Profile: Why Cymba’s Rich Mullens is determined to leave a legacy

Every day, Cymba’s Product Director Rich Mullens is driven by one thing: leaving a legacy.

And, it’s a passion that comes from deep within.

“When I was a young teenager, my dad passed away, and that experience changed me,” Rich says.

“It really drove me to want to connect with people – it’s not just about living a life, it’s about leaving a legacy. My dad left an incredible legacy and impression on my life, and every day since then, whatever I did, whatever I do, I want to leave people feeling good about any interaction I have with them – and I want to help make the world a better place with every interaction.”

Positive communication and building relationships with people are fundamental to Rich’s every day, and as a young professional he was driven to put that approach to life to use by helping others.

After beginning working life as a graphic designer, and then using his communication and relationship-building skills professionally by training Yellow Pages sales teams, UK-born Rich – who spent his formative years living in Zimbabwe before moving back to the UK in his late teens – focused on using his skills to make a global impact.

“At Yellow Pages, we developed what we called the 21st Century Sales Method, which changed the paradigm of selling. It wasn’t about pushing features and benefits of a product or service, it was about connecting with people, building rapport, understanding their pain points and their needs.

“The biggest satisfaction for me was when people had that ‘aha!’ moment – when they realised that, actually, all they were doing was connecting with people.

“As human beings, we thrive on connection, and it’s one of the most wonderful experiences when you can connect with someone, build a rapport and develop the kind of relationship that leaves a lasting impression.”

Rich believed that approach could be key to helping charities raise significant amounts of donations – which, over the following decades, he’s done to tremendous effect.

Putting the connection into fundraising

After four and a half years at Yellow Pages, Rich decided it was time to put his connection skills to use in the fundraising sector – a decision that was validated in his own mind when travelling to an interview for what would turn out to be his first role in a sector in which he’s – so far – spent the rest of his career.

“The day I had my interview was the day of the London Tube bombings. I was on my way to the interview, and I got on the tube. It happened to be the wrong one. I was supposed to go to Edgware Road station and ended up going to Edgware. I literally got off the train, and a few seconds later, there was pandemonium. A bomb had gone off on the train just behind us.

“For me, seeing all of the chaos that unfolded, brought home to me that life is short – we've only got a short period of time to do what we were put on this earth to do. It inspired me to keep going, and it reaffirmed my decision that getting into the charity world and making a real difference was the right one to make.”

The company Rich joined trained face-to-face fundraisers – and he spent the next three years training people across the world, raising considerable sums of money in the process.

“I was going up and down the country, training thousands of fundraisers, teaching them fundraising communication methods, building rapport and connecting with potential supporters in shopping malls, on the doorstep and in the high street.



“Over the years, I’ve helped charities raise hundreds of millions of pounds through face-to-face fundraising, which is one of the most used methods of fundraising around the world to engage prospective supporters.”

A life dedicated to fundraising

Since that fateful day in 2005, Rich has helped charitable organisations across five continents fundraise – and his international tour of duty took in some familiar territory.

“A part of my role was to go and connect with some charities over in South Africa, bringing my expertise to some of the fundraising teams over there, working with UNICEF and Save the Children and supporting them in their programme.”

In 2012, Rich launched his own face-to-face fundraising agency, and it was shortly after that when he first came into contact with Cymba.

“I was running a fundraising agency, and we were pioneering text donations as one of our methods of donations,” he explains.

“It was in the early days of text donations, and I connected with Cymba, which developed the technology, and I fell in love with what the business was all about and the technology they had.



“Cymba was making it possible in such a smooth, frictionless way that added a whole new dimension to fundraising, and I thought, ‘one day I’d like to work with this company’.”

Connecting with Cymba

Returning to the UK after leading a fundraising agency in Australia and New Zealand, Rich reconnected with Cymba, and one conversation led to Rich joining the team in 2022; a promotion to Product Director late last year underlining the success of both the business and the impact Rich has made.

For Rich, mobile messaging and payments are continually evolving with new and innovative ways to engage and connect with supporters, and he sees huge potential to work with charities across the world to help them grow this important fundraising channel.

“The beautiful thing about SMS is that everyone has a mobile phone,” he says.

“We send more messages than we make phone calls, and messaging is another efficient and effective way of connecting with people. Even though messaging is more than two decades old, it’s evolved – we have WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple Business messenger and Rich Communication Services from Google, too – and it’s so easy, so convenient, that charities are increasingly embracing it as a way of getting a good return on investment of their marketing and fundraising spend.”

Away from work, Rich and his family, wife Lisa, and children Luke and Myah – now 18 and 14, respectively – enjoy taking walks around their Bedfordshire home, accompanied by their two dogs – Enzo and Murray. “It’s important to be out in the fresh air, and just take some time to connect with each other, ourselves and nature – particularly with the world as busy as it is,” he says.

However, you can’t stop Rich from devoting himself to helping others. As well as walking, playing the odd round of golf, and watching international rugby (England’s his team, in case you’re wondering!), Rich spends the rest of his free time running his own charity with his twin brother.

“He spent a lot more time living in Zimbabwe than I did, and he said one day, ‘You’ve been in the charity world for a while, and these people need help – what can we do?’.

“So, back in 2019, we started our charity Hope Works. It was originally called Hope for Africa, and we initially set it up with the goal of helping people who couldn't afford a meal. There were food shortages, people were dying, and people were struggling with their health. They couldn't get into hospitals. Young children couldn't get access to education, and people who didn't have an education are grown up now trying to support and feed their families without the skills they need.

“So we set up Hope Works to feed the hungry, provide health care grants, educate young children, and help adults reskill.

“We raised over $100,000 in the first year, and year two was incredible with nearly a quarter of a million dollars raised – all going to help people across Zimbabwe have hope for a better future.”

And that’s the type of legacy you can be truly proud of.