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My History...Liking an interaction with people, I found satisfaction in a sales career working with the likes of Mobil, Xerox and IBM. I also had experience in social welfare working as a District Officer in the then Department of Native Welfare in Western Australia. It was not until we settled in Wodonga (my wife, Margaret, and four children and, now, eight grandchildren) that I was able to bring the two strands of welfare interests and marketing ability together. In Wodonga, while earning a living in various sales activities, I headed a refugee resettlement group which was then among the most successful in Australia and a model for others and became involved in other community issues including, through my children, schooling. My first contact with professional fundraising was a building appeal at Catholic College Wodonga, of which I was then Chairman of the Advisory Board. The Uniting Church Stewardship Promotion Agency directed that Appeal and I joined them as a Director of Parish Planned Giving programs in 1981. In 1983, I moved to Compton Associates and the world of capital fundraising. By 1987 it was time to move into an independent position and, through Keith Martin & Associates Pty Ltd, I have been directing capital appeals and Catholic parish programs across Australia ever since with a great deal of success and personal satisfaction. My client, the Cohuna District Hospital, won the Fundraising Institute-Australia Award for Excellence at the National Convention in March 1996 for a $500,000 appeal which passed $900,000. Marvelous for a town of under 2000*1 residents! I am rather proud to be able to say that I have personally directed appeals every year since 1981. This is a record of experience and achievement few can match. In almost twenty-seven years of active fundraising, I have worked with over 100 clients and raised more than fifty million dollars :Capital appeals; corporate and trust submissions; bequests ; direct mail; community fundraising and parish programs. Capital cities; regional and small town appeals. Consultancy and on-site management. My vocation as a fundraising consultant has taken me to over a hundred towns and cities across Australia. From Broome to Burnie to Brisbane; Sydney to Sale to South Hedland; Melbourne to Meekatharra to Myrtleford; Port Hedland, Port Pirie and Pennant Hills; Kununurra, Kyabram and Kerang, Auckland to Dunedin … and a host of other cities and towns beyond and between. I haven't been everywhere yet - but I do know Australia and New Zealand better than many and I certainly know fundraising better than most! I am always interested in people's backgrounds because I believe that you do not know a person until you know what shaped them. Fundraisers come from many backgrounds. It is only in recent times that a specific educational path is emerging for those who see fundraising as a career path or an important step on the way. When I look at fellow Capital fundraisers I see some who have come out of welfare but many from public relations or advertising or the armed services. I, alas, come from different stock :a top salesman but a drop-out from the white shirted, buttoned down world of IBM; one who prefers action to paperwork; one who works to a deadline not by the clock. If you are looking for a practical, experienced, "hands-on" fundraiser, do give me a call. *1
2006 Population Statistics, Victorian Department of Primary Industries |
