Pip: WEST Alumni Blog — where the people who studied here come back to tell you it all about their journey since graduating from the University.
Mara: This episode comes from the UWS alumni blog, and we’re spending our time with one story: a UWS graduate who went into the third sector, built a career around funding meaningful work, and has now returned to the university itself.
Pip: Let’s start with David McFadden — the career, the cause, and what it actually means to come full circle.
—
Alumni Interview: David McFadden
Mara: David McFadden graduated from UWS in 2011 with a degree in Business Studies and International Marketing, spent over a decade fundraising for charities with deep personal ties to him, and has just joined UWS as Trusts and Foundations Manager — the role that connects the university with external funders.
Pip: He’s candid about how he got there. The post quotes him directly on his path after graduating: “I kind of fell into the third sector through an internship at Cancer Support Scotland — and I absolutely loved it.”
Mara: That internship led to fundraising and communications roles at Erskine Veterans Charity and then ACCORD Hospice in Paisley. What runs through all of it, he says, is that he’s always worked for organisations with a personal connection — places that supported his family, friends, or community.
Pip: And UWS fits that pattern exactly. He grew up in Erskine, chose UWS because it felt accessible and grounded, and describes the return as coming full circle — which is either deeply meaningful or the universe’s tidiest plot device.
Mara: Probably both. One project he highlights from his hospice work stands out for its scale of impact: securing sustained, multi-year funding for the ACCORD at Home service, which allowed people to receive end-of-life care at home. He calls it “something that could continue and make a lasting difference.”
Pip: That framing — long-term relationships over one-off grants — is central to how he describes the whole field shifting. Philanthropy in higher education, he argues, is moving away from transactional funding toward genuine partnership, with funders wanting to understand impact and stay connected to the work.
Mara: At UWS specifically, he points to the WEST Scholarship Fund as an example of what that support makes possible — funding that, in his words, “can genuinely change someone’s path.” It’s not just financial; it’s about opening doors for students who might otherwise struggle to access or continue their studies.
Pip: He’s also clear that alumni involvement doesn’t have to mean writing a cheque. Mentoring, attending events, sharing experiences — he sees all of it as genuinely valuable.
Mara: And his advice to graduates considering fundraising is the same thing he’d tell his younger self: don’t have it all figured out, stay open, and trust that things fall into place.
Pip: A career built on personal connection, funding work that matters, and ending up back where it started — there’s a throughline there worth holding onto.
Mara: More stories like this one ahead in the next episode.