AFTER almost eight years at the helm, Stand Like Stone chief executive officer Georgie McKay will step away from the prominent Limestone Coast charity to focus on her family life.
Starting at the organisation after having four children and being a stay at home mum for five years, Ms McKay said she was nervous about returning to work, but the foundation made her transition “a breeze”.
“Before I had children I was working in a corporate environment but wanted a change after having my boys,” she said.
“I think for all working mums out there, the trickiness of balancing kids and work life, home life and everything else is full on, but the Stand Like Stone board was always understanding and open to suggestions.
“That was just so wonderful in those early years – when you have got a sick child it is really hard to get to the office and if you can work from home, it makes it all that much easier.
“Working for a not for profit, it always ends up that you are working far more than you get paid but that is par for the course in any of these sort of jobs.
“In saying that, it is always so rewarding – I have loved it and have not regretted a moment.”
Over the eight years, Ms McKay has many wonderful memories, but some of her highlights included the annual Swinging with the Stars event, key community grant projects and growing the charity’s corpus above the $1m mark.
“When I started the corpus was around $750,000 and we now have a corpus of $4.5m,” she said.
“So we have grown that much in eight years and reaching that first $1m was amazing.
“That happened around the 10th anniversary of Stand Like Stone as well so we had the 10th anniversary and within a month or two that we got the one millionth dollar donated.
“To be able to say we have $1m in the bank for the Limestone Coast was awesome.”
One of the most well-known fundraisers from the charity each year is Swinging with the Stars.
The event involves eight Limestone Coast personalities hitting the dance floor at The Barn to raise money for the foundation, with more than $700,000 raised since its inception.
“I think with Swinging with the Stars in particular is so important for the foundation because every year there are eight new stars which means eight new networks,” Ms McKay said.
“It is a new group of people that get to see and understand Stand Like Stone so the awareness is probably more important than the fundraising yourself.
“The fundraising is incredible and when you think the last three or four years we have raised $100,000 each year through that event is amazing, but the awareness that comes from it and being having a more people connected and understanding the foundation is equally as important.”
Ms McKay said she had enjoyed many key projects over the years but one of her favourites incorporated incoming chief executive officer and former OneFortyOne employee Anne Kerr.
“There is a really lovely connection with Anne who is replacing me as CEO,” she said.
“We established the OneFortyOne community capacity building grants which been in place since about 2014.
“OneFortyOne provides $50,000 every year and that money flows straight through Stand Like Stone out to really key projects and that was a kind of a new thing for us.
“To see that happening and know that we have got a commitment from OneFortyOne to continue doing that and bringing that money into communities to do large scale project that’s been really exciting to see that happen.”
Although she will be officially stepping away from the charity, Ms McKay said she will never be too far away.
“I am remaining on the board of Australian Community Philanthropy, which is the peak body responsible for community foundations around Australia,” she said.
“I will not be a stranger to Stand Like Stone, I will be there for the board if they need anything and I will certainly be involved from my board role with Australian Community Philanthropy too, so that has made the transition a little bit easier.”
