Nicola Johnson

Spear’s Review

Nicola Johnson is chief customer officer at Stewardship, a philanthropy advisory firm with a Christian ethos.

An innovative and collaborative thinker and leader, Johnson has publicly called for greater use of vehicles such as donor advised funds, a wrapper for individual giving with less of an administrative burden than a trust or foundation, and which simplifies the process of supporting good causes. She seeks to guide philanthropists with ‘expertise and authenticity’.

Johnson is a member of Philanthropy Impact, an organisation dedicated to making giving more effective. She was a recent speaker at Spear's 500 Live 2025, where she appeared on a panel alongside other leading philanthropy advisers.

Adviser Profile

Nicola has led Stewardship’s major donor activities since 2010 and oversees over £200 million in charitable funds each year, on behalf of more than 950 clients. Under her leadership the team won ‘Best Philanthropy Initiative or Offering’ in the Wealth For Good Awards 2023 and ‘Philanthropy Team of the Year’ in STEP’s Private Client Awards in 2020.

Together with her team, she seeks to serve generous philanthropists with expertise and authenticity, to enable them to release funds to the causes they are passionate about in the most effective way possible.

Nicola is on Stewardship’s Senior Executive Team, is a Philanthropy Impact member and is a trained facilitator of Generous Giving’s ‘Journey of Generosity’ retreat.