Dan believed passionately in the power of journalism to champion under-represented communities and causes, hold leaders to account and expose wrongdoing. An avid reader of Charles Dickens, he cared greatly about those with limited opportunities and devoted his life’s work to supporting people and organisations that sought to make a difference.

Daniel began his media career in 1987 with the magazine Assembly & Association, a title drawn from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provided a forum for representative and membership bodies throughout the not-for-profit sector. In 1988, in collaboration with what was then the Institute of Charity Fundraising Managers (now the Institute of Fundraising), Phelan founded Fundraising, the UK’s first-ever magazine for fundraisers. 

Until shortly before his death in 2015 he was a trustee of StepChange Debt Charity (formerly the Consumer Credit Counselling Service/CCCS), Britain’s largest debt counselling charity, and Alliance Publishing Trust which publishes Alliance, the leading magazine for philanthropy and social investment worldwide.