Joanne Heath

Joanne Heath – Marketing & Engagement

Bringing over 20 years’ international marketing communications and business development experience to the NRCF table, over the last 13 years Joanne has also applied her skill base and passion for helping others to the not-for-profit sector, working on a voluntary basis designing and managing advocacy and fundraising campaigns in aid of vulnerable children and their families in Africa and India. Moving to the Northern Rivers in 2019 after many years living overseas, Joanne’s lasting commitment to empowering at risk and disadvantaged communities and advancing environmental protection initiatives will contribute to our community in many ways as both her professional and life experience play a key role in the future impact of NRCF in the Northern Rivers.

New Community Impact Officer Role

With a record number of grant recipients under the NRCF umbrella, having a deeper understanding of the need in our community and matching this data to donor funding is more important than ever. As a result, the role of Community Impact Officer has been introduced to build our capacity in this regard and achieve critical objectives in these unpredictable times.

Tara Carnegie Founder/Executive Chair of Vasudhara

Sincere thanks to Tara Nelson Carnegie, Northern Rivers Resident, investor, social entrepreneur and Founder/Executive Chair of Vasudhara and Wildwomen, a fund for women and girls, for her generous donation in support of this position for the first 3 years.

Vasudhara is a visionary organisation created to provide funding and strategic support to early-stage social impact projects based on the principle of integrating Western and Eastern approaches to philosophy, wellbeing and society.

NRCF’s new Community Impact Officer role serves to effectively liaise with and support the 46 community organisations currently receiving $480,000 in funding, ensure their successful delivery, and report on their community impact.

This important role will also drive NRCF’s Vital Signs Project which uses community knowledge to measure the vitality of communities – gathering data and publishing accessible reports on significant social and economic trends to tell the story of how communities are faring in key quality-of-life areas. A priority for NRCF, Vital Signs will lead to Vital Conversations, an events platform to ignite community cooperation & action around the challenges this region faces.

Kyla White

Welcome Kyla White

On that note, we also extend a warm welcome to Kyla White who joins the NRCF Team in this newly created role. With over 20 years’ experience across both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors, Kyla brings a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and partnerships to the NRCF table, and a thorough understanding of the importance of sustainability and the power of well documented impact. Committed to social impact and passionate about sustainability, building resilience, and the permaculture principles: people care, earth care, and fair share, Kyla’s input over the coming years is set to make a real and lasting difference to both the NRCF and our network of beneficiaries who will benefit greatly from her counsel and support as they tackle some of the most challenging issues in our communities.