MRBA Matters Spring/Summer 2014 June 2014 | Page 2

F u n d - r a i s i n g
by Linda Henshall
“With 13,001 viewings
and 394 bids, this year’s
auction result was the
best ever,” says MRBA
Committee Member
Linda Henshall.

Thanks to YOU our auction raised
over £10,700 – a new record!
This year’s auction ran from 5 March – 2 April.
We raised £8,341 on the online auction. But
there was such fierce competition for conference
tickets especially ESOMAR, the MRS and BIG,

u p d a t e

so all three organisations kindly donated
additional tickets which brought the total
amount raised to over £10,700.
Thanks also to Tony Cowling for finding another
ticket for the Chelsea game and to Peter Hayes
for allowing a second fishing ticket. We had so
much support from organisations and individuals
who emailed, ‘facebooked’ and ‘tweeted’ and
helped in so many ways - too many to mention
individually - but you all know who you are - so
many thanks. My special thanks also to all the
people who bid and helped us achieve a record
amount and to Pat Molloy for being so creative
and patient.

Friends Campaign update
New Corporate Patron ESOMAR is working with the MRBA to replicate similar charities in other countries
“It’s a real privilege to
be involved in this kind
of work at this stage in
my career,” says GfK’s
Phyllis Macfarlane. “I’m
really enjoying it.”

The MRBA is delighted to welcome ESOMAR
as a new Corporate Patron. The organisation
has been donating tickets to the MRBA’s
annual auction as well as publicising its work
to ESOMAR members for a number of years
and now is making a financial contribution.
ESOMAR is also very interested in the MRBA’s
role in the UK market research industry – a
service it hopes can be replicated in other
countries around the world through its newly
formed ESOMAR Foundation.
MM caught up with Phyllis Macfarlane,
Global Project Manager for GfK’s Verein
Foundation and who is also Treasurer of the
ESOMAR Fou ndation.
Tell us about the ESOMAR Foundation?
It was established at last year’s ESOMAR
Congress in Istanbul because the group
wanted to help the family of a researcher
who was killed in Afghanistan and found
providing that financial support was practically
impossible. As our industry’s first global
charitable foundation, we aim to harness
the power of research to contribute to furthering
social equality by supporting people and
important initiatives around the globe.

Be in good company

Welcome to new Corporate Patron ESOMAR
and new Corporate Friend DVL Smith.

If you or your company would like to become
a Friend, Corporate Patron /Friend please
complete and return the appropriate side of
the enclosed application form.

How does the Foundation plan to further
social equality ?
We did some research to determine which
countries around the world had local charities
helping researchers in need. The idea was that
then ESOMAR could work with and support
these organisations locally, but concentrate
on those countries without any local charities
directly. Surprisingly we only found a few
inactive foundations in the US, but could not
find any national charities anywhere like the
UK’s MRBA.
Through our research we did identify about a
dozen countries interested in setting something
up. Turkey is the first to work with us because
it too experienced a recent incident where a
researcher was killed and fellow research
colleagues needed a ‘mechanism’ to help the
researcher’s family. We hope to use the MRBA
model to help Turkey get set up and then roll it
out elsewhere as requested.
What is the main role of the ESOMAR
Foundation?
It provides emergency help to researchers in
need; supports the giving spirit of researchers
in social action; funds local education and
professional development programmes and
supports the global philanthropic community.
We also want to help local associations select
worthy causes that money raised at an ESOMAR
event located in that country can support.
Through the use of endowments, the Foundation
will support projects and activities which help

Corporate Patrons

achieve its vision both within and outside
the market research industry. Eventually we
hope to study the effectiveness of philanthropy
today using research tools to try to quantify the
benefit of donations. But this is a more long-term
ambition.
What kind of projects is the Foundation
supporting?
The first ESOMAR grant last year was given
to Oliver Percovich, Executive Director of
award-winning NGO, Skateistan which uses
skateboarding as a tool for empowerment by
connecting street-working youth in Afghanistan
and Cambodia to education through the sport of
skateboarding.
We are also involved in training programmes and
have one planned for Myanmar where we are
helping train junior market researchers in basic
market research skills which will benefit agencies
looking to develop the market research industry
there. Bangladesh has expressed an interest in a
similar approach.
Will ESOMAR be working with the MRBA
in the UK?
We’ve already been in touch with Ian Brace and
hope to take important lessons from the MRBA to
other countries like Turkey wanting to set up their
own national benevolent associations. There is so
much brilliant best practice the MRBA can help
us with and we look forward to working together.
For more information about the Foundation visit
www.esomarfoundation.org.

Hall & Partners
IFF Research
Added Value
ICG
AQR
Ipsos
ASE MORI
IQCS
BIG Conference
Kudos Research
Boxclever
Centaur Media plc (Insight Marketing Sciences
Millward Brown
Show)
MRS
Cobalt Sky
New Fieldwork Company
Criteria Fieldwork
Network Research
DJS Research
Research Network
ESOMAR
The Research Club
GfK

TNS

Corporate Friends

Cambiar
Charterhouse Research
ComRes
DVL Smith
Facts International
Illuminas
Jigsaw Research
Quadrangle
Simpson Carpenter