Terrence Higgins Trust has combined its fundraising and communications departments in an effort to strengthen its voice and boost its fundraising capacity.

The merge, which followed a four-week process, sees the former director of communications and health improvement Genevieve Edwards (pictured) take on the new executive director of communications, fundraising and health improvement role. The director of fundraising position has been lost as a result of the merge. The Trust told Civil Society that no other jobs have gone or been created as part of the restructure.

The sexual health and HIV charity is hoping that the restructure will improve its relationship with supporters and enable it to raise more funds.

Sir Nick Partridge, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “We’ve implemented this new structure to help generate vital funds and provide a strengthened voice for our beneficiaries.”

Edwards said that the new department will enable the charity to treat supporters more holistically. “We know that people who support THT may also use our services, become members or campaigners, or see our health promotion campaigns, so it’s important that messages from THT make sense, whichever team they come from.

“This will really strengthen our voice and help align our messages, and we’re already seeing the benefits in how we work. We have a strong brand, but in this economic climate we’re going to have to be crystal clear about why we need support.”

Fundraising and communications co-operation low across the sector

The news at Terrence Higgins Trust comes ahead of a report, due out in June, which finds that just 14 per cent of fundraising and communication professionals felt that their departments worked towards common goals.

The survey of more than 100 professionals by CharityComms and Forster found that communications rarely took fundraising into account when developing their messages. Only a quarter of respondents felt that the brand was flexible enough to support their charity’s fundraising.