I have worked with with Glass Tower, GirlGuiding NZ, Ronald McDonald House South Island, and most recently, the crew taking the start-up world by storm at Banqer, a gritty B-Corp in Ōtautahi that focuses on equipping the next generation with the best financial literacy skills they can get. This social enterprise was started by none other than Kendall Flutey, Young New Zealander of the Year.
I coached the altMBA and The Creative’s Workshop with Akimbo from 2018 until the final altMBA session in May 2024. Their innovation, curiosity and radical steps towards institutional equity had me hooked, and I’ll miss the magic we helped students create in the world.
In my time with Ronald McDonald House South Island (now Ronald McDonald House Charities), I saw 2,213 guests come through our facilities, who visited over 5,000 times. The average stay was for seven nights, for a range of different illnesses. The funds I helped to raise ensured that not one family ever had to pay for their stay with us while their child was in Christchurch or Southland Hospital, and I’m incredibly proud of that legacy. I led the Capital Campaign for the Family Room in Waipapa, Christchurch Hospital, which opened in 2021.
I have been a Trustee with Inspiring Stories, where they’re making New Zealand the best place for young Kiwis to grow up in, and backing these young people to change the world. I am currently a Trustee with Bowel Cancer New Zealand, using my skills to move us towards a world where no-one dies of this terrible disease.
Each place has taught me more about my values, my intuition, and how to work better with my Imposter.
And now?
At the moment, I contract in the impact space under the business name The Meliorist. After a decade immersed in the world of charities across Aotearoa, I’ve sculpted a unique blend of skills encompassing coaching, fundraising, development, communications, and governance strategy.
If you’d like to know more about that, feel free to contact me through this website, or The Meliorist contact page.
I view my work through the lens of this whakataukī (proverb):
E iti noa ana nā te aroha.
A small thing, given with love.
If you’re interested in what I know and would like to have a chat, flick me a message here.
According to my track record, I can:
* Help you solve the problem you’ve got about where, why or how you’re communicating.
* Help you figure out smarter ways to raise money.
* Create or edit whatever copy you need.
* Ask some useful questions.
* Synethsise a heap of information and write useful documents to help you make smarter decision – feasibilities, strategies, engagement pieces…
* Speak at your conference.
* Organise over 1000 people to volunteer on one day.
* Run a meeting and get you out of there on time.
* Communicate impact clearly.
* Talk to your Board Chair as comfortably as a group of six-year-olds.
* Write for The Spinoff.
* Coach the altMBA and The Creative’s Workshop.
* Win a Golden Quill.
* Qualify for Golden Key at the University of Canterbury.
* Be a Trustee for the organisation that advocates complete eradication of the disease that killed my Dad’s dad.
* Survive a natural disaster.
* Bake copious amounts to relieve the stress of said disaster.
* Feel more connected in a library or running around the red zone than in a church.
* Represent my country and place fifth in the world in something I love.
* Run a marathon.
* Learn to read on the bus.
* Survive in the Easter Camp kitchen on Pie Day.
* Jump in, even when it’s freezing.
* Look after a puppy.
* Rescue a greyhound.
* Change my mind (see entries: running, trail running, yoga, the taste of blue cheese, the charity sector, living outside a city)
* Choose herbal tea over coffee, and red over white, every time.
Jemma Balmer 