What'cha Drinkin'? an interview with Andra Davidson, MREF

Abstract

Steve Quirk sits down with Andra Davidson, executive director, the Marketing Research Education Foundation (MREF), to discuss the mission of the MREF. Davidson shares her hopes for the coming year and encourages anyone interested in getting involved to visit mrgivesback.org.

What'cha Drinkin'? with Andra Davidson

Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.

Steve Quirk:

Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of What’cha Drinkin’? I'm Steve Quirk, president of Quirk’s Media, and our guest today is Andra Davidson. She is the executive director of the Marketing Research Education Foundation or as we say MREF. Andra, welcome. How are you?

Andra Davidson:

I'm great. Thanks for having me, Steve.

Steve Quirk:

Absolutely. First question, what are you drinking?

Andra Davidson:

Today's drink is a vanilla latte. Nothing more exciting than that unfortunately but it is keeping me warm on a snowy day here in Denver.

Steve Quirk:

Oh, all right. I am having a coffee with Baileys and luckily the Baileys, I was a little worried it may have been out of date, but it's good. This is my favorite mug here in the office. I don't know if you can read that, but it says, criticism cheerfully ignored, a good one.

Andra Davidson:

Everybody needs one of those sometimes.

Steve Quirk:

Yes. Tell me a little bit about for people who don't know, tell them a little bit about the MREF and what its mission and vision is.

Andra Davidson:

So, the Marketing Research Education Foundation was created to help kids around the world have access to a quality education. Everybody deserves a great education and the discrepancies in the ability to access that as we know are extreme. So, this group came together with the vision that every child deserves and should have access to equality education. Our mission is to raise funds and support organizations that are making that happen, whether that's in Haiti, whether it's in Canada, throughout the United States or elsewhere. We are actively looking for the opportunity to help kids access an education that is meaningful and engaging for them and will help improve lives around the world.

Steve Quirk:

Tell me a little bit, so people have all sorts of things that they are near and dear to their heart that they give to. What would you say to the market researcher as to why they should give of their financial resources or time to the MREF?

Andra Davidson:

Well, that is a great question, and as I'll take the second part first, which is the time component. This past year, given the realities we haven't been able to have in-person volunteering and gatherings and that's really been a disappointment. We love to have those and we really look forward to doing more of that in the future. We hope that for those of you watching in the industry who are interested in participating, that we will have that opportunity coming in the next year or so. And for example, we go to Haiti every year typically to do a service trip to one of our recurring donors, the Joseph School, donor recipients, excuse me, the Joseph School where we put a whole class of kids through school every year there, including meals, uniforms, transportation and tuition. It's really an amazing place. And every year we go, well, until this last year we've gone and done some amazing work, so we hope to bring that back.

Then the first part, why would you give to MREF is equally important. I feel like there's a real opportunity here to build on other people's donations and make a real impact with what is in these very important grassroots organizations that are working so hard in individual communities to understand the needs, respond to them, mobilize individuals and organizations to help get kids and education.

The truth is that it is an effective and an impactful way to make an impact very, very quickly. And honestly, any amount helps. The other thing that's great are these backpacks, $20 bought a whole backpack. So, if you're looking to make a difference at any level of donation, we really can help do that. And our money comes in and is donated out within that year. We're very passionate about making sure that we're accountable to the donors who fund us and that we hear from the organizations about what they're doing. We want to share all that information and we want to get everybody involved. And it feels really good to be part of that community, part of that marketing research community. And we welcome anybody who wants to be involved at any level. You can always reach out to me or to Steve or any of our other board members to find out more.

Steve Quirk:

I'm just going to add in just to make a point on that To me when I was brought into this by Jim Bryson back in 2014 or 2015, I can't remember now, I thought, it's something that was instilled in us from my parents about giving back. And so I was like, oh, this is a great idea. There's nothing like it in the industry. But what has really surprised me that I really enjoy is the community that it has created for me. It's not only people in the industry, but I now get to find people who share the same values that I do and that camaraderie and getting to know the people who are involved in the MREF has been a real gift. So that's just on top of the great work that the MREF is able to do.

So, I really encourage people to check out the website. It is MRGivesBack.org. And the other thing is, yes if you get a chance to take the MREF trip to Haiti to see the school and the class of 2029, which the MREF is supporting, it is an absolutely amazing trip. I went a few years ago and I know people say it all the time, oh, its life changing. And it totally is. I don't know how else to explain it. The people of Haiti are amazing people and the kids are beyond precious. They're just amazing.

Andra Davidson:

Yeah, I'm very excited to be able to do that. We were supposed to go in April, we had to cancel that trip of course, through the pandemic, but we are very hopeful that we'll be able to do one in 2021 or certainly in 2022 and we would love to get more individuals and organizations involved. So, we really do absolutely encourage people to reach out.

Steve Quirk:

And I'll encourage them to go to MRGivesBack.org. You can fill out a form, you can donate if you want. And also, we have a quarterly e-newsletter, which gives great information on what we're up to and ways to get involved. Well Andra, thank you for your time. Great chatting with you, cheers and here is to a great holiday season and 2021.

Andra Davidson:

Cheers to that.

Steve Quirk:

All right, take care.

Andra Davidson:

You too.