Meet some of our Donors

The work of Advance Ashburton is only possible due to the generosity of our donors.  Whilst some donors chose to leave a bequest in their will, other donors choose to donate during their lifetime, thereby sharing in the joy of philanthropy and seeing the added value that their donation is contributing to our community.

Alister Smyth, Donor
“I am single and have no children but felt I could give back to the community I have lived and worked in.
There are many young people who are in need of support to further their tertiary education and I have had great pleasure meeting some of these talented young people and seeing my money working for good.
My fund helps give deserving young people a ‘leg up’ in their tertiary studies.”

Bob and Alan Johnston, Donors
“We wanted to do something for the young people of the Ashburton district in our lifetime. It is interesting to meet the young people who received our scholarship and to hear about the difference it will make to them. Why wait until you are gone? It’s great to see the money working in our lifetime.
Family comes first, but maybe people might think that they could put something aside for Advance Ashburton and the work they do. Every little bit will help”.

Sue Cadigan, Legal Secretary
Hi, my name is Sue, I am a Legal Secretary at Russell Moon & Fail.
Through our firm’s involvement with the Advance Ashburton Community Foundation, and work assigned to me, I became aware of the Foundation and what it achieves. My interest grew to the point where I googled the Foundation in search of further information and suddenly the importance of keeping any donation from my hard earned dollar local, seemed a huge priority. I am not opposed to supporting charities such as the Westpac Helicopter, St John’s, or Plunket (the list goes on), but I am opposed to a large percentage of my donation being absorbed in administration/promotion fees.
I made a donation and then I started to think: what could be done to raise awareness of the Foundation and how to get other people to do what I had done?
I decided to turn my individual donation into a challenge with the rest of the team at Russell Moon & Fail to do the same and this has been successful.
Because the Foundation has approved donee status with the IRD, employees can make regular donations direct from their wages. If you visit the IRD website and search Payroll Giving you will find the process very simple. The Foundation receives immediate and regular funds, and the donor receives immediate tax credits in the form of reduced PAYE so no more waiting until the end of the year to hand in your little receipts.
For example, a weekly payroll donation of $3.00 costs the employee only $2.00 because the rebate of one-third is immediately credited against the tax to be deducted for each week. Over a five year period, 15 people donating $3.00 per week will result in $11,700 being donated to Advance Ashburton Community Foundation, and tax rebates for the employees totalling $3,900.
By making small donations over time, you are going to make a big difference to what the Foundation is able to do for our local community. Your money stays LOCAL. Like me, I believe most of you have charities that you have donated to, probably still donate to, but are concerned about the amount of your donation that actually gets used for the reason you give your donation for. For this reason, keep it local. I think the team idea within any workforce makes it so easy for people to give affordably to a worthwhile local charity, and I would like to see other firms in town do the same.
The challenge is to “Give where you live”!