AFTER 11 years at the helm of one of Western Australia’s larger fund raising organisations, Bob Stirling has decided to call it a day.
Mr Stirling was, until recently, CEO of United Way and helped take it from being the worst performing United Way in Australia to being the second best after United Way in Geelong.
He is to be replaced by former Freehills partner Rosemary Peek, who had been a board member of United Way.
When Mr Stirling took on the CEO’s role it was facing hard times, with the heady 1980s over and companies tightening their belts.
He had left the relative safety of senior management roles in the finance sector including a time with Citibank.
Charity industry players say he has managed to build the profile of the organisation and the relevance of community partnerships.
Former United Way chairman Tony Howarth said Mr Stirling had been instrumental in building the profile of the organisation.
“He worked hard in presenting the relevance of United Way to the whole community and the benefit of corporates entering into partnerships with charities,” Mr Howarth said.
“These days the idea of corporate-community partnerships is fairly common, but back then they were unheard of.”
Over the past 11 years, however, the organisation has been able to raise and distribute $11 million to charities around WA.
Mr Stirling said one of his major achievements was securing the sports-charity program United Way runs, which is based on the US NFL program.
United Way is responsible for all of the charity works of the West Coast Eagles, the Western Warriors and the Perth Glory.
That program helps to match players with causes and make sure they are properly prepared for whatever charity events they are asked to attend.
“We try to match players to where their strengths lie,” Mr Stirling said.
“Some players are good with kids, others are better with older people.”
One of United Way’s main means of raising funds is payroll deduction.
“We have the largest payroll deduction program in Australia,” Mr Stirling said.
He credited Mr Howarth with helping to get the payroll deduction program rolling in WA.
“In a lot of cases the corporates give dollar for dollar with their staff,” Mr Stirling said.
“Because payroll deduction is the cheapest way of fundraising, we do not subract any fees, meaning a 100 per cent pay out of the donation.”
Another charity program Mr Stirling introduced was “Adopt a Charity”.
Under that offering, the charities United Way support are invited to submit a project in need of funding including, preferably, a business plan, anticipated cash flows, a budget and comments on how the project will assist the WA community.
“From those applications we then find an appropriate corporate sponsor to support the project through payroll deductions,” Mr Stirling said.
“Once the required amount of money has been raised, a new charity is chosen.”