Beyond the 5% Rule: Why charity trustees should invest for impact
Paul Ronalds, CEO, Save the Children Global Ventures
Fri, 11 Jul 2025
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Or some would argue that if you want to generate social or environmental impact from your investments, you have to compromise financial returns. This debate matters because society desperately needs to unlock large, patient chunks of capital to use to scale innovations that can solve the planet’s biggest social and environmental challenges, writes Paul Ronalds, CEO of Save the Children Global Ventures.
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Best practice lives at home too: Insights from North American philanthropy
Andrew Binns, CEO, Australian Communities Foundation
Fri, 11 Jul 2025
North America often looms large in the philanthropic imagination. It’s home to some of the world’s most storied foundations, biggest givers and boldest initiatives. Andrew Binns, CEO of Australian Communities Foundation, has had two weeks of meetings and conversations across Canada and the US. He has returned with a powerful reminder: the most effective and innovative philanthropy isn’t confined to one part of the world. Best practice lives here, too.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Funders Reporting Survey – Interactive
Fri, 11 Jul 2025
In celebration of NAIDOC Week 2025, Philanthropy Australia launches an accessible interactive platform to spotlight key findings from this benchmark survey published earlier in the year. It highlights how funders can shift practice towards greater self-determination and inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in philanthropy.
How can philanthropy support more emerging First Nations leaders?
Dee Rudebeck, Advisor, News and Storytelling
Fri, 11 Jul 2025
NAIDOC Week’s theme of ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy’ speaks to the role of future leaders. Dr Bhiamie Williamson is Senior Lecturer at Monash University where he leads the National Indigenous Disaster Resilience research program. He shares his experience of leadership and says that philanthropy must back the next generation’s new ideas to really shift entrenched disadvantage.
Canberra Foundations Collaborative boosts social projects with $1.94m in grants
Fri, 27 Jun 2025
As more Canberrans turn to community services for support, a local philanthropic collective has joined forces for the fourth year to deliver a $1.94 million boost to 71 vital community projects across the region.
The power of Five Bucks: founder Brianna Kerr on ‘going small to go big’
Dee Rudebeck, Advisor, News and Storytelling
Fri, 27 Jun 2025
Five Bucks – a giving community where members chip in $5 a week – is all about ‘going small to go big’. Giving News talks with the founder of this collective giving initiative as the community distributes its first $62,000. In this Q&A, Brianna Kerr shares fascinating insights on the democratisation of giving in action – and what’s in store for year two.
Sydney Women’s Fund emergency domestic violence appeal was ‘saving lives’ in weeks
Dee Rudebeck, Advisor, News and Storytelling
Fri, 27 Jun 2025
Sometimes there’s only a window of a few hours to get locks changed and save a woman’s life. Weave Youth & Community Services, a Sydney not-for-profit that works at the ‘pointy end’ of keeping women and children safe from domestic violence, has a trusted team of trauma-informed tradies on call to do the job. The work is funded in part from an emergency appeal by the Sydney Women’s Fund that was in Weave’s hands within weeks.
