Meet SRS’s New Major Gifts Officer | Kelly Rabolt | Scoliosis Dialogues

So in your role, you probably deal with a lot of various other organizations and so on, but also individuals.

And so Greg's here representing us as one of the great members of the SRS.

Before we get to him, maybe tell us a little bit about your sort of immediate goals now that you're sort of getting situated a little bit and for the next foreseeable future, what do you think is going to be your role in this office?

Yeah.

So I mentioned having those conversations.

I think before...

Ashton, the executive director, and I wanted to be really intentional before we threw a strategy on paper.

We wanted to have it make sense for the organization.

And so to be able to do that, I needed to understand, like I said, the membership base.

And so that's been happening through those conversations.

And it's really started to kind of narrow in on this REO fund and wanting to get that to a certain number.

So that's self-sustaining.

You know, I've come to appreciate that there's a changing landscape in terms of funding, what that is gonna look like for SRS over the next five to 10 years.

And so we're really gonna start to make a push to get that fund to this certain number that we're looking at so that those programs can kind of develop and sustain on their own no matter what industry dollars are coming in.

And the Laurie Carroll Fund, we're already 50% of the way they're funding that this year.

And so we wanna push to get that fully funded this year.

We took a chance kind of out the gate this year, as, as you all know, June is scoliosis awareness month.

And so we did a quick campaign.

You might've seen it on social media and we actually had an incredible patient story.

This young woman named Kaylee, she put together her own run walk and did a fundraiser and we were able to help support her through that.

So I think we're looking for 2027 to find a match donor.

and hopefully use that as a fundraising event.

And if that's successful, I would love to see that grow year over year and use June as a fundraising month for Scoliosis Awareness Month.

So we're starting to kind of chip away at some existing funds and some existing opportunities and kind of like make hay where sun shines, if that's the right phrase.

And then also, once we start to get our feet underneath us, look at areas for growth and opportunity.