Press Release

Charity Technology Trust appoints new CEO - 16th September 2004

Charity Technology Trust (CTT) has appointed Cable & Wireless product management boss William Hoyle as its new chief executive.

William Hoyle has spent 26 years in the financial services and information technology sectors. He replaces CTT’s founder Peter Sweatman, who formed the registered charity in 2001 to improve the efficiency of other charities by using new technologies and the internet. Sweatman is moving to Spain to become client director for Southern Europe at Climate Change Capital (www.c-c-capital.com).

Over the last three years, CTT has developed a range of innovative services for charities, including email marketing tools, payment processing and lotteries and raffle services.  CTT also advises charities that want to improve the way they harness the power of the web.  CTT has over 50 charity clients, including Age Concern, the Royal British Legion, Macmillan Cancer Relief and WDCS.

CTT has also appointed Sue Fidler as director and chief technology officer. Sue was previously responsible for IT and database management at Wateraid, overseeing the development of its widely acclaimed web presence.

Peter Wheeler, chairman of CTT’s board of trustees and the Government’s recently launched Futurebuilders initiative, said: “I’m delighted that Peter’s original innovative vision for CTT has developed to the point where we can confidently make these appointments to position CTT for further innovation and growth.”

A recent Voluntary Sector IT Survey conducted by the Charity Finance Directors Group  showed that although around 90 per cent of charities now have a web site, relatively few are using it for anything other than information sharing.  This is despite forecasts that online giving could rise to 15 per cent of all donations by 2008.  In addition, a large number of charities still favour traditional direct mail, even though CTT estimates that the cost of email can be around one to four pence per send, versus 40 to 50 pence per send if the same item was sent through the post.  To date, CTT has sent nearly three million email messages on behalf of charity clients. It estimates that charities are overpaying millions of pounds each year on unnecessary bank and third-party processor charges.  CTT’s low-cost, fast and efficient new payment services, CP Web and CP Terminal, are designed to reduce charities’ payment processing costs.

For further information, interviews and photography please contact:
Alex Upham or Sara Tye at redheadPR on 0870 240 5536 or 07734 906 957 or alex@redheadpr.co.uk

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Notes to editors

Charity Technology Trust (www.ctt.org) is a registered UK charity (number 1073954) formed in 2001. It is the only UK registered charity devoted to improving charity efficiency using new technology.

To date CTT has sent 3 million emails on behalf of nearly 50 top UK charities.  In addition, CTT has raised £150,000 from online raffles for 29 charities.   CTT’s new payment service CP Terminal has already processed over £1m of charitable donations. Since launch CTT have worked on 6 separate large-scale e-Communications and IT advisory projects for top 50 UK charities.   In addition to Peter Wheeler, CTT’s trustees include:

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