Nicola Stokes, a powerhouse in corporate leadership is changing the face of philanthropy by helping direct more money from the world’s wealthy into better lives for sick kids.
The biggest transfer of wealth in history is underway as the Baby Boomers begin passing what they’ve accrued during their lifetimes to Generation X and the Millennials. Globally, that means more than an estimated $70 trillion is passing from one generation to those coming after them. The Australian portion of that is expected to be about $3.5 trillion.
Stokes, CEO of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation (SCHF) sees this as more than a reallocation of the world’s wealth. “There is a shift in mindset. They are giving in a completely different way,” Stokes told The Brilliant, explaining that philanthropists are looking for more involvement in the way they support the social issues that interest them.
This shift, she says, will not only reshape philanthropy but has implications for research funding and communication, as well as intellectual property. She’s been steadily manoeuvring the SCHF to respond to this.
Rising though the corporate sector
Irish-born Stokes has always been an agent of change.
In her previous corporate role, as General Manager of Global Shared Services for banking group ANZ, she led the organisation’s sustainability agenda. Recognised for her passion and vision, she was voted by 80 banks worldwide to sit on the Global Steering Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, which works with more than 350 banks, insurers, and investors to help create a financial sector that delivers positive impacts while serving people and the planet.
In 2009 Stokes decided to leave banking, to help people reach their full potential. “I reflected on what makes people be the best they can be and how, when they aren’t living up to their full potential, it’s normally their physical, mental or emotional health that holds them back,” she says.
She landed at the Australia Diabetes Council, which was looking for its first non-health CEO – someone such as Stokes who could help shift the organisation out of the rigid, governance heavy, federated model that many charities labour under. Her background in mergers and acquisitions was exactly what was needed. “The NSW organisation was paying more membership fees than the other states and territories, which basically paid for the running of the federation’s “head office”, and received very little in return. I’m really proud of what I achieved in that role.” she says. “We successfully came away from the federated model and reset the expectations of all of the states and territories regarding what a federated member-based model in the charity sector should deliver. Importantly for our organisation, we went from a membership of 50,000 to 200,000.”
Stokes attributes that growth to changing how people engaged with diabetes, by talking in ordinary language to help them better manage diabetes, pre-diabetes and gestational diabetes. “It’s about understanding the impact on their lives, not just communicating medical facts,” she explains.
Stokes was then headhunted to run Special Olympics Australia where she pulled together national and international events that were lauded by athletes and organisers alike. Then, in 2016, the SCHF came knocking, looking for a change agent who could manage the expansion of its fundraising remit.
Taking a philanthropic turn
What’s particularly interesting about Stokes is that in all her roles she’s never been afraid to tackle the thorny issues that prevent growth and sustainability. And, as she looks to the philanthropy sector, she’s identified that one the biggest problems is that it’s too easy to become a charity in Australia. There are currently 58,944 registered charities and 300,000 not-for-profit organisations. “In Australia, it is easy to set up a charity and the criteria that you have to meet are quite straightforward,” she explains. “As a result, in Australia we have extraordinary duplication in the non-profit sector.”
Stokes says this pressure impacts on the public, in terms of both donation exhaustion and pressure. “We need to rethink this sector. The number of charities is not sustainable,” she says, adding that people should examine what existing charities they can support before setting up their own.
During her first two years at the SCHF, Stokes focused on internal operations and planning for expansion. Initially focused on raising funds for Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, the SCHF’s remit now includes all the paediatric services within the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, including The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Kids Research, NETS (Neonatal and paediatric Emergency Transport System) and Bear Cottage. Since formation in 1986, the SCHF has raised more than $200 million dollars for children’s health. But Stokes is even more ambitious for the impact SCHF can deliver.
Most of the health system money is spent on the last six to twelve months of your life,” she says. “But research shows if you get the first 2000 days of children’s health right, you can fundamentally change the health of this nation and reduce the health bill dramatically.”
Annually, the SCHF now brings in more than $50 million a year but Stokes and her board realised that by doubling this they could effect a lot more change.
She began looking at long-term business partnerships to underpin key initiatives.
Initially – through interviews across its network with staff, parents, kids, cleaning staff and doctors – the SCHF identified that one thing all kids in hospital shared was feeling homesick. “The chief paediatric psychologist of NSW told me that homesickness can actually delay recovery,” Stokes explains. “No matter how nice the environment is at hospital, kids miss home – their school, their dog, their mum’s cooking.”
So, in 2019 Stokes approached long-time supporter Coles supermarkets and asked “Will you make us a pasta sauce that will get kids home from hospital sooner?” What was important to Stokes was that she wanted a business relationship, not a donation. From this conversation, Mum’s Sause – a playfully named jar of bolognese pasta sauce – has become a fixture in Coles supermarkets, going from strength to strength. The initiative has raised more than half a million dollars from more than a million jars sold. “Of the $3 jar, 50 cents goes back to us,” Stokes says. “We see this as a business partnership.” Such is the success of the venture that Coles has introduced two more pasta sauces, and an additional one for pizzas.
It’s not only SCHF that receives funds raised by Curing Homesickness. Children’s hospitals, foundations and health services across Australia also benefit. Profits are directed to the SCHF and redistributed to participating organisations based on sales in their state or territory. More than $3million has been raised in 18 months, with potential for more products.
This initiative was the first of its kind in Australia and, Stokes says, is now being copied across the sector.
I’m not competing against other children’s hospital foundations,” Stokes stresses. “I’m saying, ‘let’s collaborate’.”
Making giving even better
Also on Stokes’ agenda has been intergenerational wealth transfer and changing donor expectations. When participating in traditional fundraising initiatives such as Curing Homesickness, donors might have a general idea of where their money is going. But they won’t know all the details, such as the specific projects being funded, nor outcomes for many months or years.
Stokes says that’s okay for some donors but many are looking to be more engaged with the causes they’re passionate about.
“They want and deserve much more,” she says. “They want to know what’s actually changed for sick kids as a result of their giving.”
Stokes points out this a complete shift from charity-centric to donor-centric. “Instead of what can a donor do for the SCHF, it’s how can the SCHF can help the donor build a legacy and have an impact on the world,” she explains. “They want to know their impact is not just for children now but actually that their legacy is in the future. Money they give now will help generations and children yet to be born.”
Stokes decided to focus on creating more awareness for these donors on the importance of research in paediatric care. Recognising there were many research projects that went unfunded in Australia, she felt the SCHF could help.
Researchers go through this mill of constantly applying for grants, which they write pages and pages for, and they get very little return,” Stokes says. “It’s exhausting, and they can end up doing more writing than research.”
Enter, in 2020, the Greenlight Pilot program – named after the pitching process that determines whether a movie or television series is financed and produced.
Instead of administering funds from a central pool, as typical funding bodies do, Greenlight trains researchers to develop their project idea and hone their pitch, then sets up meetings with interested investors.
Should a project be ‘greenlit’, investors are deeply involved in translational research projects from the germ of the idea, through ethics approval and along on the entire research journey.
“That was a ‘lightbulb moment’ in relation to the SCHF mission, which is connecting philanthropists with world-class researchers and clinicians in order to create change,” Stokes says.
To date, the Greenlight program has been enthusiastically received by donors and researchers and more than $1 million has already been secured for projects that were previously unfunded. Stokes is hopeful that more philanthropic funding will be secured in the coming months.
Donors love it, Stokes says. “They are thrilled. They’ve met the researchers. They’ve been involved from the beginning. We’ve armed them with videos so they can go and talk to their networks around what they are involve in,” she says.
But, Stokes adds, Greenlight’s goals extend beyond the initial donation: “We need to continue to steward the researcher and donor in working together. Training needs to happen on both ends. It is not something that happens naturally. It takes time.”
Stokes sees this type of research donation as a crucial part of building further funding. “We think of it as seed funding, proving and de-risking for further government funding,” she says. “Governments can’t take the risk that for-purpose organisations can, because of the shortness of the election cycle.”
Just as crucial is the impact on research communication, with fundraisers reporting back that it is easier to pitch Greenlight projects to potential donors. “We were delighted,” Stokes says. “This has meant we are able to train researchers how to pitch their projects in a way that is easier for donors to understand. It’s revolutionising all of our research communication.”
What’s next for Nicola Stokes and the SCHF?
“We are at the forefront globally of this change of working with donors,” Stokes says. “What I want to do next is look at how we can move from just funding research to being an investor in that research. At the end of the day, we want to cure disease and reduce the number of days children spend in hospital.”
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Article by Kylie Ahern
Photo Credit: Photo supplied