Liam Butler interviews Kate Russell

Liam Butler interviews Kate Russell Chief Executive Canterbury Medical Research Foundation

23 January 2015

Kate Russell is a fellow of The Fundraising Institute of New Zealand (FINZ), chair of the FINZ Ethics Committee and past FINZ board member. Kate is chair of Pharmac's Consumer Advisory Committee, a board member of Pacific Pathways and aPaediatric Society Advisory committee member. Kate has held positions in many organisations across the not-for-profit sector over the past 17 years and is a sponsorship and special events specialist.

Question One

Kate as CEO of Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, you lead an organisation that has funded nearly $20 million to health research in the Canterbury area. How do you inform your stakeholders of the progress and outcomes of your research?

When I started in April 2014, it became clear to me that the Foundation had been ‘hiding its light under a bushel" for some time. Whilst its core donor database and key research partners knew what it was doing and the great research outcomes it was responsible for, the broader Canterbury community were quite unaware of, not only the existence of the Foundation but also the amazing work being done in Medical Research here in our region. So I've spent a lot of time over the past few months beefing up our communication pathways to ensure that our name and our work is ‘out there' for all to see. We are currently reworking our website into a highly interactive and interesting space to visit, alongside this we will soon be launching our new Facebook Page, and Linked In page as vehicles for getting the latest news out there. We've got a great newsletter that goes out to key supporters and stakeholders and anyone can contact us and get onto our mailing list. The newsletter contains some great article about the research we fund; from cancer research, to cystic fibrosis and of course our own NZ Brain research Institute, which also has its own website and newsletter "The Stimulus".

We hold regular talks on our work at various service clubs and groups like U3A through Canterbury. I regularly go to speak at these groups and take with me, our research personnel to give a glimpse into our work. Our work at the Brain Research Instiitute seems to be of greatest interest to those of us in the 50 plus bracket! Our work focuses on the effects of Parkinson's, Stroke, MS, Alzheimers and Dementia which become an increasing possibility with age.

As we are about to launch our new logo and brand next month, Cantabrians will see a lot of advertising about the Foundation, that hopefully will get the message out there about how to support us and how important it is to keep funding medical research here and also how vital it is that we support our young, emerging researchers, to keep their intellectual capital in our region.

Question Two

As chair of the Fundraising institute of New Zealand's ethics committee what are some of the ways fundraisers can ensure they are allowing older people to financially contribute to causes whilst not feeling obliged to?

Fundraising is a highly professionalised business nowadays. Combine that with a very crowded charity market in New Zealand and it seems that every day almost, there is another good cause waving a bucket under our noses and asking us to give! I have always believed that our best donors result from genuine caring and engagement; taking the time to get to know them and what they want to support, thanking them sincerely for every gift, large or small and providing lots of opportunities for them to find out what their donation is actually paying for. We spend the time necessary to meet with and get to know our donors on a very personal basis. I feel it's the least we can do as potential donors have so much choice nowadays about what and who they support. If I were to offer any advice to donors looking for great causes to support I would say these things;

1. Be cautious about who you give your money to. Ask questions, look at Annual Reports and financial statements. You want to give to a charity that only expends what is absolutely necessary in administration.

2. Be wary of scammers. These come in many forms, but most commonly in the form of telemarketing. There are some genuine charity telemarketers out there BUT, be very careful who you give a donation to, over the phone. Ask how much the telemarketing firm is getting in commission. With some firms the phone company can be getting as much as 75c in the dollar, leaving only 25c going to the charity. If in doubt, ask them to send you some information by mail. If they can't , chances are there is something suspicious there.

3. Be engaged with your chosen charity - take an interest in what they are doing with your money.; read their newsletters etc.

4. You can choose how many times you are mailing to each year. If you are happy with the charity mailing to you several times a year, that's great. But if you do your charitable giving once a year and only want to receive one lot of mail, let the charity know.

Question Three:

Kate, you hold the respected position as a fellow of The Fundraising Institute of New Zealand (FINZ). Are you keen to buy a carton of Girl Guide Biscuits from Holly and Paige Butler?

Absolutely, what comes around goes around. They also make fantastic cheesecake bases!

ENDS

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