philanthropyOz Blog

Tasmanian Bushfires - donation and emergency info

Here is some information for those seeking to assist in response to the recent bushfires in Tasmania:

For donations: Red Cross and the State Government are working together to provide support to people who have been forced to flee their homes or lost their homes due to the fire. See the link below for more information about their response and if you or your organisation would like to make a donation of money or goods. All of the money will go directly to those in need with none going to administration costs.

http://www.redcross.org.au/tasmanian-bushfires-appeal-2013.aspx

For those seeking to direct calls for assistance:

• Housing Tasmania is providing emergency accommodation for people affected by bushfires. For more information phone 6233 8829.
• Refuge centres have been set up, which offer medical assistance, counselling, food, advice and support, in the following locations: Nubeena – Civic Centre, Sorrell – Cole Street, Sorrell, Hobart City Hall – Macquarie Street, Hobart

For more information go to http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/emergency_info

Emergency relief for Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines

Over the past few days Typhoon Bopha (Pablo) has devastated south eastern provinces of the Philippines, with some calling it “Hurricane Sandy Times Two”. The death toll today is approaching 500 people, with thousands more left injured and destitute. Urgent appeals for disaster relief have been issued by charities working on the ground.

The Australian government has also committed to providing $5 million for survival kits and 1,000 tonnes of emergency food aid.

Australians wishing to make tax-deductible donations can do so via the following organisations:

• Oxfam Australia - Phone 1800 088 110
• Australian Red Cross - Phone 1800 811 700
• Caritas Australia - Phone 1800 024 413
• Plan International Australia - Phone 13 75 26
• World Vision Australia  - Phone 13 32 40

Vale Dame Elisabeth Murdoch

Vale Dame Elisabeth Murdoch

Philanthropy Australia is greatly saddened by the passing of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch on the evening of Wednesday 5 December, 2012, at the age of 103.

Over many years, Dame Elisabeth has generously supported a wide range of projects and organisations in the arts, education, medical research, conservation and social welfare. Her support has enhanced the capacities of libraries, galleries, hospitals and artistic companies, as well as having allowed exciting new ideas in community development, rehabilitation and creative expression to take root and grow.

Dame Elisabeth’s giving nature was ignited in her boarding school years, when she visited the Children’s Hospital, creating a lifelong dedication to the hospital and children’s causes. After her marriage to Keith Murdoch, her association with the hospital was strengthened when she was invited to join the management committee in 1933. She initiated the Good Friday Appeal and has participated in the hospital’s major fundraising efforts, taking over responsibility for the planning and construction of the new improved Children’s Hospital. After nine years’ work, the new hospital was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963.

After resigning as president of the Children’s Hospital in 1965, Dame Elizabeth became the first female trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria. In ensuing years she became a strong driver for several arts-based organisations, including the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, and the Victorian Tapestry Workshop. She has supported over 100 charitable organisations. Just a few of the organisations which have benefited from her support are the Australian Ballet, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Hanover, Opera Australia, Cottage by the Sea, Australian Bush Heritage Fund, Somebody’s Daughter Theatre, the Bionic Ear Institute and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

Dame Elisabeth’s great joy was her garden at her home, Cruden Farm, which has frequently been opened to charitable organisations for fundraising purposes.

Dame Elisabeth was a Life Member of Philanthropy Australia, which held a celebration of her life at the Melbourne Town Hall in 2003. Dame Elisabeth’s comment on the celebration was, “Philanthropy is such a joy - I feel I have been the fortunate one. I’m so grateful for the opportunities I have had to become involved with the most splendid people.”

Dame Elisabeth led with her giving. She was never afraid to talk publicly about her support in an effort to encourage more Australians to follow her lead.

The depth and breadth of Dame Elisabeth’s generosity and engagement with those she supported, have become a benchmark for Australian giving. She has become an early embodiment of the rising trend towards lifelong, engaged philanthropy.

The full extent of her largesse will probably never be fully known as she supported so many different charities as well as individuals- both large and small- with gifts large and small.

Dame Elisabeth will be remembered as one of Australia’s greatest ever philanthropists.

Westpac Foundation announces $1.8M in grants

Westpac Foundation have announced their Seed Funding and National Innovation Grant programs, which will award over $1.8 million to eight not-for-profits.

Six Seed Funding Grants have been awarded to new social enterprise and social innovation projects:

• 100 Story Building - Vic
• Sandgate and Bracken Ridge Action Group Inc. - Qld
• Sensorium Theatre - WA
• Australian Rites of Passage Institute - NSW
• Mamre House - NSW
• Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance Aboriginal Corporation - NSW

The two National Innovation Grants have been awarded to established projects with plans for expansion:

• Landcare Australia
• Resource Recovery

Through its grants, Westpac Foundation seeks to develop communities in an attempt to ensure the long-term unemployed, Indigenous Australians, refugees, the homeless, and individuals with a disability feel engaged and included.

Westpac Foundation’s Executive Officer Susan Bannigan said the Foundation and Westpac Group work together to provide volunteering and mentoring support, financial education and customised banking solutions that help grantees maximise the impact of their work which seeks to eradicate disadvantage in Australia.”

Since 1999, Westpac Foundation has distributed over $25 million in grants to not for profit organisations across Australia.

Read the press release or find more details on the Westpac Foundation website.

ACNC Bills receive Royal Assent; ACNC Website Launched

Legislation to establish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has now received Royal Assent, meaning that the ACNC can officially commence operations as Australia’s charity regulator.

With its official start date, the ACNC website has now moved from its old space at acnctaskforce.treasury.gov.au to http://www.acnc.gov.au/.

Guest Post: Kids In Philanthropy launching in Melbourne

This post written by Amanda Miller, Kids in Philanthropy.

“No more pollution, peace in the world, no more homeless people, and of course, lots of lollies…” Those are some of the answers given by young children to describe the kind of world they would like to live in at the recent Kids in Philanthropy Melbourne family afternoon. Whilst lollies featured high on the priorities list, so did orphanages, indigenous children, the environment (’no more factories’) and children who do not have enough food to eat.

Photo: Kids in Philanthropy Melbourne family afternoon, November 2012

Kids in Philanthropy is a not-for-profit sub-fund of the Sydney Community Foundation. It focuses on building social awareness, social conscience and a practice of giving, in kids for kids. KIP aims to engage children between the ages of 5 and 18 years, and their families, in an annual program of active philanthropy where activity is focused on raising awareness of local areas of need, and providing opportunities for these young people to take a leadership role in addressing these areas of need.

With KIP Sydney having been successfully established earlier this year, and planning well underway for the first program it is funding, the natural next step was to set up KIP Melbourne. KIP Melbourne will have up to ten Advisory Board members (there are already six), who will each contribute seed funding to be invested in projects / programs involving disadvantaged youth in Melbourne. The children of the KIP families will also engage in fundraising activities, will learn about giving and the disadvantage that exists in our local communities, and will interact with children in those communities. KIP workshops will also be run for families with the aim of engaging kids in the benefits of giving.

Photo: Kids in Philanthropy Melbourne family afternoon, November 2012

KIP parents are motivated by a desire to pass onto their young children an awareness that whilst they lead a privileged life, not all other children are as fortunate as they are. KIP teaches children that just as sport and learning are part of their lives, so too is giving. The belief is that if we embed a culture of giving from a young age, children will grow up naturally taking on the responsibility of helping those in need. KIP kids will learn that there are children just like them, who live only half an hour away, but don’t have books to read, enough food to eat or a warm bed at night. They will interact with these children and contribute to raising funds to help them.

Last Sunday, KIP Melbourne held its first information session for those interested in being involved. 30 adults and more than 30 children, aged 2 - 11, enjoyed a wonderful discussion about what philanthropy means, through the eyes of children. Whilst some of the children were not sure what ‘that big word’ meant, many understood that it had something to do with ‘helping other people’ and ‘raising money and giving it to people who need help’.

Photo: Kids in Philanthropy Melbourne family afternoon, November 2012

It was fascinating to hear of some of the ideas the children had for helping other kids, such as inviting a homeless child to live in their house. Many of the children had already given away their birthday presents to other causes, such as the RSPCA and Victorian communities affected by the bushfires, but there were lots of other ideas for fundraising, including bake sales, lemonade stands, making things and selling them and sports days.

The enthusiasm and excitement generated by the day has led to a group of the KIP Melbourne kids planning a cake bake / lemonade stand / toy sale to take place in Malvern in early December. The KIP Melbourne parents are also going full steam ahead and have already started considering projects for their first allocation of funding.

For more information or if you are interested in being involved, please visit www.kip.org.au or contact KIP Advisory Board member Amanda Miller: amanda.miller@me.com.

ACNC legislation passed; ACNC to begin operations in December

Amended legislation to enable the establishment of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) passed the Senate yesterday, was referred back for the Lower House to consider the amendments, and passed through the Lower House this morning. The ACNC is now able to commence operations, and is expected to do so in December 2012.

This means that registration and regulation of charities in Australia will pass from the Australian Taxation Office to an independent, specialised entity in the form of the ACNC.

For more information:

• ACNC’s Facebook announcement
• Homepage for the ACNC Bills

New issue of Australian Philanthropy journal - Brave Philanthropy: taking risks and testing solutions

Brave Philanthropy: taking risks and testing solutions is the theme of our latest issue of Australian Philanthropy, Issue 82, Spring 2012.

Lisa Jordan, executive director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation wrote in Alliance magazine, (March 2012) “…taking risks is an inherent responsibility of organised philanthropy … to use private money to try to solve intractable problems … The question is, do we?” While foundations often explore and plan for financial risk in their investment management, there is little understanding of risk on the program side. “We have no forums where risk can be discussed … and we rarely use the tools we have such as evaluation to help us understand the degree to which we have succeeded or failed.”

The question of failure is a tricky one – it assumes we have identified a measure of achievement to be aimed for, and fallen short of that bar. But how many foundations have actually identified the impact they want to make in a given place or field, let alone measured success against those aims? If, on the other hand, the only true failure is a grant that nothing is learned from, why do many foundations inhibit the extent of their successes by not sharing the learnings? Issue 82 investigates whether Australian philanthropy does indeed take risks in its grant-making and learn from both its successes and failures.

SELECTED ARTICLES

Innovation doesn’t grow on trees - the art of finding and funding new solutions (PDF)

By Brenton Caffin, CEO, The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI)

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation works with people to create and spread new ways to lead better lives. We heard the call from the child protection system and in response we undertook a project to explore ways of preventing families fromb spiralling into crisis and to enable more families to thrive. The result was Family by Family.

Interview: Eda Ritchie (PDF)

The R. E. Ross Trust, funding across Victoria, is one of the most innovative and respected foundations in the country, showing leadership across grant-making, communications and transparency. Eda Ritchie joined the Trust as trustee in 1997 and Louise Arkles asked her about the importance of risk-taking in philanthropy.

Interview: Dr Sam Prince (PDF)

Picture this: a Scottish-born Australian doctor with Sri Lankan heritage running a chain of Mexican restaurants alongside his work in emergency medicine and doing aid work in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and now in remote communities in the Northern Territory. Phew!
Dr Sam Prince lives this life – he’s a medical doctor, a business entrepreneur, and the founder of the charities Emagine Foundation and One Disease at a Time, and to top it off he’s not yet 30. Louise Arkles, editor of Australian Philanthropy, asked Sam Prince about his philanthropy and his approach to taking risks and testing solutions.

Browse the full contents list on the PhilanthropyWiki

» Click here for more information on the Australian Philanthropy Journal

Members of Philanthropy Australia can download the full PDF version of issue 82 here (requires Member login)

New CEO for Philanthropy Australia

Philanthropy Australia (PA) today announced the appointment of a new CEO, Louise Walsh. This follows the resignation of Dr Deborah Seifert.

Ms Walsh brings extensive corporate, government, not for profit and philanthropic leadership and planning experience to the role. A former corporate lawyer with Allens Arthur Robinson, Louise has worked on Sydney’s Olympic Bid, corporate partnerships for the 2000 Olympic Games and the City of Sydney, before becoming Director of Development for the Sydney Symphony.

Most recently, Louise has been founding Director of Artsupport Australia, an initiative of the Australian Government agency, the Australia Council for the Arts, to grow cultural philanthropy. During her 10-year tenure, Artsupport Australia has facilitated over $77 million of philanthropic funds for Australia’s cultural sector across hundreds of organisations and individual artists.

Outgoing Dr Seifert has been Chief Executive of Philanthropy Australia for two years during which time she has undertaken a major strategic review of the organisation.

“Deborah, who has spent most of her career in education, has also been responsible for growing membership, managing the organisation’s finances in a tight post-GFC environment, developing new workshops and educational tools for the sector and organising next month’s Philanthropy Australia conference, which will bring together an outstanding line up of international and national speakers,” President of Philanthropy Australia, Mr Bruce Bonyhady AM said.

“Deborah has provided valuable leadership over the past two years, and I thank her for her many contributions and wish her all the best for the future,” he said.

Louise Walsh will take up her appointment from 8 October 2012.

“Louise’s deep understanding of philanthropy, the arts and the non-profit sector more generally, coupled with her personal passion, will provide dynamic leadership in a new era for Philanthropy Australia. Louise is already well known to many of our members through her highly successful development of Artsupport over the past decade. This is an exciting development for Philanthropy Australia and Australian philanthropy” said Bruce Bonyhady.

Ms Walsh’s primary task will be to deliver on the outcomes of the recent strategic review of Philanthropy Australia, complemented by her particular focus on impact investing, cultivating the new generation of young philanthropists, and private and corporate initiatives such as matchfunding and workplace giving.

Following the Australian Government’s recent announcement of the future merger of Artsupport Australia and the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF), Ms Walsh will also be working closely with the Council of Philanthropy Australia to explore common areas of interest between Philanthropy Australia and the new arts entity as it takes shape.

“Philanthropy Australia has significant reach across many areas of philanthropic interest, including welfare, education and health as well as arts and culture and we believe there are significant benefits from close partnerships in philanthropy to grow the sector” said Bruce Bonyhady.

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For further information please contact President Bruce Bonyhady via the Philanthropy Australia Office on 03 9662 9299 or at info@philanthropy.org.au.

New Seminar Series: How Australia Gives

Philanthropy Australia is delighted to announce the first in a new series of seminars, How Australia Gives, in which we draw together leading examples of philanthropic endeavour. We will highlight the many and varied examples of How Australia Gives to inspire donors and encourage not-for-profits.

The first seminar is Granting By Trustee Companies - Traditionalists And Trailblazers.

Trustee companies have been a part of the Australian philanthropic landscape since 1878. Traditionally involved with the execution of estates and bequests trustee companies are now more actively involved with living donors particularly through the establishment of private ancillary funds (PAFs) and public ancillary funds (PuAFs).

This seminar will bring together presenters from four of Australia’s leading trustee companies to discuss the philosophy and processes behind their grant-making strategies.

Charitable trusts provide a vital and perpetual source of funding for NFPs. Between them ANZ Trustees, Equity Trustees, Perpetual Trustees and The Trust Company manage almost 1300 charitable trusts consisting of $3 billion in funds under management and distributing over $160 million in discretionary funds each year.

In this How Australia Gives seminar, four major trends in philanthropy will form the backdrop:

1. Exploring new models of financing for not-for-profits: how will charitable foundations participate, and how will this change the charitable sector?
2. Increased giving trends measured over the long term, including structured giving, are leading to the emergence of a larger, more fragmented and complex philanthropic sector: what does this mean for not-for-profits and advisors?
3. How is the trend toward ‘giving while living’ changing the relationships between donors and charities, and donors with their foundations and advisors?
4. The increasing demands in philanthropic governance: transparency; the emergence of social return on investment and social impact measures; and calls for accountability in philanthropy.

Speakers:

• Teresa Zolnierkiewicz, ANZ Trustees
• Andrew Thomas, Perpetual
• Tabitha Lovett, Equity Trustees
• Simon Lewis, The Trust Company
• Dr Deborah Seifert, Philanthropy Australia
• Rikki Andrews, Philanthropy Australia

For more information including a schedule for the session and speaker bios, see How Australia Gives on our website.