‘Fund the glue’: Julia Gillard sets a compelling tone at Leadership Summit dinner

The Pre-Summit Dinner at the National Press Club with the Hon. Julia Gillard AC was the perfect way to kick off the Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025.

She delivered a powerful opening address to frame the coming discussions on leadership for our times. The only woman to have held the Australian prime ministership, she spoke of the two roles that are now “incredibly close to my heart” – Chair of the Wellcome Trust in London and Founder and Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.

Julia (main pic) congratulated Philanthropy Australia on its 50^th anniversary and highlighted the significant social impact of the sector. She shared some of her experiences of leading Wellcome, one of the biggest charitable foundations in the world with an endowment of £37bn (A$76bn) focused on taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious diseases and climate and health. 

But fulfilling her brief to be candid, she also spoke about some of the challenges she’s encountered when seeking funding from donors for the many causes she supports – giving the audience rich food for thought during the Summit.

She spotlighted the need to “fund the glue” in communities – the connecting organisations and groups around a program to create the best circumstances for it to succeed.

Julia ended by highlighting the heartening growth in giving in Australia and that the Productivity Commission predicts it will increase by 48% by 2030 to $6.4billion, but she urged the room to ask the questions: “Are we being bold enough? Are we thinking long-term enough? It’s incumbent on us all to forge a new approach.”

In conversation with Professor Michelle Ryan, Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, following her speech, Julia said the Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025 was an incredible opportunity to wrestle with big ideas. 

“Push each other hard to have tough discussions and you’ll come away with more clarity, particularly at this moment in human history, in this country, in this national capital.

“This is too good a moment to waste.”

Judging by the sentiment in the room, delegates could not wait to dive into those discussions the following day.

The dinner was held under the Chatham House rule, but Julia Gillard approved these comments post-event.