Networking for private client professionals

21st August 2024

The Mersea Island Vineyard was the venue for our latest private client professional advisers lunchtime networking event.  Since 2022, we have held ten of these networking events at venues around the County, including Layer Marney Tower near Colchester, Marks Hall near Braintree, Hatfield Place near Chelmsford and Southend Airport.   Around 50 guests joined us in Mersea, and the event was kindly sponsored by the Chartered Accountants, Streets Whittles.

Since we started these events, in total around 475 private client advisers have attended, representing approximately 60 local businesses.  At each event, we aim to explain the broad reach of our work supporting several hundred charitable and voluntary organisations in our communities across Essex each year.  Advisers  hear first hand from donors and supporters who are already working with us about a topic of specific  interest to advisers.

At the Mersea Island Vineyard event, ECF trustee Sandra Hollis, who is chair of our fund development committee and Andy Payne Worpole, our director of policy and programmes, discussed the challenges that local charities have faced over the last five years, looking at what the future might hold and how we are helping them. Previous topics have included how we work with advisers and their clients  to donate locally with confidence that their gifts are making a real lasting difference.

Perry Norton, head of development said, “These events are a great opportunity for private client professionals from across Essex to meet and network, learn about issues in local communities and listen to talks from those who work with us.

“The feedback we have received is that they are interesting to attend and really helpful for advisers as they think about their individual clients and how they can help them to give money to charities in their local community, either in their lifetime or by leaving a legacy if that is something they want to do.

“We are grateful to Streets Whittles for hosting our latest event and all our past sponsors for helping us to hold these events, and to our venue hosts for enabling us to bring people together who have an interest in making a difference in their local community.”

Dan Insley, partner of Streets Whittles, who heads up the firm’s Mersea office explains why they felt it was important for them to be a sponsor:

“In providing funding to ECF for this event we are supporting both a long-standing client and one of the region’s most influential charities.  In collaborating with the vineyard as the venue we are celebrating the best that Mersea Island can produce and by focussing on the private client side of our practice, we are acknowledging the importance of the many Mersea residents who trust us to advise them.”

If you would like to receive an invitation to our next event, or if you would like to discuss being a sponsor in future, please contact Dee Davies (dee@essexcf.org).