Monday 20 May 2019 2:57pm
Volunteering while studying at Otago led to “too many positives to list” says Law and Accounting graduate Maddi Ingham.
Maddi, who graduated on 18 May, volunteered for the Innocence Project NZ, was an accounting tutor and also spent four years fundraising for Te Whare Pounamu, the Dunedin Women’s Refuge.
For three of these years she led the Women’s Refuge Appeals Committee, which oversaw the activities of about 100 student volunteers contributing to charity auctions, bake sales and other events.
Since 2014, the group has raised more than $100,000, which went towards the Refuge’s running costs.
Maddi receiving her Student Leadership Award in October 2018.
Aside from learning a lot about the dynamics of teamwork and enhancing her communication and organisational skills – “to do lists and emails became almost a full-time task” – Maddi gained valuable insights into how important community connections are, and how difficult fundraising is for non-profits competing with numerous other worthy causes.
“I learned so much through the experience. It was a lot of hard work but I met amazing people, and the warm fuzzy feeling that you get from making a difference is addictive. I will definitely be continuing on with volunteering once I am settled in my new country and new job.
“One of the big take-home messages was that, at the end of the day, there’s almost no crisis that can’t be solved – we managed to pull off a street collection during state of emergency floods, though with slightly lower takings than normal!”
Maddi says former Appeals Committee leader Laura McKay’s passionate speech about fundraising work led her to sign up to the auction committee, which she ran for three years after the initial members graduated.
“I was already a fan of the cause, however it was only my close involvement with the Refuge and seeing them constantly applying for grants or seeking community donations, watching them give their absolute all to the women and children that they support, and witnessing how prevalent domestic violence is in our community – their crisis line receives a call every six minutes and it’s estimated there were 525,000 family violence incidents last year alone – that it became a cause truly close to my heart.”
Maddi now works in Sydney for the Boston Consulting Group.