Catherine Large specialises in fundraising and strategic business development for the cultural sector. She led Battersea Arts Centre out of a period of severe funding crisis, initiating its first fundraising strategy. Within a year, she had delivered a comprehensive and ambitious plan, fundraising from a range of corporate, statutory, individual and trust sources. This involved the establishment of a development department, the creation of a successful Friends scheme, and the setting up of a Development Board - all of which, critically, achieved the fundraising target in full.

Catherine is currently the Head of Development at Booktrust and handles all new partnership work for the organisation. She has worked on development plans for a wide range of projects, including the Children’s Laureate (now sponsored by Ottakar’s and supported by the DCMS), the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for Literature (now sponsored by City Inn), the Booktrust Teenage Prize (now supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation), the Story campaign (now supported by Arts Council England), and National Children’s Book Week (now sponsored by Crayola).

Catherine also led the Get London Reading campaign on behalf of Booktrust for the Mayor of London's Office. She is currently working on an online advocacy pack for the literature sector, commissioned by the National Association for Literature Development, and is writing a new five-year business plan for Booktrust.

Catherine began her career in the arts in marketing and PR, running promotional campaigns for a number of different festivals and projects, including an innovative six-month audience development project for BAC focusing on families, as part of the Arts Council’s Family Friendly pilot scheme in London. Catherine is also on the board of the live literature organisation Apples and Snakes and was a founder-board member of Context Theatre. She continues this commitment to Metis Arts.