Meet the team

Liz Pepler MIAB FRSA is a charity resilience specialist, founder of Embrace Finance and co-founder of the Small Charity Friendly Collective.  As well as running Embrace Finance, Liz also provides bespoke mentoring, consultancy and masterclasses to charity boards, leaders and teams at Liz Pepler Consulting.  Liz is co-author of Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Organisational Resilience framework, co-author of the Association of Chair's Financial Leadership in Small Charities and finance trainer for NCVO. Liz is a practicing member at the Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers, holds a Masters in Charity Accounting and Financial Management (Dist) and a PG Certificate in Charity Administration. Liz is a fellow of the RSA.

Fiona Young (Priest) FCA, DChA is a Charity Consultant, accredited Coach and Mentor and provides professional mentoring support to our clients. She is a qualified chartered accountant. After qualifying, Fiona specialised in Charity Audit with BDO before working as a charity finance director and company secretary for 20 years for Crisis UK and the Tudor Trust. She now works as a consultant supporting charities with finance and governance projects. Recent projects include reviewing requirements for and sourcing a new finance system for a large charity, organisation reviews and supporting a number of grantmakers with their reporting. Alongside this she provides coaching and mentoring, both nationally and internationally, to charities and non profit organisations. Fiona is a Chartered Accountant, Member of ICAEW and holder of their Diploma in Charity Finance. She has a Masters in Charity Finance and Financial Management

Kemi Olafare ACMA is a qualified management accountant with over 20 years experience in the not for profit sector in both paid and voluntary roles. Kemi is an experienced finance business partner in the charity, university, international development and healthcare sectors. Kemi is currently Director of Finance at UCLPartners, an Advisory Board member at Charterpath and Trustee at the Charles Russell Speechlys Foundation. Kemi has been a panel member with Getting On Board.

Yasmin Glover is a small charity organisational development specialist with expertise spanning strategy formation, project planning, staff development, impact measurement, and change management. Using her experience as a highly skilled facilitator, trainer, and consultant, Yasmin founded the The Olive Training and Consultancy agency in 2019, a social enterprise dedicated to helping small charities and social enterprises become more efficient, mission-focused, and impactful. Yasmin is co-founder of the The Small Charity Friendly Collective —a self-organising, volunteer collective of small charity secialists - and a Strategy and Planning Associate Consultant at NCVO.

Joy Matthew has a background in law and graduated with an LLM in 2023. Joy participated in the 2027 placement scheme, aimed at bringing individuals with lived experience into the funding sector and is now focusing on the philanthropic space, with a strong interest in network-building, collaboration, and advocacy. Joy manages a Governance hub that provides legal support to grassroots organisations involved in community organising, while also offering backend grant administration, operational, and financial support.

Hypatia of Alexandria We are a small team with big ambitions. We like AI, and think that used wisely, AI has the potential to turbocharge small charities - and therefore social change - for the better. When we asked ChatGPT which wise character from history it might be - Hypatia of Alexandria was the answer. Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 350–415 CE) was a renowned philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer in late antiquity. One of the earliest recorded female scholars in Western history and a symbol of intellectual achievement and free thought. Hypatia sometimes helps us think through how to support small charities better and for a short while we involved her in writing some of our content but have reverted to humans for this.