Alan Gosschalk has left Bluefrog, less than nine months after joining the fundraising agency, to return to work within a charity.  

The fundraising veteran signed up as a client services director at Bluefrog in January after a 20-year career working within charities, but has resigned after deciding that he wanted to get back to being involved in more “direct fundraising”.

“It’s hard for a leopard to change its spots,” he told Fundraising. “I’m more suited to running one charity’s fundraising rather than being involved with 20 at arms’ length.”

Gosschalk has not got a charity to move on to, but said that he will be taking some weeks off and then looking for an interim or director of fundraising role. “It would have to be a charity that I really love,” he said.

Given his long career in the sector, Gosschalk said he was confident that leaving Bluefrog earlier than he originally intended was “not a career issue”.

Gosschalk said that, as vice-chair of the Institute of Fundraising, he will not be applying for the chief executive role which is soon to be vacated by Lindsay Boswell.