philanthropyOz Blog

Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize (USA)

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation invites nominations for the 2008 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize for organizations that have made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world.

The $1.5 million prize—the world’s largest humanitarian award—is presented annually to an established nonprofit, charitable, or non-governmental organization. The prize is not a grant based on future goals, but an award for recent and historic accomplishments. An independent international panel of jurors makes the final selection. The 2007 award will be presented in August and the 2008 prize will be announced in the fall of 2008.

Nominated organizations must have an operating budget greater than U.S. $500,000; further instructions and eligibility requirements are available on the Hilton Foundation website, www.hiltonfoundation.org (select Nomination Process from the Humanitarian Prize & Conferences tab). The nomination period for the 2008 prize begins August 1, 2007; nominations must be received or postmarked by November 6, 2007.

Contact:

Jean-Marc Moorghen
Manager, Hilton Humanitarian Prize
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
10100 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 1000
Los Angeles, California 90067-4011, USA
Telephone: (310) 556-4694 (USA)
Fax: (310) 694-9051 (USA)
E-mail: prize@hiltonfoundation.org
Website: www.hiltonfoundation.org

New Maimonides Society event

The Maimonides Society - Tricia Caswell: ‘What’s a greenie like me doing in a job like this?’
Tuesday 14 August 2007; 6.00 pm – 7.30 pm (Melbourne)

Go to the Events Calendar for more info.

Equity in response to Climate Change

There is now growing awareness that significant changes in climate are occurring due to increasing human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. A concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leads to rising temperatures and more extreme, unstable weather behaviour. In highlighting such physical impacts, however, conversations on climate change to date have overlooked the social impacts – impacts which need to be given equal weight to environmental and economic considerations if there is to be an adequate and effective response to climate change.

On 26 March this year, two welfare and two environmental NGOs: the Brotherhood of St Laurence, National Welfare Rights Network, the Australian Conservation Foundation and The Climate Institute, held a conference of great significance. The issue, ‘Equity in Response to Climate Change’, was placed firmly on the national agenda.

Go to the Climate Change page to download the key papers given at the conference.

Ten things (just ten!) that every nonprofit executive needs to know about information technology

This post from nonprofit tech Deborah Finn is a very accessible piece that should be read by anyone who is wary of taking the leap into technology! This piece lays out in simple language just why and information technology will work for your organisation (be it philanthropic or seeking funding) and your goals. Don’t worry about techy language - this piece has none, it deliberately speaks to you and your own understanding of the issues that matter to you.

Click here to read the post.

Asian Aucklanders and the Arts report (NZ)

Creative New Zealand, Auckland City Council and ASB Community Trust commissioned research company Colmar Brunton in 2006 to undertake qualitative research with Chinese, Indian, Korean and Japanese communities in the Auckland region.

The aim of the research was to gain an understanding of how Asian peoples engage with the arts. The findings, presented in this report, are an important first step in our journey to connect with and support the various communities in the Auckland region whose origins lie in the Asian region.

Click here to read the report (PDF).
Go to the Papers & Reports page.

Recommended Reading

• Culture Clash: Foundations Face Changing Definitions
  The question seems to be floating about all the philanthropy conferences and charity blogs: Can old-line traditional foundations compete in the changing world of philanthropy? But the better question might be this: Should they compete at all?
  By Tom Watson of onPhilanthropy, Feb 2007.
• What I’ve Learned by Tony Blair
  Tony Blair reflects on the lessons of his decade as Britain’s prime minister.
  Published in The Economist, May 2007.

Lumbu Indigenous Community Foundation ceases operations

The Lumbu Indigenous Community Foundation ceased operations in May 2007. You can read the brief official announcement here.

Commonwealth Bank Staff Community Fund launches another round of Local Grants

Grants up to $10,000 are now available for organisations supporting the health and wellbeing of Australian children. Online applications are open from Monday 9 July 2007 to Friday 17 August 2007.

The first round of grants in 2007 saw over $380,000 given to 53 organisations from across Australia. Projects ranged from recreation programs for children with disabilities, nutrition programs in schools and early intervention programs for at-risk children.

For this round of grants there is over $500,000 available for worthy causes.
To be eligible organisations need to:

• support the health and wellbeing of Australian children
• identify realistic, measurable and achievable project goals and outcomes
• be endorsed by the Australian Tax Office with Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status

The Commonwealth Bank Staff Community Fund is arguably the oldest workplace giving program in Australia, and has been actively helping local communities since 1917. Funds are raised through fortnightly contributions from current and retired Bank staff, to help support organisations that improve the health and welfare of Australian children.

The Bank meets the Fund’s administration costs, leaving every dollar raised available for distribution to worthy organisations nominated by the Fund’s committee of staff members.

Full details of the Local Grants Program are available on www.commbank.com.au/localgrants

News & Events

• 2007 Nonprofit Workout: The Ways We Lead, Creating Adaptive, Inclusive Organizations (USA), November 9th, 2007
  Go to the Events Calendar.

• EVPA- Annual European Conference (Spain) , October 25th, 2007
  Go to the Events Calendar.

• Transatlantic Community Foundation Network newsletter for June 2007
  Go to the Community Foundations Gateway.

Massive grant for leading youth mental health research centre

It was announced today that the Colonial Foundation will be providing a massive $17 million over five years to the ORYGEN Research Centre, bringing the Colonial Foundation’s total support to $30 million since seeding ORYGEN’s creation in 2002. Headed by Professor Patrick McGorry, the ORYGEN team has developed a service model which has received international acclaim. Key parts of the model have been implemented in Canada, the UK and New York, and ORYGEN has also been instrumental in the establishment of headspace, the new federally-funded National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

An eight-year study of early intervention in youth mental health disorders has also revealed that ORYGEN’s model is delivering a higher recovery rate at roughly half the cost of standard public mental health services. Individuals experiencing the ORYGEN program had more positive global outcomes, less severe psychotic symptoms and and a higher level of global functioning. The economic findings have also been replicated internationally. The findings of the study will be presented to the World Congress of the international health Economics Association in Denmark next week.

The Colonial Foundation grant to ORYGEN Youth Health represents one of the largest philanthropic grants made to health research in Australia, and will be used to further ORYGEN’s effective and unique work. For more information, a media release is available on ORYGEN’s website.