Amanda Tincknell, CEO of the Cranfield Trust which supports small charities, has announced her retirement after 25 years at the helm. Here, she reflects on her role
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Cranfield Trust was founded in 1988 when HRH The Princess Royal challenged staff, students and alumni of Cranfield University to use their skills to benefit the voluntary sector.

The organisation became a registered charity in 1989 with the vision to build strong and successful charities and Amanda Tincknell was appointed as the charity’s first CEO in 2000. Since then, the Trust has steadily grown and supported almost 3,000 social welfare charities with 6,000 projects. In the last year alone (2024-25), the Trust’s 35th anniversary year, the charity started 527 new pro bono consultancy projects and had over 900 active projects in the year.

Melissa Moody spoke to Tincknell ahead of her retirement to find out more about her time in the role, experiences and challenges the charity has brought to her and her plans for the future.

Melissa: You've been CEO of the Cranfield Trust for 25 years, which is a massive achievement. What have been some of your highlights?

Amanda: The highlights have always been the people. I've worked with some amazing people and charities over the years, that's been an incredible experience. And to meet so many people who are doing brilliant jobs in very testing situations. I think that's always been what's motivated me and made me want to do more. The sense of opportunity with the trust has been really motivating as well.

I can't so much pick out individual highlights, but those have been the big motivations; the people I've had the good fortune to work with, and not just the charity leaders and managers that we've worked with, but also my own colleagues and our volunteers and a lot of our funders and donors, long term colleagues in the sector, and on our board. Everybody I've worked with has really motivated me. It’s been an incredible experience. And I think that the opportunity that having 1400 volunteers gives you is very exciting.

Because we always think, what else can we do? The pandemic was a real time of change for us. I think what was interesting about that was that there was a lot of behaviour change in people. Everybody got very comfortable working online and that meant we could do so much more. It sounds wrong to say that the pandemic was a highlight, but it was a change point.

Melissa: What have been some of the challenges that have stood out for you?

Amanda: I think that fundraising is always a challenge. And we're a charity. We're fundraising in the same way that everybody is and it's a huge challenge. And we can see what worrying times a lot of our clients are in, and it's a challenge for us, too. I've had a few sleepless nights over the years, but we've been very fortunate in all the support we've received.

And in a way of what's challenged me, some of input over the years from people who have challenged the trust to do different things. Sometimes it's just been
through one comment, one remark that somebody's made that's stuck with me. Some of those comments have challenged me to think’ what else could we do?’ And then in talking with my colleagues, people have come up with some great solutions and responses to those challenges.

Melissa: How do you think the charity sector has changed over the past 25 years?

Amanda: This was my first job in the sector. When I started, I didn't have a lot of knowledge of the sector. I was on a steep learning curve, but what I've seen over 25 years is that the sector's become much closer to government and that's good and bad.

And in partly through the growing demand for Cranfield Trust support, I've seen how people need access to support and skills development and somebody to discuss their issues with.

Leading a charity is demanding in many more ways than maybe it was 25 years ago. You're working in a very complex environment. It's a highly regulated environment, whether you're an employer, whether it's part of the service you're delivering, whether it's financial regulations.

None of them are necessarily bad things, but they're all demanding. I've seen a growing need for skills development and a wider knowledge base for the people who lead charities.

I would say that that expression that we all used in the pandemic about being never more needed couldn't be more true. The demand on charities has grown and grown, and they are the front line, and you know that that has maybe changed or intensified in the time that I've been with Cranfield Trust.

I think it is a hard environment, and I don't think anybody would disagree with that. I also think that people have, in a way, become less autonomous. Or they feel less autonomous. But I can understand that people feel at the mercy of funding decisions, contracting decisions commissioners and all that, and it's very hard to retain that sense of confidence and autonomy when you're in a difficult funding. I would say that the increase of the intensifying of government relationships has led to a feeling of less autonomy and less confidence in some leaders and the high demand on them for support. The demands have intensified and the need to be a much more broadly based, broadly skilled person has intensified as well.

Melissa: Do you have any advice for leaders for the next 25 years?

Amanda: I think it's fantastic that a lot of people much younger than me, millennials and Gen Z, are very highly motivated by the nonprofit sector and people are seeing it as a career option. I think having a stream of people with new ideas and a high sense of purpose is valuable. When I was starting, a lot of people were highly motivated, of course, but maybe not in such a widespread way.

My advice would be to get cracking. If somebody is interested in coming into the sector I would get stuck in, don't wait for anything. There's so much that needs doing, and so many organisations that need great people. If you're thinking about coming into the sector, come on in. I've found it an incredibly fulfilling and compelling world to work in, I'd recommend it to anybody.

Melissa: And what are your plans for retirement?

Amanda: I'm going to take holiday! Then I'm hoping I'll be a Cranfield Trust volunteer. I won't be directly involved in the trust, but I will be volunteering and being its biggest cheerleader. I'm also hoping to find a one or two trustee roles. I'll still be in the voluntary sector. I can't leave it.

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