Heather Alner is the senior Resource Development Director for Europe and the Middle East at Habitat for Humanity International responsible for the overall success of Habitat’s fundraising activities in dozens of countries throughout Europe, and the Middle East. Heather develops and executes on strategies for growth which sees revenue of $50m+ a year, with personal fundraising goals of $12m – from companies and individuals. She is also a board director for Habitat for Humanity Netherlands and Habitat Great Britain where she supports their own fundraising goals and strategy. Heather started with Habitat in 2008 as a Donor Care officer in the Resource Development team, moving her way up to this current position.
Prior to this, Heather worked in the corporate sector as the Chief Financial Officer for DHL Slovakia as well as an internal trainer across DHL EMEA for ‘Finance for Non-Finance Leaders’. Previous to this, Heather worked in the non-profit sector for various charities across Europe, always in the fundraising team. She was also a fundraising trainer across Central and Eastern Europe, working on contracts and/or invited to speak at conferences.
Heather graduated BA (Hons) Geography 2.1 & Dissertation 1st from the department of Geography, Newcastle university, England. Her dissertation was entitled ‘The establishment, effectiveness and sustainability of pit latrines in Plateau State, Nigeria – evaluating the success of communication in health education programmes.’ The research section of the dissertation was undertaken whilst living in rural villages on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria over a period of two years as part of the Newcastle/Jos University Expedition to Nigeria in 1991 and 1992. All costs for the 2 expeditions were raised through sponsorship.
After graduating from university, Heather worked as an English teacher at a secondary school in Bratislava, Slovakia and then volunteered in Nigeria at a leprosy centre supporting the development of health education. Heather took a year off before university where she volunteered at the Israeli ambulance service in Jerusalem.