Volunteer fundraiser of the year

Howard Lake | 24 May 2013 | Blogs

For any volunteer who has made a major contribution to fundraising over a significant period, for one or more organisations

The shortlisted entries are:

• Olive MacLeod
• Keith Masdin
• Barbara Smith
• Tracey Taylor

Olive MacLeod

Olive has been part of the Relay for Life committee on Shetland since its inception in 2008. The 24-hour overnight festival celebrates the fundraising for Cancer Research UK that has taken place over the last year. Olive has worked as a strong and inspiring chair for the committee, gathered life-minded people around her, provided strong leadership and enthused her committee with her passion for the cause.

In the months leading up to the event in 2010 Relay for Life started to touch a nerve. As the event built, it attracted the attention of Scottish Television and when it took place in May nearly 10% of the island’s residents had signed up to take part and another 10% came to witness it. The community raised an amazing £230,000. Olive just saw this as something to build on and set out to do even better in 2012, raising over £275,000. Olive is an inspiration to everyone she works with.

Keith Masdin

Keith decided to support Hope and Homes for Children after hearing the charity’s founder, Mark Cook, speak at an Advent service in 1997. In the 15 years following, Keith and his wife have involved their whole village in the charity. Keith has rallied a group of about 300 people in his local area to help raise funds and awareness. He focuses on achieving minimum expenditure an maximum impact and activities range from chopping and selling logs, fruit and veg sales, quizzes, treasure hunts to book sales, weekly coffee mornings and a sponsored bike ride to France. His flagship event is an annual Auction of Promises, now in its 16th year.

He has raised over £200,000 and in 2012 was nominated by his community to be an Olympic Torchbearer. His words and actions have motivated hundreds of individuals and he is an exceptional volunteer.
 

Barbara Smith

Barbara has been an active supporter of Action for Children for more than 77 years, constantly challenging herself and others to raise money for the charity. Her earliest memories of supporting the charity are at Sunday School in Derby in the 1940s. In 1986 she converted the ground floor of her home to a shop front and began selling donated goods, and raising £10,000 a year. From her local church she is always recruiting new supporters. She regularly hosts fundraising events, co-ordinating the many home collection boxes held in her area and organising house to house and store collections.

She performed a tandem sky dive on her 80th birthday and she has supported a local family centre working with children at risk of being excluded from school, and has helped young carers in Derby, funding work to provide them with practical and emotional support.

Over the years she has raised over 3750,000 for Action for Children, and has dedicated her life to supporting the charity. Her contribution ahs been recognised locally and nationally and she received an award from the local mayor for her voluntary services and attending a garden party in 2009 In recognition of her charity work.

Tracey Taylor

Tracy, who has a learning disability, joined My Life My Choice in early 2010. With support and encouragement, Tracey slowly became more involved in the charity’s many activities and was pivotal in starting the Banbury support group in late 2010.

Her enthusiasm and hard work have helped secure a regular attendance of 20-25 people with learning disabilities who benefit from learning new skills, meeting new friends and being part of a close-knit community.

The group has raised £3000, but more importantly a previously isolated and socially excluded group of people are now out and about in their communities. This work helped secure My Life My Choice the Guardian Charity of the Year in 2010. Tracey decided to replicate this model of fundraising around Oxfordshire in the charity’s other nine local groups. Within 12 months a further 100 people had become involved in the charity’s community fundraising initiatives.

The charity’s members voted Tracey to the Trustee board of the charity. She is a key representative and regularly makes presentations to and meets with funders to explain the impact of the charity’s work. People like Tracey are hard to come by. Her work ethic, enthusiasm and integrity are a huge benefit to the charity and she is a role model for others with a learning disability.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.