Katharine MacVine
My name is Katharine MacVine and I work for the Fundraising Events team at ActionAid’s office in London.
My role is to support people who raise money for ActionAid, and to promote events and activities to encourage people to raise even more! Fundraising is extremely important to ActionAid as without this money we would not be able to continue our vital work with poor communities. We help them to access the opportunities, such as an education and clean water, that many of us take for granted.
My work particularly focuses on supporting schools and students with fundraising, and working with ActionAid’s 40 local supporter groups, who all work extremely hard to organise events to raise funds for ActionAid’s work.
In my spare time I enjoy going to the cinema, reading, cycling and travelling.
Questions and Answers (October 26, 2007)
Q: [from Katy] What’s been the most successful fundraising event?
A: We are involved with so many fundraising events including: overseas treks, marathons, bike rides around the world, school charity days...that it is difficult to pick one as the most successful.
However in terms of the most money raised, since I have been at ActionAid, this was from an international fundraising day put on by a travel company. Almost all of the company's offices around the world took part and organised online auctions, cake sales, dress down days and much much more. They raised a huge amount of money and publicity for ActionAid.
Q: [from Carl] How does the money get to the poor communities?
A: Once ActionAid receives money from our fundraisers in the UK we put this money into our bank account.
We have ActionAid offices in each of the countries where we work overseas and they let us know how much they require for specific projects, for example it might be £5,000 to construct a healthcare centre in Cambodia.
Then we are able to transfer this money to our office in that country. They then use the money to carry out projects in the poor communities who are in need of our support.
Q: [from Talia] Where have you been travelling? Have you visited any ActionAid projects?
A: I have just in fact returned from a two week stay in Kenya and Malawi in Africa where I was able to visit a number of ActionAid projects.
In Kenya we visited a primary school where ActionAid had built two new blocks of classrooms for over 200 pupils. The government then saw the success of the project and decided to build some offices for the staff and in addition to this a dormitory for the children who board which we were very pleased about.
I also visited a water project where 45km of pipeline had been built from a water source in order that the very remote communities could access water from a hand pump in their village. Before this project was completed, women had to walk for 4-5 hours a day to fetch water!
I have also travelled to Malaysia and Thailand in Asia, and to Costa Rica in Central America.
Q: [from Mark] How long have you been at ActionAid?
A: I will have been at ActionAid for 2 years next week!
