RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS In 2011 Bill Holland stepped down from Chairperson, having served the maximum trustee term of eight years. Sally Morrison was encouraged to take the Chair.
not to spread the word. Every board member had a huge network of friends and colleagues so of course we talked about Acorn a lot in the community.”
Sally remembers being approached by Bill Holland and Nicky Wilkins and told about the way the Acorn Foundation operated.
Part of growing the fund was honouring the donors, something Sally commends Nicky Wilkins for doing exceptionally well. Sally says she always felt privileged to meet the donors and to visit the beneficiaries and see first-hand the difference Acorn had made. She cites a group of special-needs children discovering self-expression though drama, and in the process developing simple life skills. Also, a family whose life was changed when their son got an insulin pump due to a donation to the Diabetes Society. “Seeing positive outcomes for recipients was such a validation for Acorn.”
“I instantly felt it had a thread I could identify with.” Sally became a board member in 2006, so was very familiar with the culture and the commitment of her fellow board members. “Becoming Chair was a huge responsibility,” she acknowledges. “However, I was able to look round the table and know I was part of a special group. All good people with no self-interest, all very aware of the trust placed in them to look after other people’s money.” Sally acknowledges her leadership style was different. “Bill was a man and a lawyer. I was a woman and a former nurse!” She appreciated the sound debate around the board table and the exceptionally enquiring minds of her colleagues. She also found mentors among the trustees, Matt Tustin for his insights as Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee; Tracy Rea, “always caring even though she was battling illness herself”; and Tony Mills, “who I admired for questioning everything.” She came to the Chair with the clear goal of taking the amount invested to $10 million under her watch. “It was achieved just after my term ended.” Sally puts Acorn’s success down to relationships. While growing the fund was clearly the General Manager’s role Sally says, “You became so passionate about what Acorn was doing it was hard
Among her many contributions was Sally’s Angels, a group she formed with friends who meet and put money in their Acorn account every month. “Our fund is the sort we can call on to meet a specific and perhaps urgent need. I just have to email the girls and get their blessing,” she says. In 2013, during her tenure as Chairperson, Sally Morrison made the New Year’s Honours list with Membership of the Order of New Zealand, in recognition of her lifelong community service and commitment to caring for the elderly and disabled. She stepped down in 2014 with 200 donor funds and within a whisker of that $10 million, handing the reins over to Glenn Keaney. “There is genuine value in a board regularly changing members. With Glenn came a new perspective, a new generation and a new set of relationships from which Acorn can only benefit.”