With over 25 years of experience in the for-purpose sector, Kate Buxton is an experienced professional dedicated to strengthening community, enhancing local capacity and capabilities, and advancing sustainable development. Her extensive work with community and philanthropic organisations and local and state governments reflects her strong commitment to these objectives. She established Shift the Needle to offer practical, effective solutions tailored to community-based organisations.

Throughout her career, Kate has held numerous leadership positions, honing her skills in forming strategic partnerships, managing stakeholder relations, and creating strategies that align with organisational values and deliver quantifiable results.

As a former General Manager with Lifeline Gippsland, Kate secured funding to develop a multi-purpose counselling facility. She was the project lead on Australia's first rural Vital Signs. Kate's recent accomplishments include collaborating with Leeton Shire Council to secure funding for a volunteer network that facilitates skill sharing and knowledge transfer and developing the National Association of Women in Operations (NAWO) first-ever Outcomes Report. She is currently working with a fire-impacted rural, remote community in East Gippsland to build a wellbeing-focused Outcomes Framework and supporting an indigenous community undertake their first community plan.

‘Old power works like a currency. It is held by few. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads, and it captures. New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads, and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it’s most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it.’  (Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms)