NO DOUBT some of those involved in the colossal project to raise £6.4m for St Albans Cathedral are invoking the power of prayer to bless their enterprise.

But the Lord, they say, helps those who help themselves and the Abbey is mounting a powerful and high profile campaign that smacks more of the city than church fetes.

And they have called in heavyweight help, literally, in the 6ft 6ins shape of Anthony Burns. Built like a rugby prop forward this professional fund raiser can list everything from disco bouncer to appeals director for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund on his CV.

"I saw their advertisement on the web and here I am," says Mr Burns whose new employers cannot be accused of religious discrimination, for he is a Catholic.

"There is always a belief that someone like me comes on board pulling a little box behind them full of millionaires. That is not the case. In fact the millionaires are all around you, and I am the one who holds the key to them," he says.

He started work last December 1 on a two year contract so almost half of it has gone, and the public appeal was only launched on Friday, October 12. But this project is a bit like an iceberg - much has already happened beneath the surface.

Mr Burns began by enlisting other heavyweights to help their cause. They include, from the world of entertainment, lyricist Sir Tim Rice who went to St Albans School, Songs of Praise presenter Pam Rhodes, and conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

But perhaps the pivotal person - the key to Mr Burns' key - is more widely known among the movers and shakers than the public at large. Roy Gardner, Chief Executive of Centrica, is the man welding half of what used to be British Gas, the Automobile Association and credit card Goldfish into a services brand.

"I went hunting him," says Mr Burns, making it all sound like a big game safari which, in a sense, it is. "He is an outstanding man and a very serious businessman. It is important to have a commercial champion.

"Because St Albans is where it is and what it is you get a lot of major people living in the district. I wanted someone who is immensely powerful, charitably inclined but without a huge number of charitable connections.

"A friend arranged the introduction and he said he'd love to help." Mr Gardner is himself one of the "major people" who lives in the district, and is already president of charity Carers International.

His role will be to hook the big fish. Whilst the Cathedral congregation are unflagging in their support, already providing £200,000 a year for the Abbey's running costs, and pledging another £300,000 for this appeal, the quickest way to get big money is from those who've got it.

"Roy will be casting his net further afield, what's called Peer Group Fund Raising. You get someone who's a major player in their field and they will know others and you get 10 of them round to dinner and say 'I have put in £100,000 and I want the same from each of you'," he said.

"It sounds very glib but it works. It's like networking." It is hoped that by targeting the big money men and corporations Mr Gardner may bring in as much as £4.5m.

Earlier, at the launch in the Abbey's chapter house, built with the proceeds of their last great fund raising drive in the early seventies, he said it was known in the trade as "a face to face big gift campaign", focusing on individuals and asking directly for huge donations. "Facing people and asking for money is scary stuff, but we know it works," he told an assembly that included the Bishop of St Albans as patron-in-Chief.

And there is an extra cherry on the cake for the 10 biggest donors. They will be 'immortalised' in a new musical composition - a variation on Elgar's Variations on a Theme - a sort of Top Ten evoking each of the ten top givers. An extra eleventh variation will be a tribute to the wider St Albans district which is "down for" £1.6m.

Howard Goodall, the man who memorably turned the 23rd psalm into the title music for the Vicar of Dibley, has agreed to compose it. Mr Burns says not only will it be a lasting Thank You to those who donate the most, played annually in the Abbey in perpetuity, but will also generate royalties...

They call it a campaign rather than an appeal and the Campaign Chairman is another heavyweight, Richard Pleydell-Bouverie who has an estate at Peters Green. Said Mr Burns:

"He had a family tragedy, one of his sons was killed in Africa by lions and he was so touched by the love and support given to him by people at the Abbey that he couldn't say 'Yes' quick enough."

On Friday, October 12, Mr Burns was able to announce that they had already received £1, 119,690. He expects that when his contract ends in December next year the bulk of the money will be raised - quite a feat, if they pull it off, for it's generally reckoned to take three years to raise this much.

But he is confident, and his track record inspires confidence. He started out as a civil servant in the health department but wanted to move "somewhere people actually think for a living". He went to the Spar grocery chain and ended up running their national promotions, before becoming director and general manager of a wholesale toys division.

His big shift in focus came when his wife's parents retired and wanted to live near them. On the day they arrived her father blacked out, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was dead within six weeks. Six weeks after that her mother had a stroke and she, too, died.

"We had never done anything for charity but now we wanted to. There was a branch of a cancer charity near us and we volunteered - we did everything from jumble sales to bouncer at charity discos."

From this beginning he joined the charity as full time appeals director, learning not only how to get people to part with their cash, but how to respect it. "When people donate money to charity they are actually suspending their value judgement and that trust imposes a special duty of care on you," he said.

"It makes me go ballistic if I find people ripping off money given to charity. I have experienced that, and I pursue them relentlessly."

Four years later he left to be fund raiser for a small coronary artery disease charity called Corda - Latin for hearts. It was here he learned the value of attracting big name players when he persuaded the late Lord Rayner of Marks and Spencer to head it.

So successful was the charity, it has been absorbed into the Brompton hospital. "I didn't want to work for the NHS again - done that!"

So the Abbey's advert was heaven sent...

October 15, 2001 20:46

Susan Novak