Sam's first foray into fundraising came whilst a final year undergraduate at Warwick as a caller for their first-ever telephone campaign in 1997. Following graduation, she spent two years managing telephone campaigns at 22 institutions (universities and schools) as a consultant. She then returned to Warwick full-time to run their campaigns and later became responsible for all other annual giving activities (direct mail, legacies, e-fundraising and stewardship). Before she left Warwick, she also took on responsibility for development services and helped introduce a leadership giving circle for the university.

Since 2008, Sam has led philanthropy and alumni engagement at the University of Brighton, having arrived tasked with establishing a sustainable development operation from scratch and embedding a culture of philanthropy amongst the alumni community. Her recruitment coincided with the start of the government's matched funding initiative which provided an excellent springboard from which to push forwards the fundraising and alumni engagement agenda. The department has enjoyed significant success on a number of fronts since its establishment almost 9 years ago, including receiving a national award from CASE in June 2011 for fundraising progress and building an alumni community from 20,000 to now 150,000 globally.