A woman who grew up in Olds is now in the running for international honours after having won a Calgary and area award.
Ashlee Hamblin, 26, is a fundraising professional for the David Thompson Health Trust, which includes Olds. She has been named this year's Outstanding New Fundraising Professional.
Hamblin received the award through the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) – Calgary and area chapter this past week. She'll be the keynote speaker at another event in about a week.
Having received the award for Calgary and area, Hamblin's name now goes in against honourees from around the world for the international award. She anticipates that winner will be announced in December or so.
She says it's “intimidating” to enter an international competition for that honour.
“It's intimidating, but it's also exciting, because being part of AFP and being in this position, I've had an opportunity to get to know fundraisers from all around the world,” she says.
Hamblin became a professional fundraiser after obtaining a sociology degree from the University of Calgary.
“Sociology really is understanding what motivates people to act the way they do in their social world – understanding why they do what they do,” she says.
“That was a really natural fit into fundraising and philanthropy because fundraising is really understanding what motivates people to give, why would people give, and what causes do they want to support?
“In the fundraising world, that's our main job – to help connect donors in the community with causes that they're passionate about and help them to make a difference in a meaningful way.”
Also, her mom, Sherri, is a professional fundraiser.
Hamblin loves her job.
“I get to do so many things. I get to work with some amazing volunteers who just continue to share so much of their time with causes that they're passionate about.”
As part of her work, Hamblin organizes events – everything from walks and runs to golf tournaments, engaging with 20 communities across the region.
Hamblin has been in the professional fundraising field for about five years and has worked for the David Thompson Health Trust for three years.
She's seen some big improvements over that time.
“When I started three years ago, it was a very new organization and we were just trying to find our feet under the new Alberta Health Services structure that had recently come into place. So we were actually only working with four or five communities at the time to enhance health care,” Hamblin says.
“Now we're working with 20 different hospitals and health-care programs across the Central Alberta zone. So we've just seen a really big increase in engagement and people getting involved and supporting their hospitals.
“When I started in 2011, during the first two years I was working here we actually saw a 50 per cent increase each year in giving through the trust, so that was quite exciting.”
