Coastguard Taranaki Receives Award for Outstanding Fundraising Efforts

Coastguard Taranaki was honoured at the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand (FINZ) Awards on Friday for their phenomenal efforts in fundraising for a new vessel.

The Unit received ‘The Kiwibank Major Gifts and Capital Campaigns Fundraising Award for Excellence’ in recognition of their work for the ‘Keep the ‘Naki Coast Safe’ – a campaign which saw the Unit working to raise $1.2 million for a new rescue vessel after years of planning and campaigning.

Recognising the work of not-for-profit and charitable organisations from around the country, FINZ annually presents 12 awards in honour of a variety of outstanding fundraising initiatives.

Efforts to raise funds for the new vessel began in 2009 when applications for grants from local businesses and trusts were unsuccessful. Not deterred, the Unit President Graham Cowling recruited local businessman and keen boatie, Colin Hunt and Coastguard Central Region Fundraiser, Dominique Leeming, to lead the fundraising campaign to success.

Fundraising institute of New Zealand CEO James Austin says the outstanding result Coastguard Taranaki achieved using a carefully crafted plan made them worthy recipients of the award.

“The implementation of Coastguard Taranaki’s strategy made very good use of local identities to build relationships with key potential donors and make the ‘ask’, and the cause itself was so effectively promoted that the whole community took it to heart.

“With a capital campaign that focussed on trusts, corporate and individuals, the team from Coastguard Taranaki were deserving winners of this award.”

Coastguard Taranaki Fundraising Coordinator, Colin Hunt, says while overwhelming support from the local community was critical, the real success of the campaign came down to the solid team effort of everyone involved.

“Achieving the end result can be directly attributed to Dominique’s help and the support of the other volunteers in the Unit. We approached almost every local business for support and even though we got turned away a fair bit, we knew it was important to persevere until we got to this end point.

“We are thrilled to have reached our fundraising goal and receiving recognition from FINZ is just icing on the cake.”

The new vessel which will be named Todd Energy Rescue is likely to be operational by early October this year and will replace their current vessel, Westgate Rescue, which is 38 years old.

The Coastguard Taranaki Unit is home to 38 volunteers who dedicated over 5394 hours of their time from July 2011 to March 2012 alone, to fulfil Coastguard’s community promise of saving lives at sea.

ENDS

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