Ascend Aoraki 2023

Twelve months of highlights and three new Aoraki Ambassadors were celebrated at this years Ascend Aoraki event held recently.

The Aoraki Foundation’s annual Ascend Aoraki sponsored by business partner Oceania Dairy, was a recognition of a successful year of building partnerships and relationships with businesses and donors to encourage philanthropy for the benefit of our region.

Aoraki Foundation CEO, Richard Spackman, said

“Our goal to distribute $1 Million per year in funding to the community by the year 2030 remains our focus, and we believe that with the help of philanthropic community minded people, we can achieve this.”

As well as celebrating a successful year, three former Aoraki Foundation Trustees and staff, Nigel Davenport, Stacey Scott and Nick Noone, were recognized and made ambassadors for the foundation.

Chairman Greg Anderson said our ambassadors have not only given their time to building the Aoraki Foundation, these are people that actively promote and advocate the beliefs of the community foundation in their day to day lives.

In her acceptance speech, local councilor and business owner, Stacey Scott, acknowledged the importance of giving to the community, she also highlighted that you never know where a casual conversation might lead –outlining how a casual conversation in the corridor at her work place has potentially lead to a substantial gift to the community. Stacey became involved with the Foundation in 2011 when she was contracted to lead and support the MRI Scanner fundraising campaign. Following that successful campaign she stayed on in a contracting role as the Aoraki Foundations first Executive Officer. Stacey went on to be chair of Community Foundations New Zealand, she has also assisted the board over the years with strategic planning, has set up her own endowment fund and has made provisions in her will to add to her fund with a bequest. 

Nick Noone owner of Noone Plus was also recognized as an ambassador.  Nick was one of Aoraki Foundation’s five founding trustees. He spent nine years on the board, longer than any other trustee in the foundations history. Nick has also provided many more years of support being the accountant and de facto Finance manager along with sitting on the investment committee until just recently.

The final Ambassador award at the Ascend Aoraki event was given to Venture Timaru CEO, Nigel Davenport. Like Nick, Nigel was also one of the five founding trustees. He was a trustee for almost seven years and was Chairperson for five of those years. Nigel oversaw a period of great transition at the Foundation as it moved on from the two major fundraising projects – CBay and the MRI Scanner to bringing in the first community endowments. Nigel still remains a trustee of the South Canterbury MRI Charitable Trust and is a proud advocate of the community foundation model.  Nigel said it was great to see the growth in the Aoraki Foundation over the last 12 months and is excited to see the positive impact that this will have for the South Canterbury community.

The event wound up with another of Aoraki Foundation’s founding trustees, Sid McAuley, speaking about the Miller General Impact fund and how delighted he is to know that the legacy of Eric and Queenie Miller lives on through their generous gift to the community.