Lucas Patchett and Nick Marchesi of Orange Sky Laundry with QUT Chancellor, Tim Fairfax AC (centre).

On Tuesday 19 April some of the Giving Australia team from QUT were fortunate to attend a presentation by Nick Marchesi and Lucas Patchett of Orange Sky Laundry. From humble beginnings 18 months ago (one van fitted with donated machines) this charity has now achieved national and international recognition. It operates in 62 locations around Australia, has over 500 volunteers, and to date has washed over 105,000 kg of clothes for homeless people and people in need. Read more

Giving Australia at the Charity Fundraising Australia & Abroad special forum

We recently welcomed the opportunity to attend the Windsor Recruitment Charity Fundraising Australia & Abroad special forum. Thanks to Dylys and Windsor Recruitment for hosting us on the day.

Attendees at the forum included (L-R) Cherie Nicholas, Manager, Community Program – Smiling for Smiddy (Mater Foundation); Bruce McDonald, Fundraising Director (Heart Foundation); Cameron Prout, CEO (Children’s Hospital Foundation); and Annette Rafter, Consultant (Windsor Recruitment).

Share your real photos of real people taking real actions!

Are you involved with a charity or nonprofit organisation? Are you a volunteer or a philanthropist? Does someone close to you volunteer in or give to your local community?

ACPNS is on the lookout for photos of real people taking real action in the fields of giving and volunteering across Australia. We have a range of publications on giving, volunteering and the nonprofit sector in which your photos may be published. The findings of our research projects help people and nonprofit organisations as well as benefit communities across Australia.

Click on the links below to submit your real photos! For more details or to share by Dropbox, email us at acpns@qut.edu.au

Real Photos Submission Form

Real Photos Information

Giving Australia is interested in how our giving compares with other nations’. Thanks to 2016 ACPNS Ian Potter Foundation Fellow Bob Wyatt, CEO of Canada’s Muttart Foundation for this blog.

Trying to figure out how much Canadians give to charities each year is a bit of a confusing exercise, depending on which data you wish to use.

Statistics Canada annually reports the amount of money individual taxfilers claim by way of charitable-donation tax credit.  (In Canada, any donation to a registered charity is eligible for a tax credit; there is no subset of charities such as exists in Australia with deductible gift recipients.)

But there is also a study undertaken by Statistics Canada as part of the General Social Survey (GSS) that asks Canadians how much they donated to charities and nonprofit organizations in the previous 12 months.

The numbers are substantially different.

Read more

Giving Australia at the 2016 National Volunteering Conference

Project Director Dr Wendy Scaife (right – pictured here with Alexandra Gartmann, Managing Director of Rural Bank) travelled recently to the 2016 National Volunteering Conference and presented on Giving Australia 2016. To find out more about Giving Australia 2016 please register on our website to receive updates.

Participating in our research

If you would like to participate in Giving Australia 2016 research, please register on our website (under the tab “Participate in our research”).

The Giving Australia 2016 project encompasses a range of research activities, including focus groups, dynamic interviews and one-on-one interviews, as well as a number of surveys.

You can keep up-to-date with the latest activities by registering on the website and making sure to click Yes to “Are you interested in receiving updates from the project?”.

Dr Diana Leat, Visiting Academic at ACPNS

By Dr Diana Leat, Visiting Academic at ACPNS

One of the biggest potential aids to encouraging giving is good communications – and, in particular, widespread media coverage. But not all media coverage is equal. In the current competition for party nominations in the US Presidential elections, it has been estimated that Donald Trump has received over $1 billion of free media coverage simply because what he says and how he says it makes headlines. For Trump whether the coverage is ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’ may not matter as much as the very fact of being in the headlines every day. For charities being in the headlines is more complicated – content is, arguably, way more important than coverage.

Many charities may wish to hit the headlines more often – and that is presumably one reason why charities are generally more than happy to be associated with celebrities. When celebrity endorsement of a particular organisation or a cause goes smoothly it is assumed to be of considerable value even though it is debatable how much we really know about the effects of celebrity association on giving. Am I more likely to give to X because my favourite boy band is associated with X? Or is it simply because X gets more media mentions because of its association with the band?

Read more