Sarah Doherty, New Zealand Manager
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 How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
I met Jo Garner at the 2015 Philanthropy New Zealand conference. We happened to be sitting beside each other at the Pōwhiri, the formal Māori opening. It was Jo’s first experience of pōwhiri so I quietly explained what was happening and the meaning behind the rituals. Over the years we met up occasionally and then reconnected early in 2017 at a sector conference. I was looking for a change from working in government and Jo was looking for a leader for NZ and the rest is as they say, history!
What do you love most about your job?
Supporting organisations to activate their mission. Smart grant-seeking strategies enable groups to resource their projects and plans and make the difference they are passionate about. Plus I love meeting people and I get to do a whole lot of that in this role!
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
I come from a large and vibrant family. My favourite thing at the moment is working with my uncle to collect family and clan stories, and record them digitally for our future generations.
I’m multi-passionate and I love knitting, picnics, 4WDing and stormy beaches. Those come slightly behind my dearly beloved John and our two grown sons Mitch and Finn.
I’m with Jo in that I also love a party…
Favourite quote
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” - C G Jung
Credentials and experience
BA in Psychology and Education
iap2 - International Association for Public Participation facilitator training
I have over thirty years’ experience volunteering and working in the community sector – it’s pretty much who I am and what I do. Strategic planning and governance are my areas of passion.
For a little over four years I worked at DIA Charities Services, in the Capability and Engagement team, leading the capacity building for the new financial reporting requirements. Speaking with and meeting with literally thousands of people including community groups, funders and government policy makers, has given me deep insight into the realities faced by the community sector across Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Jo Garner, Director Strategic Grants
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
After stumbling into fundraising in 1994, following completion of a Commerce degree in Marketing and IT, and working two years in hospitality marketing and events, I knew I had found the profession for me! After leaving a fulltime fundraising job with the Mater Foundation in Brisbane to take maternity leave, grant-writing consulting opportunities were presented.
Very quickly I realised that there is far more involved in grants success than just writing an application. In 2009, Strategic Grants was born. I am so proud of the team of equally passionate and exceptionally well qualified people that work together with me to enable nonprofit capacity building and grants success across Australia and New Zealand.
What do you love most about your job?
What can be more inspiring and motivating than having the privilege of working with hundreds of nonprofits, helping them build their capacity and seeing them deliver vital projects to achieve their mission? Whether it be saving the lives of animals, babies, children, or adults, saving our environment or enabling participation in and appreciation of the Arts or sports, for me, going to work every day is both challenging and rewarding. But most importantly, it’s great fun. I feel so lucky, too, that I love my job!
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Nothing is more important to me in this world than my amazing children, Benjamin and Lucy. They inspire me to be the best person and mother that I can be. Spending time with them, other family and my treasured friends, are my favourite things. I LOVE the ocean. Nothing soothes my soul more than being on, in or by the sea.
It has also been said that I love to party. That may be true…
Favourite quote?
"Live life to the fullest!"
Credentials and experience
BComm (Marketing & IT), CFRE, FFIA.
Jo has also recently taken on the position as Australian and New Zealand Ambassador for the IFC (International Fundraising Congress). Check out Jo’s take on IFC here.
If you have any enquiries about IFC get in touch with Jo atjo@strategicgrants.com.au
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Bianca Williams, Grants Strategist, Queensland
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 How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
I have committed the past 13 years of my career working in the not for profit sector through various marketing, fundraising, business development, event management and grant writing roles. Together with a passion for community and my professional experience, I am dedicated to delivering an extraordinary service for Strategic Grants clients.
What do you love most about your job?
Working alongside the nonprofit sector provides insight into the impactful and genuinely charitable initiatives within our community. Contributing to organisations' capacity to deliver these initiatives through funding opportunities is incredibly rewarding, and continues to be my motivation. Being witness to the passion, integrity and dedication of individuals in the sector is truly inspiring.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Both family and travel play an important role in my life...and if I can mix the two, all the better! Being a mother is a true privilege, of which I love every single moment. Together with my partner, we ride the rollercoaster of parenthood with a high pitched scream of delight!
Travel has been a part of my life since I donned the backpack at age 19 and ventured overseas. Personally, the experience of arriving to a country where every sense is activated, you're engulfed in a language you don’t understand and your concept of culture is totally revamped....is my idea of a phenomenal holiday.
Favourite quote?
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world” - Mahatma Gandhi
Credentials and experience
With a Marketing Degree under my belt, I have had the extraordinary experience of working with a number of charities over the years; including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, MS Queensland, the Mater Foundation, Camp Quality, Youth Enterprise Trust and the Australian Red Cross.
The experience of working in state-based, national and international charitable organisations has provided me with valuable knowledge in how to identify funding opportunities and package project details accordingly to ensure the best possible chance of success.
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Charlotte Francis, Grants Strategist, Victoria
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
As a freelance writer and grant-writer I had been in touch with Jo, Director of Strategic Grants, two years previously offering my services for any overflow work, but somehow we kept missing each other and didn’t manage to meet up. When we finally met in Melbourne in May 2015, I was looking to move away from freelancing into a role that offered variety, interest and new challenges with greater opportunities for connection within the sector. At the same Jo was looking for a Victorian client manager.
What do you love most about your job?
I really enjoy the variety of working with lots of different charities, learning about their programs and the many creative approaches they are taking to improving the welfare of our community and environment. I get immense satisfaction from supporting, coaching and mentoring fundraisers through the grant-seeking process and helping them achieve positive outcomes. I love building a relationship with my clients and going on a journey with them through the highs, lows, challenges and successes.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Two of my favourite pastimes are being in nature and reading and, weather permitting, sometimes I get to indulge in both at the same time! I live in the Bayside area of Melbourne and walk my beloved dog Bertie every morning, often on the beach. In summertime, I take my book to the beach and while away the hours. I also love the arts more broadly and enjoy all that Melbourne has to offer from writers’ festivals and literary events to theatre, cinema (especially foreign language films) concerts and opera. As a member of a small community choir, I get to sing a bit too, a perfect antidote to writing and brain work. We give informal performances in a variety of settings from aged care facilities to shopping malls.
Favourite quote?
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” - Oscar Wilde
Credentials and experience
With a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages, I started my career in London in international publishing, selling co-editions, licenses and reprints to US and European publishers. I moved into the not-for-profit sector in 1997 and completed the ICFM Foundation in Fundraising I and II. Based in Oxford, I was Fundraising Manager at the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust and looked after a broadly based program including events, corporate sponsorship, appeals, trusts and foundations. Before migrating to Australia in 2004, I worked at Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity, with Sir Jonathon Porritt, British environmentalist and writer.
I migrated to Australia (Melbourne) in 2004 and worked for Plan where I set up a new bequest program and significantly increased their income from major donor and trust and foundation activities. Before joining the team at Strategic Grants I worked freelance combining grant-writing and copywriting for charities and not-for-profit organisations with feature writing for magazines and newspapers. I have worked with charities including Save the Children, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Sacred Heart Mission, Earthwatch, Bush Heritage Australia, Benetas, Cool Australia, Calvary Silver Circle and Melbourne City Mission.
Read Charlotte's Blog Posts
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Patrick Murray, State Manager NSW, ACT, WA
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
I've worked in the not for profit industry at a local, national and international level across several sectors. When Strategic Grants wandered into my life, it began with an invigorating conversation with Jo while I was in Bali, overlooking the rice paddies of Ubud. I saw the opportunity to combine my love of problem-solving and capacity building with an incredible group of like-minded professionals and couldn't say no!
What do you love most about your job?
The opportunity to help nonprofits make the most of their opportunities. Having worked within the sector and experienced first hand the challenges of obtaining and acquitting grants I understand how difficult it can be to track them down and make magic happen. It’s so important to have the right tools in terms of the best-practice processes, strategies and skills required to succeed. Being able to build capacity across the sector every day and make a difference to so many organisations is incredibly rewarding.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Spending time with my family heads the list, and I especially love travelling the world with my lovely wife Julia and challenging my 91-year old card sharp grandmother to a game of euchre or 500! I also enjoy AFL and rugby, particularly my Swans and Waratahs, as well as reading, theatre, tinkering around the house, and living close to the beach.
Favourite quote?
I really wanted ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’, but it was taken. So instead I turn to Lao Tzu, ‘The journey of a thousand miles begin with one step’.
Credentials and experience
I hold a Master of Community and Not-For-Profit Management from the University of Technology. My original qualifications were in Business (Marketing and International Business) and after a brief foray into marketing and market research, I established that work with purpose was what excited me. I jumped in through volunteering and an internship, and found a lifelong home in the sector. I have worked in volunteer management, program management and projects with organisations focused on everything from ageing to disadvantaged children, disability, education and international development.
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Andrew Thompson, GEMS Manager
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
I had been looking for a new opportunity and my next adventure, specifically around the not for profit sector and when I noticed the job ad, I thought “Wow! That job is me” !
When I checked out the Strategic Grants web site, what they do, how they operate and The Team, it got all the ticks and looked like a great organisation to work in … and it is !
What do you love most about your job?
I enjoy assisting people through the clever use of information technology, to enhance their situation. GEM Portal and GEM Local are excellent tools for grant seekers to hone in on the next potential funding opportunity.
I enjoy training people in how to use systems and how to improve their system processes.
I enjoy working with people who are passionate about what they do and why they are there, which is very often the case with people in the not for profit community services spaces.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
That is a long list, but first would be spending time with my wife and our four children. Guiding and loving our children as they grow into adults is the most rewarding experience.
I also enjoy running, bike riding, living close to the beach, swimming in the lagoon, bushwalking, bird keeping, travelling, learning, home renovating, cooking, music, … that’s enough for today!
Favourite quote?
“There was no please or thank you, because we shared everything" ...Aboriginal Elder Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. …. Isaiah 1:17
Credentials and experience
I have had the privilege to work in all sorts of businesses and organisations from large internationals to small associations and even my own consulting business.
Primarily I have worked across information technology, where I enjoy using it as tool for enabling a business to achieve its outcomes.Way back, I attained a Bachelor Degree in Mathematics (Computer Science) and have achieved other professional experience and training since then in project management, community leadership and various IT skills.
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Kate Sunners, Marketing and Training Coordinator
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
At the end of a period in 2014 studying development and policy in Amsterdam I was searching for meaningful work that would utilise my passion for writing, research and social good. I’d previously worked in copywriting, independent bookstores and marketing, and the best part of any of my jobs had been my involvement with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and community projects like 'Books to Floods' through Riverbend Books. Always a student, I wanted a role that would let me learn more about the impact of nonprofits and social change.
What do you love most about your job?
When I first started at SG and was introduced to the GEM Portal and Grants Calendars, I was amazed at how any nonprofit could effectively perform grant seeking without them. I wanted to tell everyone about it. I get to do that every day.
For someone who willingly spends all her free time writing, and is convinced that everything in life is a narrative, spending time getting a grant application just right through writing or editing is a heavenly job!
I also love the SG team (past and present), they’re all pretty wonderful humans.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Tiny houses, reading, political philosophy, qualitative research, gardening, volunteering with the Pyjama Foundation and Community Plus+. Perfect weekends are spent playing board games with friends (capital N nerd), hiking in Queensland’s extraordinary rainforests or camping in the bush. Also love other people’s pets.
Favourite quote?
If Harriett can have two...so can I!
“If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” – W. I. Thomas and D. S. Thomas “People are just people, people are just people, people are just people like youuuuuu” – Regina Spektor
Credentials and experience
Kate has a Bachelor of Fine Arts: Creative Writing Production and a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Development Studies and minoring in Social and Public Policy. She has spent her work years variously as a freelance travel copywriter, manuscript assessor and book reviewer, a bookseller (yes, it is as dangerous to your bank account as you think it is) and a marketing assistant.
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Patrice Summers, Administration and Marketing Officer
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
After deciding to change careers, I had a challenging few years trailing new industries, jobs and going down the road of hospitality while studying my lists of strengths and careers that utilised them. Until one day I was sharing a bottle of vino with my next door neighbour, discussing the trials and tribulations of my situation. She all of a sudden had a lightbulb moment and remembered a friend of hers was advertising for an administration officer. This friend was Jo, Strategic Grants Director.
After sending in my resume and talking with Jo about all my previous roles as a graphic designer, sales representative and in administration she created a role for me. It was as though she had taken all of the jobs I enjoyed out of each position and rolled them into one. Perfect! I’m still touching wood, just to be safe.
What do you love most about your job?
The variety, I can be doing an excel spreadsheet one minute, designing a magazine advert and accounts receivable the next. Also as cheesy as it sounds, I love being in a company that helps people join together to help make an organisation, a community or a project better for someone in the world.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
Anything that involves Music! It is my natural drug. There is a tune to suit every mood and when I’m at a live gig with a crowd full of people I don’t know, all dancing, singing and smiling to the same artist, it gives me overwhelming euphoria knowing that we aren’t in it alone, we can come together regardless what is happening in the world.
And a not so profound love is watching movies and TV show marathons with snacks and comfy clothes.
Favourite quote?
“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs
Credentials and experience
Bachelor of Multimedia
I have 10 years experience as a Graphic Designer and 17 years experience with client and customer service. Have been a Sales Representative, Café Manager, Mixologist (yes it is a thing, and I do say it with tongue in cheek) and have worked for a film production company. All of which touched on my not-so-secret love of spreadsheets and poster and stationary design.
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Alissa Bermingham, Research Assistant
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
I started at Strategic Grants back in 2014, assisting with research work over a couple of months. Over the past three years, I have provided support to the Strategic Grants research team on and off before coming on board in 2017 as a Research Assistant.
What do you love most about your job?
First and foremost, I love the environment and wonderful people that I get to interact with at Strategic Grants. Apart from that, I love that my job involves so much opportunity for learning; every day, I discover new things about the world of philanthropy and grants, not just in Australia and New Zealand, but all over the world. It is also wonderfully satisfying to see how the work we do, particularly in terms of maintaining our detailed grants database, benefits our clients.
What besides your job do you love doing the most?
So many things! Spending as much time with family and friends as possible, and trying to break the world record for the most dogs petted in a lifetime. Outside of SG, I’m a classical singer, studying under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed soprano Sarah Crane at the University of Queensland, and I’m also a private music teacher.
Favourite Quotes
When the curtain rises, the only thing that speaks is courage. – Maria Callas
To sing is an expression of your being, a being which is becoming. – Maria Callas
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Credentials and Experience
I am working towards completing my Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Music Performance at the end of 2017.
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Gavin Roche, Designer
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 Gavin has been working with Strategic Grants on all graphics and design work since 2013. He now also works with a number of our charity partners.
In 2014, Gavin set up his own design studio, based in Brisbane. Roche Creative leans on a strong foundation of experience, passion and creativity.
From branding to packaging, and signage to web, Gavin has experience in all fields and can assist with any design needs, no matter how big or small they may be.
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Dexter Garner, Chief Whip
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How did you arrive at Strategic Grants?
Dexter Garner narrowly avoided the fate of becoming a lapdog, and after studying for many years in the school of life decided he wanted a change from his regular job of bowl pushing, barking and cavorting, and spoke to his owner Jo about positions available within Strategic Grants.
After beating a local brushtailed possum for the position of Chief Whip, Dexter (Dexy to his friends and those who drop ham from the lunch table) diligently took up position as Chief Whip. His official duties at the office include sleeping in random handbags, snapping at flies, de-stressing employees by being fluffy and startling everyone with the occasional bark.
Favourite Quote
"The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack" - Rudyard Kipling
Credentials and Experience
Dexter secured this job based entirely on the strength of nepotism, however he does have experience in being a dog, which is an invaluable perspective when Strategic Grants is working with animal welfare clients.
Now you know all about us, find out about what we do!
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