Educational Fundraising within Schools and Universities | Execucare

Execucare Presents...

Holly Palmer, St Cuthbert's School - Rebuilding a philanthropic team and culture from a low base within a school context

Holly is the Director of Development at St Cuthbert’s College in Auckland, New Zealand. She began her education fundraising career nearly a decade ago at the University of Auckland and later led the University of Nottingham’s campaign management and strategic planning function before starting her own agency in the United Kingdom specialising in communications strategy and alumni research. As a consultant, Holly delivered qualitative and quantitative alumni and supporter research studies for colleges and universities including Balliol College (the University of Oxford), Birkbeck (University of London), University College Dublin and University College Cork. Holly is a relationship fundraiser whose mission is to challenge conventional thinking in the development sector in response to audience needs. She is an enthusiastic and experienced conference speaker and panellist who has presented workshops on delivering effective donor stewardship, conducting meaningful audience research, measuring alumni engagement, and overcoming cultural and structural barriers to achieve great fundraising outcomes for education.

Tony Bretherton, AskRIGHT - The basic components that a fundraising programme would have within a school / university context

Tony Bretherton is a Senior Consultant with AskRIGHT, based in Fremantle, WA. He has developed successful fundraising strategies and has led major campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and England for nearly three decades.

Tony has been Director of Development and Community Relations at Xavier College, Melbourne and Director of Community Relations at Geelong Grammar School where he led the school to a campaign result of $31 million.

In prior appointments, Tony led fundraising at the 1,100-year-old Wells Cathedral School, England, the University of Limerick, Ireland, and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Tony has also undertaken fundraising for social services at Presbyterian Support Services (Waikato, NZ).

Tony is a member of the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand, a Fellow of Educate Plus, is a former member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Commission on Philanthropy, and has twice won Educate Plus awards for large capital fundraising campaigns.

Beyond fundraising, Tony has worked for the BBC in London and has produced and presented his own nation-wide current affairs program on National Radio in New Zealand for 12 years, receiving the NZ Mobile Radio Award for best religious program (1993). Tony is interested in photography and film making, for which he has also received several awards, and was a volunteer firefighter for 11 years. He also claims experience on the high trapeze.

Shelagh Murray, Development and Alumni Relations Office - University of Otago - Storytelling and progress being made fundraising from last year to this in the university context

Shelagh Murray was appointed as Director of the University of Otago’s Development and Alumni Relations in February 2018.

She has extensive experience facilitating and managing higher education fundraising and alumni relations and is excited to work at such an outstanding institution doing her part to build on its existing culture of philanthropy and alumni engagement.

Shelagh amassed extensive experience in developing and implementing successful fundraising and alumni relations strategies at the University of Canterbury (10 years) and at Victoria University of Wellington (5 years) where she held leadership roles.

In 2016 and 2017 she was a senior consultant at Australasian and New Zealand fundraising consultancy AskRIGHT, which works with non-profit organisations, including many cultural organisations, schools and universities in Australia and New Zealand, to optimise their fundraising, sponsorship and donor engagement strategies, planning and programmes.

Moderator: Sarah Woodhams
Director, New Zealand - Execucare

Sarah began her early career practicing as a lawyer before moving into executive recruitment at Sheffield Consulting Group. She has worked for a variety of professional service firms in both Auckland and London. In recent years she established herself as a fundraiser, first at Starship Foundation and then at St Cuthbert’s College, where she was the Head of Development. Sarah has a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Auckland.