About Jill Ritchie
A born entrepreneur, I started my first business at the age of 18 while also studying. By 28, I had created jobs for 120 people in a factory with seven retail outlets. However, I was spending more time doing voluntary rather than paid work. I then entered the non-profit sector part time while also writing and started my own fundraising consultancy and book publishing business, which I have run for over three decades, with offices in the UK and South Africa. I have had over 100 magazine articles published and have edited seven books and written 29. Writing and editing remain my first love.
I am a mother, grandmother, vegetarian, butterfly lover and writer with more book ideas than I am likely to live to see in print. I have raised over ZAR2 billion for southern African non-profit organisations. I focus on the area that I know best: raising money from the UK for universities and non-profits globally. I also advise on self-published books and offer editing/proofreading services.
Despite my world of work having been in the not-for-profit sector for over thirty years, I have never let up on my voluntary commitments. For instance, I was active in humanitarian aspects of the anti-apartheid movement – caring for family members of Robben Island prisoners. Together with the late Father Basil van Rensburg, in the 1980s and early 1990s, I drove initiatives to enable South Africans – black and white – to meet – not has master and servant/employer and employee – but as people, as South Africans – to overcome fear and mistrust – to change hearts and minds – in preparation on the ground – for the end of the evil of apartheid. Aside from serving on non-profit boards, I continue to give of my time voluntarily for causes close to my heart.
I am an active trainer and public speaker (having attained the highest level within Toastmasters International).
I am an ‘ideas person’, regularly overwhelming my team with innovative concepts that they are required to assist in implementing. I was a social entrepreneur before the term was coined. My philosophy in my career has always been: ‘doing business while doing good.’ My passions are travel (have been to over 40 countries and counting), reading and history, with a special interest in the Second World War.