Three UTS finalists for prestigious Third Sector Awards

Two UTS Business School alumni and a current student are finalists in the 2018 Third Sector Awards. The awards showcase leadership and innovation in the not-for-profit and social enterprise sector, with winners to be named at the awards night on 25 September.

UTS alumnus Brendan Lonergan is a finalist in the ‘CEO of the Year’ category, current Master of Not-for-Profit and Social Enterprise Management student Charlotte Sangster is a finalist for ‘Emerging Leader of the Year’ and alumnus Greg Nairn is a finalist for ‘Board Director of the Year’.

Associate Professor Bronwen Dalton, Director of the UTS Master of Not-for-Profit and Social Enterprise management, said it was exciting to see UTS dominating the leadership categories of these prestigious awards, and she wished them success on the night.

“Our UTS program focuses on best practice in the not-for-profit and social enterprise sector, and enables those who are passionate about social justice to build strong leadership skills, develop innovative solutions and demonstrate social impact, so this is a great result,” she said.

Katherine Raskob, CEO of the Fundraising Institute of Australia and one of the judges, said finalists demonstrated “quite significant innovation, either in the way that they approached new business roles, new partnerships or in new systems of thinking”.

Brendan Lonergan is the CEO of Beehive Industries Co-operative, a not-for-profit social enterprise that supports seniors, persons with disability and the long term unemployed by providing work, training and support programs that enhance social inclusion.

He completed a Master of Business in Marketing at UTS, and for the last 15 years has specialised in  the disability and seniors support sectors, working with Packforce, a division of Cerebral Palsy Alliance, and Disability Services Australia.

Brendan is also a guest lecturer and student mentor at UTS Business School, running projects on the disability sector and social enterprise issues.

Greg Nairn completed a degree in computer science in UTS and more recently the UTS Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit and Social Enterprise Management. He is a board director of Dandelion Support Network, a not-for-profit assisting vulnerable families with nursery items.

“My goal at Dandelion is to support the ongoing transition to being a highly automated software and data-driven organisation. In addition to treasurer duties my core focus on the board is business analysis, information systems, impact measurement and reporting,” Greg said.

“The subject ‘CSR and Impact Measurement’ is probably the most influential I’ve taken. The ideas I was introduced to there have shaped almost everything I've touched in the not-for-profit sector since,” he has said about the UTS program.

Current postgraduate student Charlotte Sangster is General Manager of Muscular Dystrophy NSW, a not-for-profit organisation that exists to empower, connect and support people with neuromuscular conditions, and be an effective advocate for the neuromuscular community. In 2017 she was awarded ‘Young Fundraiser of the Year’ at the Fundraising Institute Australia Awards.

Associate Professor Dalton will launch the UTS Business School / Community Sector Banking Measuring Social Impact Toolbox on Thursday 20 September. The Toolbox is a suite of free online resources including 'how to' video courses, forums, questionnaires, interactive templates and a repository of reliable, verifiable and validated measures, all collated in an open digital platform.

Register for the Measuring Social Impact Toolbox launch here and find out more about the Master of Not-for-Profit and Social Enterprise Management program here.