Stewart McCulloch will be leaving Stewardship at the end of this year to join our valued partner, Christians Against Poverty (CAP), as their new CEO.
He will take over from the start of 2024 from the charity’s interim CEO, Lisa Pearce, who will return to CAP’s board.
Over the last five years, Stewart has led Stewardship through a time of significant transformation; he has overseen the development of our charitable giving services in support of both generous Christians and our church and charity partners, including the creation of an award-winning philanthropy team. As a result, our annual gifts received have grown by 40% in this period and in 2022, £82.6m was granted to churches and charities, an increase of 14% year on year.
Stewart also led Stewardship through the purchase of Kingdom Bank in 2020 and the establishment of a rapid response fund that raised £4.8m in 100 days for 99 organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to joining us, Stewart led a major initiative for World Vision’s global microfinance lending operations to protect over a million of the world’s poorest farmers in Africa and Asia from the effect of climate shocks on their livelihoods.
Stewart joins CAP at a pivotal moment in its fight against UK poverty and debt; the charity’s recent report, ‘Taking on UK poverty’, revealed there has been a dramatic increase in household debt levels since the pandemic. CAP is currently engaged in a number of initiatives to develop the service provided to support local churches in tackling these impacts, as well as increasing their anti-poverty advocacy within local communities.
CAP’s Chair of Trustees, Roger Hattam, said: “We couldn’t be more delighted to be welcoming Stewart to our CAP family. It’s clear that Stewart’s Christian faith underpins all his work, and that he already has a deep understanding of CAP. Stewart’s wealth of experience across philanthropy, finance and organisational development will be an important asset to CAP as we start a busy year.”
Stewardship’s Chair of Trustees, Chris Gillies, said: “Stewardship and CAP have long enjoyed a close working partnership built on the natural synergies between us as two of the larger UK charities engaged in faith and finance. We look forward to strengthening that relationship further as Stewart joins CAP as CEO.
We also pay tribute to the incredible job Stewart has done at Stewardship; during his tenure, we have reached a position of sustainable, profitable growth, built a brilliant and highly motivated team, and developed an exciting new strategy to launch in 2024. We are so grateful for his exemplary leadership at Stewardship and wish him every success as CEO of CAP.”
Stewart McCulloch said: “It’s an exciting and crucial time to be joining CAP, given the alarming increase in poverty and debt affecting families across our nation since the pandemic. I join CAP excited that projects are already underway to scale and deliver new services to those most in need and realise ambitions to increase advocacy and church engagement programmes. I am looking forward to working with the senior leadership team on shaping and delivering CAP’s organisational priorities, and advancing CAP’s vision for a society where thriving churches are equipped to free those trapped by debt or poverty and so transform lives.
The last five years at Stewardship have been the highlight of my career so far and the strong partnership we’ve formed with CAP is a particular high point in that period."
We are so grateful for Stewart’s exemplary leadership at Stewardship and wish him every success as CEO of CAP.
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Image: Stewart McCulloch Copyright: Stewardship
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Ruth Jackson
Ruth is leading the PR and Communications for Stewardship. She joined Stewardship in April 2022.
She has over 25 years’ marketing communications experience across a range of sectors, including higher education, technology and the arts, both business- and customer-facing.
Ruth worships at C3 Church in Cambridge, where she lives with her husband and two teenage daughters. When she’s not at her desk, you might find her rowing on the River Cam, in a ballet class or out for a walk.
She supports causes that are focused on alleviating global poverty and injustice, with a particular interest in supporting vulnerable children.
