testimonials
“ I would thoroughly recommend Emma’s services to anyone who wants to increase their advocacy skills and secure wins from policy makers”
Having attended a training session with Emma some years back I knew that she would be the perfect fit for our team’s training needs. Emma has a huge amount of experience in the political arena and knows exactly how difficult it can be to secure advocacy wins amongst the rough and tumble of politics. Through a mixture of theory and role play the team were able to put into practice influencing techniques with some very life like mock MPs and Ministers! I would thoroughly recommend Emma’s services to anyone who wants to increase their advocacy skills and secure wins from policy makers.
“Hugely knowledgable”
Emma really helped me to think through some medium and longer-term goals and to set concrete tasks to work on immediately. I was particularly keen to learn from her political communications and media expertise as she is hugely knowledgeable in these areas.
“Emma has been an absolute delight to have as part of the team at Climate 2025 and I look forward to our continued collaboration!”
Emma has been working with us as a consultant to deliver Theory of change workshops and coaching support to climate movement organisations globally. Her wealth of experience has proved invaluable to the movement organisations. She’s very professional, collaborative and amiable. Emma seeks to understand why each movement is doing what they do, how they function as a team and what their objectives are and also goes the extra mile to research the context around their works. More importantly, she pushes the movements to unleash their creative potential; how to think big and yet stay grounded in their existing realities. Emma has been an absolute delight to have as part of the team at Climate 2025 and I look forward to our continued collaboration!
“Emma brought creativity and energy to our campaign”
As well as bringing her professional campaigning and journalism skills, Emma brought creativity and energy to our campaign, slotted in immediately as part of the team, and responded flexibly as and when needed. We would definitely work with Emma again
“A truly fabulous facilitator!”
We were lucky enough to find Emma at very short notice to facilitate our Trustee Away Day. Her style and approach (tough when toughness was needed) along with her ability to summarise and articulate the key discussion and decision points - helped to keep everything on track and stopped us wandering away from the aims of our day! Her knowledge of the charity sector was also hugely beneficial.
Emma was an absolute pleasure to spend a working Saturday with and we would highly recommend her if you’re looking for a truly fabulous facilitator!
“Proactive and enthusiastic”
Emma has taken a proactive and enthusiastic approach to ensuring our messages are seen and understood by the right people. She is a pleasure to work alongside, and crucially, a critical friend when needed.
““She was a joy to work with.””
Emma brought a clarity, focus and practical advice to our communications strategy. She was a joy to work with and I’d recommend her to any charities looking to strengthen their approach to communications and campaigning.
“There aren’t many better than Emma.”
Emma was crucial in producing our Pamphlet, Marginal Holds, a story about the 2019 campaign in Leeds North West. She really understood how to give our work structure and a narrative focus as well as consistency of style and tone. If you are writing something you care about, I fully recommend choosing a good editor and there aren't many better than Emma.
“An excellent coach”
Working with Emma has exceeded my expectations – I engaged Emma help to me develop me my communications skills – preparing for media, pitching articles and improving my brand. However, she was also an excellent coach, offering useful insights for me into my career plans and coaching me through making some significant decisions in my life. Thank you!’
“I would recommend anyone seeking to ensure their policy messages are understandable and attractive to their intended audience work with Emma.”
Emma helped us at a vital stage of our report. She both edited and sense checked it, making sure that it was coherent and understandable. She also helped with the launch event and offered general project support and guidance. The report and our work to launch it were both greatly strengthened by her input and I would recommend anyone seeking to ensure their policy messages are understandable and attractive to their intended audience work with Emma.
“We would not hesitate to work with her again.”
“We commissioned Emma to help us develop joint messaging across the alliance. Emma is incredibly easy to work with, the right balance of collaborative and able to just get on with it. She brings good political knowledge and an understanding of the issues charities face. She is not fazed by difficulties and remains level-headed. She adapted to our changing feedback and delivered messages and a report that was useful and insightful. We would not hesitate to work with her again. Thanks Emma.”
“An excellent bespoke training programme”
Emma joined us to deliver an excellent bespoke training programme on influencing and relationship building. Using her previous experience in Westminster and beyond, Emma designed a series of helpful scenarios and exercises to put into practice the numerous influencing techniques we learnt. Each session, over the six month programme, was tailored to the mixture of experience and varying roles within the Campaigns and Policy department. We thoroughly enjoyed our time working with Emma and look forward to putting the training, and our individual personal influencing plans, into practice.
“Edited a fantastic edition of the Fabian Review”
Emma worked for the Fabian Society as interim editorial director during the summer of 2018. She edited a fantastic edition of the Fabian Review, after proposing an important and politically timely theme for the magazine. She used her extensive network to commission a diverse range of senior figures to write for us. She personally authored a good overview piece and interviewed a member of the Shadow Cabinet. Emma got to grips with the workload quickly, adapted flexibly when plans changed, delivered to deadline and got on well with colleagues at the Fabians.
“That extra flair that helped us stand out”
Emma worked with us on two key projects, launching the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice and New Skills At Work. She was central to ensuring that the human side of the economy and work was reflected in our communications both written and visual.
Emma is fun to work with, creative and patient in equal measure. She understands how organisations like ours work and asks all the right questions to ensure she can deliver what is needed.
Emma's work is of the highest standard, but also has that extra flair that helped us stand out.
“Emma... exceeded even the very high expectations we had. ”
Emma Burnell exceeded even the very high expectations we had. The publication project she managed for us was very complex. It involved coordinating with 21 different organisations, each with very different management structures, and many which were volunteer run. To deliver the project in the very short timescales available required high levels of organisation, efficiency and diligence but also diplomacy and good people skills. Emma was able to deliver on all fronts.
Emma was approachable and straightforward to work with. She was able to clearly communicate the options available and provided pragmatic solutions to complicated problems.
Emma delivered a publication which did everything we wanted it to do. It was delivered to budget and on time. I would be happy to commission Emma in future.
“Find[s] fresh angles that bring complex policy issues to life. ”
Emma is a creative writer and thinker who knows how to find fresh angles that bring complex policy issues to life. At NLGN, her editing helped to bring out individual voices without sacrificing a consistent tone across our reports and articles.