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New employees, new energy boost GATE programs and development

Annie Cushman, left, and Lindsay McClead

Two new faces have joined the Global Awareness Through Experience (GATE) staff, both young women with a passion for turning knowledge gained through travel into powerful solutions. Lindsay McClead has joined the GATE office as the North American GATE coordinator. Annie Cushman also recently joined the staff in a newly-created position: director of GATE development. The two work at St. Rose Convent in La Crosse.

In her new role, Lindsay is the lead contact for anyone interested in traveling with or learning more about GATE. She is also responsible for the advertising and marketing of GATE, and handles some of the program finances. Lindsay says her travel experience has helped prepare her for the position. “It gives me motivation for being an aide to helping other people travel, because it benefited me personally and helped change my perspective and my world view. It gives me passion to help others have the same experience.”

Lindsay says she has several goals for the future of the GATE program. “My overall goal is to raise awareness of GATE, that this option is available, to really immerse yourself in another culture and learn about realities of that culture and how we as North Americans or U.S. citizens affect those realities.”

In addition, Lindsay says she wants to take the program to another level, helping travelers know how to take steps toward educating their friends and community members, and perhaps eventually advocating policy change.

As director of GATE development, Annie Cushman’s responsibility is to fundraise for humanitarian efforts in non-governmental organizations in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, organizations connected to FSPA through the GATE program. Annie explains that GATE is considered a “feeder” organization, one which pursues grants from outside sources then distributes those funds to charitable efforts in Latin America. Because the administrative costs of development are absorbed by the FSPA, nearly all money raised for these programs, whether from donors or grants, goes directly to the people who so badly need help.

International grant-making has its challenges, particularly for individuals, because of bureaucratic red tape, explains Annie. “So by having the FSPA and the GATE office do that administrative work and go through the legalities, the individual donating to the GATE charitable fund can automatically take the tax deduction, and know that they’re supporting something in Latin America.”

Annie comes to the position with experience in volunteer work as well as fund-raising. Immediately prior to beginning her job with the GATE program, she worked for a community foundation in Dubuque, Iowa. “I learned so much about fund-raising and really what philanthropy is, and trying to encourage and empower people to be philanthropists.” Before that she was a long-term volunteer in South America, primarily in Chile, with the Holy Cross Association.

Annie says GATE is in a unique position, with an estimated 2,000 program alumni who are potential donors. A donor base of that size could lead to fulfillment of one of her long-term goals. “We’d like to see the office grow in terms of its giving power, and start an endowment for the GATE charitable giving fund.”

With new energy and ambitious goals, Lindsay and Annie envision a bright future for the GATE program, one that is mutually beneficial from both ends of the spectrum: experiential and philanthropic. Says Annie, “GATE charitable giving would be nothing without the GATE program. People can experience a culture, and then they can also be philanthropic. It gives them a whole, full international solidarity experience.”

Lindsay says that in addition to offering financial gifts to the charitable giving fund, GATE pilgrims can continue giving in other ways, at home. “My hope is that when they come back (from a GATE trip) they can use that experience in their daily life, in their realities. So instead of tucking those photos away, they can decide if they want to take it to the next step and educate others a little bit.”

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