Genevieve Jacobs:
Thank you all for coming. I put out the call to our fellow charities yesterday to say could we form a posse? So, could we get community foundations and local charities together? Because this is obviously an incredibly important announcement from the Assistant Minister.
We’re delighted to have Assistant Minister Leigh, who’s also the Member for Fenner here with us at the premises that we share with Bendigo Bank, for the headquarters of Hands Across Canberra. Also, the Member for Canberra, Alicia Payne, and the Member for Bean, David Smith, and a whole representative floor of the people who do good, good for the community in Canberra.
And also our wonderful guests, the CEO of Community Foundations Australia, Ian Bird and Krystian Seibert who has come to us from Philanthropy Australia, who both flew down for this occasion.
Alicia Payne:
Good morning, I am Alicia Payne, the Member for Canberra. It’s wonderful to be here this morning with so many representatives of really important organisations here in Canberra that do such important work for our community.
And, of course, Genevieve Jacobs from Hands Across Canberra and Ivan Slavich, here at Bendigo Bank, who do so much work for our community, for this really great announcement from Andrew Leigh as part of the important work he’s doing around philanthropy and charities. And great to be here with him, and also David Smith, the Member for Bean. Now I’ll hand over to Andrew Leigh.
Andrew Leigh:
Well thanks Alicia. It is great fun being a parliamentary representative alongside Alicia and Dave, who are just so immersed in their communities. Dave, who has done the big walk with Menslink – Ben Gathercole, thank you very much for all the work that you do. Alicia, who is so deeply involved in her community. We’ve got representatives here from Project Independence. Glenn Keys, thank you very much for being here today. From St John’s Ambulance, from Karinya House, from Cancer Council ACT and from many other organisations. Thank you all for being here to support this important announcement around community foundations.
Community foundations are a form of place‑based giving that nurture social capital and build community. They’re vital at a time in which Australia has become, over the last generation, increasingly a nation more of ‘me’ than of ‘we’. At a time when we need to deal with these twin challenges: rising inequality and declining community. Community foundations may be just the answer. In Canada, they have proven to be an effective model for encouraging giving, and we’re enthused about replicating that experience.
The Australian Government’s set a target to double philanthropy by 2030, and community foundations are an important pathway to achieving that goal. More than that though, they’re about trying to inspire local communities to solve local problems. Community foundations can help join up organisations, build bridges across local charities, and encourage new charities to deal with community challenges. Whether it’s encouraging kids to get off their devices and involved in sport, nurturing the arts community, or ensuring that the most vulnerable aren’t left behind.
Community foundations have a valuable role to play. In this journey, we’ve really benefited from the inspiration of Hands Across Canberra – an organisation, who under Genevieve’s leadership, continues to thrive and to provide a whole lot of connection through the Canberra community. But it’s just one of the exciting community foundations operating across the country.
You’ve got community foundations in Alice Springs and the Bass Coast. You’ve got community foundations in Geelong and in Albany. Community foundations dealing with local problems, helping to strengthen community life in Australia as part of that journey. We’ve benefited hugely from the leadership of Community Foundations Australia and from Philanthropy Australia. And it’s my pleasure to introduce Ian Bird from Community Foundations Australia to talk a little bit about what community foundations do and why today’s announcement is so important.
Ian Bird:
This is one of the great days. It’s great to be the CEO of a community foundation network. We have Assistant Minister Leigh, someone that will go down around the world as a leading public figure in community foundation development. What’s happening in Australia is putting Australia at the front of the global development of community philanthropy. The reasons for that is enabling legislation is the single most important thing to facilitate the kind of community giving that the Assistant Minister spoke about, to facilitate the kind of social capital development that comes from being a connected community, not one that’s being pulled apart, and the enabling legislation makes this and this, so everywhere the Assistant Minister’s right.
You know, we are hearing from communities all across the country. Moulamein, a small town in the Riverina, a big part of the future of our energy sector. 450 people, we’re working with them to start a community foundation. Brisbane doesn’t have a community foundation, so even their large – one of the largest cities in the country, they’re stepping forward now to begin their process of developing a particular kind of Queensland city philanthropy, working at the neighbourhood level in suburbs, in the ex‑urban environment and in the urban core, also in the Great Southern, building a network of community foundations. Small towns in Tasmania stepping forward.
It will also work for places just like Canberra. You know, because you’ve heard me speak about the unique form of philanthropy here in Canberra. It’s just like the representative showing up on mass here today. People in Canberra work together, and the enabling legislation that’s just been enacted will allow that to be expanded upon with hands across Canberra as a little finger in that.
So, it is a new era for community foundations in Australia. We’re now setting the pace around the world, and it’s true that none of that would have happened without the leadership from this government. It also wouldn’t have happened because so many other partners came together. So, I just want to echo what the Assistant Minister had to say. Our partnership with Philanthropy Australia, the groundbreaking, our partnership with many of the large private philanthropies created the capacity for us to sustain a campaign over a decade or more. But it’s also a partnership with citizens. People came and participated and showed up and informed what is now the leading legislation of the world. So thank you very much, Assistant Minister for all of that. And thank you Krystian and thank you Genevieve for hosting us. This is a fantastic day and we want it to be celebrated here in Australia. Thank you.
Leigh:
As you can tell with community foundations, we haven’t just taken a great Canadian idea. We’ve taken a great Canadian who has helped us make it work here.
Somebody who’s done a huge amount of work through Philanthropy Australia, but also, serving as a Productivity Commissioner on the once in a generation report on philanthropic giving, is Krystian Seibert. Krystian has worked on these issues tirelessly, since before the charities commission was even a thing. He’s somebody who has a deep commitment to community and to philanthropy. Krystian, it would be lovely to have you say a few words on behalf of Philanthropy Australia.
Krystian Seibert:
Thank you so much Andrew for those opening remarks, and to Genevieve and Hands Across Canberra for hosting. It’s been fantastic to work in partnership with Community Foundations Australia on this reform. And this is a big reform. It is a game changing reform. And I wanted to illustrate what this reform means practically, and why Australia and our partners have been advocating for this for nearly 20 years, and why today is such a great day to celebrate this reform commencing.
Until now, if you’ve got a community foundation and you want to receive a donation from a private foundation, a private auxiliary fund – you can’t because of the various restrictions that are in place. If you want to donate to a grassroots community group that don’t have a structure, they don’t have what’s called DGR status, it’s really hard to do it.
This reform changes all that. It removes the red tape, it removes those roadblocks, it removes those barriers to giving. And that’s what’s really important. And that’s why today is such an important day. Regulation and tax I get really excited about when it comes to philanthropy. It’s not the main reason people give, but it’s really important in terms of facilitating, supporting, encouraging and giving.
Around the world, it’s really rare to actually see a government pursue a deliberate policy to create something like this, to really support and grow giving. And so, I really want to applaud the Australian Government, and I really want to applaud Andrew’s leadership in terms of delivering and driving this. As Ian said, I think that is really exciting for the growth of philanthropy and community foundations in Australia. And it’s the sort of practical, tangible policy that you can really take a hold of that actually will really help us achieve the goal of doubling giving by 2030. So, thank you all for coming here today. And thanks again to Andrew and the Australian Government.
Leigh:
And today’s announcement is a story that affects communities across Australia. But, in particular it affects communities here in Canberra. The leader of Hands Across Canberra, Genevieve Jacobs is somebody who is deeply steeped in our community through work in the media, through local organisations. She has helped to organise today’s event, and it’s only fitting Genevieve that we throw to you today.
Jacobs:
Thank you so much Andrew. It’s absolutely an extraordinary reform that we have at hand today. Ian Bird is right, but here in Canberra, we do work very collaboratively together. And the crowd in this room is absolutely evidence of this. Because in addition to the charities, we also have representation from private foundations with whom we work with very closely.
The Snow Foundation’s work has been critical for us here at Hands Across Canberra. Our great friends from the John James Foundation who represent the medical community, Aspen Medical and wonderful to have Glenn Keys here, as the founder of Aspen Medical Foundation. But to this day, we’ve had to work around those relationships. We’ve had to find ways that we can make this work because the legislation was previously very restrictive. This reform is something that will free up an enormous flow of donations, of goodwill and good work. We’re in the midst of the Canberra Day Appeal as we speak. We have raised, I think Jo and I were looking at the ticker, very close to $450,000 today out of $750,000, which is very exciting. Those funds go to hundreds of local charities who are doing good on the front line and the capacity for private foundations, many of them quite small in and of themselves to donate directly to other foundations like us to help the flow of charities is going to be remarkably effective.
So it is a banner day, an extraordinary day. We always talk to people about giving where they live. That’s our motto here at Hands Across Canberra and the Canberra Day Appeal and I would strongly encourage everyone to do so. This reform makes that possible across the nation. Thank you.