NSW Featured member interview

Interview with Hannah Atwell, Director of Advancement, St Andrews College Sydney

1. Hannah, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to work in the Advancement sector?

I studied marketing and art history and initially worked in tourism and art in Far North Queensland (where I’m from originally) before moving to Sydney to do further study. I then worked in a number of different arts organisations, galleries and an art auction house. When I landed a role in the corporate partnerships team at Opera Australia, I discovered that I really enjoyed the mix of account management, event coordination, relationship building, fundraising and philanthropy involved.

Many of my family work in Education, so when I was ready for a new challenge, I looked at the Tertiary sector and realised Advancement combined the elements of work that I wanted to do. It has been a really good fit so far for my skills and experience and I’ve been excited to have promoted to the position of Director of Advancement quite early on.

2. Hannah, having come from an external industry into the education sector, can you see the benefits of belonging to an organisation like Educate Plus?

Being a member of Educate Plus exposes you to lots of different people and organisations, so it allows you to discover new and different ways to approach your own work.

I have learnt so much more about what is possible in my own organisation by being part of Educate Plus than I ever could have by trying to learn alone. Being able to talk to more experienced members of the sector about the challenges in the sector has been really invaluable too, given I didn’t have a strong fundraising background when I started.

3. Can sum up your experience/ feelings about Educate Plus in 5 words?

Warm, welcoming, insightful, inspiring, motivating.

4. Is there anything you would like to see/change/have Educate Plus do as a supportive organisation for people in your role?

I would love to keep hearing about how other Advancement professionals get it done. Be that each day, week, month and/or across the year. We’re often a small teams in a big organisation doing something quite unique, so what works for the Accounting Team won’t necessarily work for those in the Advancement Team.