Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025 – draft program released!
Dee Rudebeck, Advisor, News and Storytelling
Fri, 30 May 2025
Amid much anticipation and registrations filling fast, Philanthropy Australia is excited to announce the first round of program highlights for its Leadership Summit 2025. They include keynote speaker, the international author and ‘polycrisis’ expert Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, Australian social commentator Dr Rebecca Huntley, highly regarded MCs from the Australian sector, stimulating lightning talks and much more.
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Sector leaders react to Gates Foundation’s historic plan to spend down US$200bn
Fri, 16 May 2025
Bill Gates has announced that the Gates Foundation plans to spend its endowment and ‘virtually all’ of his personal wealth totaling US$200 billion in the next 20 years to accelerate its mission of ‘saving and improving lives around the world’. Here, four leaders from the Australian philanthropic sector, Daniel Petre, Audette Exel, Peter Johnstone and Maree Sidey react.
‘Listen, learn and see where we can assist’: international giving at its heart
Sophie Marcard, Director, Marketing and Communications, Philanthropy Australia
Fri, 2 May 2025
Thanks to an introduction by the Australian International Development Network (AIDN), Giving News had a chat with Anna and Darrell Wade. Darrell is Chair and Non-Executive Director of the Intrepid Foundation and co-founded Intrepid Travel. Anna has worked with the Intrepid Foundation for more than 17 years, progressing campaigns on issues including animal welfare, human rights and economic empowerment.
What should philanthropy do about the US freeze on aid?
Benjamin Bellegy, Executive Director at WINGS
Fri, 7 Mar 2025
Here we are. The entirety of USAID’s, the biggest bilateral aid donor on earth, programmes were suddenly frozen last week by US President Trump. The organisation’s website is now offline, and the Trump administration is moving to put the free-standing agency under the umbrella of the State Department. Elon Musk, who now holds a key position in Trump’s government, has called the USAID ‘criminal’ and said it’s ‘time for it to die’.
War Child Canada: How a Caribbean conversation is leading to a better education for Congolese girls
Allison Harding
Fri, 25 Oct 2024
War has many victims and perhaps the most tragic are children. War Child Canada has established a radio education program so girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo can learn at home to avoid the risk of sexual attack on the way to school. The program is supported by DECJUBA Foundation after an unlikely meeting on Richard Branson’s island.
You have to see it to believe it: visiting organisations on-the(ir)-ground is catalytic
Julie Rosenberg, CEO, Australian International Development Network
Fri, 16 Feb 2024
The Australian International Development Network (AIDN) conducts Insight Tours designed to connect philanthropists, donors and impact investors with diverse, locally led development initiatives overseas to help break down barriers to funding. Julie Rosenberg, AIDN CEO, shares her experiences of a recent tour to illustrate how developing on-the-ground, trust-based relationships is key to increasing Australia’s support for global challenges.
How impact investment is making a difference in global health equity
Mark Sullivan AO, founder and managing director of Medicines Development for Global Health
Fri, 2 Feb 2024
Impact investing is playing a critical and growing role in the development of medicines to treat ‘neglected diseases’ affecting the world’s poorest and most underserved peoples. These medicines would not otherwise be developed by the pharmaceutical industry, which is primarily driven by financial returns. Here, Mark Sullivan AO, founder and managing director of Medicines Development for Global Health, an Australian biopharmaceutical not-for-profit, describes how this finance model is supporting the development of Moxidectin – a potential gamechanger for the WHO’s roadmap to ending river blindness by 2030.
