills. She therefore also offers training and support for teams seeking help with hiring, team culture and retention, project management, leadership development and mentoring, change management, storytelling, negotiation, cultural competency and vision-setting.

Kurstin believes that if you cultivate and reward the right behaviours in your team, results will follow. She looks forward to helping C&C clients find their paths to the results they need.

You can read Kurstin’s full bio here: Kurstin Finch Gnehm

Favourite thing about working at C&C –  

This is hard to say right now, unless I say the same thing everyone says in their first week (‘everyone is so lovely!’); I am currently enjoying the rotating cast of characters that makes up C&C.

Outside of work    

Novelty cookbooks, books about WWII, running and crafting! Plus a side hustle in being domestic staff to a Pekingese.

Favourite Quote 

            “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching” (CS Lewis)