Thanks to Karen Armstrong from FIA and More Strategic for contributing a guest blog on including charities in wills. More information about the Include a Charity campaign can be found at the Include a Charity website and this week is Include a Charity Week.

This week, more than 100 charities are coming together, united in promoting a single cause: to encourage more Australians to leave a gift to a charity in their will.

While 87% of Australians support charities in one way or another in their lifetimes, only 7.5% actually follow through and leave a gift in their will to charity (Giving Australia 2005).

There is a perception that gifts in wills are only for the wealthy, but that’s not the case. Including a gift to a charity, no matter how big or small, can help charities continue their work into the future and really make a lasting difference. While we often only hear about gifts in the millions, the mid-point for a specified gift is $7,000, reflecting that Australians every day are demonstrating their generosity. Equal numbers of Australians are leaving smaller and larger gifts than $7,000 (Baker 2014).

Watch our giving to charities video about three Australians leaving gifts and you’ll see a common theme of a personal connection to the cause, or an inherent altruism, seeking a brighter future for the next generation. We also know from James’ research that in practice one’s visual autobiography is activated in the brain when one talks of leaving a gift in a will (2013). Connecting the autobiographical story of our supporters to our charities is absolutely key to any discussions we have with people considering including a charity.

Include a Charity Week at Taronga Zoo.

Many of Australia’s most respected charities support the week-long campaign including the Australian Red Cross, Cancer Council, Compassion, RSPCA, World Vision, Salvation Army, The Smith Family, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Vision Australia, The Heart Foundation and the list goes on. Together, we work to do what no single charity can do on their own – change the way Australians think about including charities in their will.

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We are proud to announce that Associate Professor Wendy Scaife (Giving Australia 2016 project director) and Alexandra Williamson (Giving Australia 2016 team member) have been featured in today’s edition of The Conversation. Please visit The Conversation’s website to read about the fascinating topic of arts philanthropy in Australia and what the future may hold for this special area of giving.

Photo courtesy visualhunt.com

Juliette Wright, founder of GIVIT. Our thanks go to Juliette for taking the time to share her inspiring story.

I get unbelievably sad when I think 2.5 million Australians are living in poverty, with one in six being children. Many do not have the simple items they need to get through the day or week. A child’s mum can’t afford the bus ticket to the doctor, a person experiencing homelessness doesn’t have a warm blanket for the night, and a refugee needs books to help learn English.

Imagine the difference we could make if every Australian undertook an act of kindness and gave one of their pre-loved items to someone else who really needed it.

In 2009, I started GIVIT with a goal of making giving easy. I wanted to alleviate the effects of poverty in Australia by ensuring every charity has what it needs through the simple act of in-kind giving.

Following the birth of my second child in 2008, I was surprised at the struggle endured trying to donate second-hand baby clothes to someone in need. Instead, local charities were searching for essential items such as sanitary products for women who had fled domestic violence, steel-capped boots to enable unemployed fathers to secure work and clean mattresses to stop disadvantaged children sleeping on the floor.

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Lisa Grinham, CEO of Good2Give and Dr Lisa O’Brien, CEO of The Smith Family and Chair of the Charity Taskforce, Australian Charities Fund, discuss workplace giving in this guest blog. Our sincere thanks to them for their wonderful contribution.

Strange to think that despite the increasing sophistication of employers bringing to life corporate social responsibility in their companies, workplace giving remains an outlier.

A workplace giving program allows employees to make a donation direct from their pre-tax pay, meaning donors receive their tax benefits immediately. This in turn saves charities from having to administer thousands of tax receipts for each workplace giving donation they receive – saving precious time and money.

And companies who administer these programs frequently choose to boost staff goodwill by matching their donations. It looks like this. $70 from the donor’s pocket, $30 forfeited by the ATO, and $100 from the company – turns into $200 for the recipient charity. Plus little to no administration for the payroll team or the charity. That’s a win all round.

Yet despite all our advancements over the last ten years, workplace giving in Australia isn’t growing as quickly as it could. Few Australian employers and employees are participating. Why? Especially when it’s the most tax-effective model of giving for all parties involved.

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The Giving Australia 2016 team would like to thank Natalie Silver, PhD candidate at ACPNS, for this blog post. 

We live in a world where people are financially and socially more connected than ever before. In the same way that economic globalisation transformed the global economy in the 20^th century, the dramatic rise in international philanthropy in the 21^st century has significantly altered the global philanthropic landscape. From 1991 to 2011, the OECD estimated that cross-border philanthropy from donor countries to the developing world grew from approximately US$5 billion to US$32 billion. If private donations combined were a country, they would constitute the world’s largest donor.

The global philanthropic landscape has been altered not only in terms of the amount of international philanthropy, but also the form that giving takes. New web-based technologies such as e-philanthropy and online giving and an array of social media have provided the infrastructure for a global philanthropic marketplace. A rise in international migration and an increasingly mobile international workforce has generated significant diaspora giving and remittances to home countries. New forms of social investment have also emerged, employing nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid structures. These financing mechanisms have been introduced by a new breed of global philanthropists giving large amounts of their wealth to tackle contemporary social problems and long-term global challenges that governments have been unable, or unwilling, to solve.

The United States has been at the forefront of the globalisation of philanthropy, with OECD figures showing that US private philanthropy to developing countries in 2013 was almost US$23 billion, a nearly tenfold increase from 1990. From the architects of modern philanthropy, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, who demonstrated a strong commitment to international causes, to Chuck Feeney and George Soros who established multi-billion-dollar philanthropic foundations serving as vehicles for large-scale cross-border giving, the US has been an engine of international philanthropy powered by its wealthiest citizens. No where is this more evident than the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the OECD’s official aid data, the Gates Foundation is now the largest funder in the global health arena outside the US and UK governments, spending more annually on global health than the World Health Organisation.

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Again we are pleased to present to you a selected real photos of real people taking real actions image. More photos are to come.

Lending A Helping Hand

Help Me With It is a new way to get help and to help others. Help Me With It is a service connecting individuals who need help to do one-off tasks with individuals who can volunteer their time to fix, clean, care, shop, transport, garden, sort, teach and more. The Brisbane pilot of the service has just finished, and it will be launched in late 2016 in South-east Queensland. For more information about Help Me With It, please go to the website at www.helpmewithit.org.au

Don’t forget, if you are involved with a charity or nonprofit organisation, or if you are a volunteer or a philanthropist, we would love to tell your story.

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 and benefit communities across Australia.

We joined Angela from McNair Ingenuity Research on the phone and toasted the end of the Giving Australia 2016 Household Survey with our version of champagne (sparkling apple juice). Over 6,200 telephone interviews were completed with individuals Australia-wide on their experiences in giving and volunteering. Congratulations to everyone involved!

The Giving Australia 2016 team celebrates with apple juice. From L-R: Sandy Gadd, Dr Denise Conroy, Marie Crittall, Assoc Prof Wendy Scaife,  and Dr Matthew Flynn.

The Giving Australia 2016 team is pleased to present to you one of the first of our real photos of real people taking real actions. More photos will be published in the coming weeks.

Spreading the Word

This photo was taken at the Logan Social Enterprise Expo and features Leanne Paulsen, Company Director of Project4Change Ltd, a Not for Profit Community Enterprise Property Development company. Project4Change is building homes in the outer Brisbane area to provide affordable housing for low income earners and those who are marginalised in society. Their current project is the construction of an Integrated Community in Leichardt, a suburb of Ipswich. The project consists of 21 residences comprising of 17 stand-alone 3 bedroom townhouses, 2 gold level adaptable disability (with carer-accommodation) units and two single bedroom, single level units, primarily for women over 50 as ageing in place. For more information, visit www.project4change.org.au

Don’t forget, if you are involved with a charity or nonprofit organisation, or if you are a volunteer or a philanthropist, we would love to tell your story.

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 and benefit communities across Australia.

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.

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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?

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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 Information

Real Photos Submission Form

A blog to help celebrate Give Now Week and Giving Tuesday 2015

By Dr Wendy Scaife, Project Director, Giving Australia 2015*

*Giving Australia 2015 is

• the largest ever research undertaken into Australian giving and volunteering
• funded by the Department of Social Services and an initiative of the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership
• a collaborative effort by the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT, CSI Swinburne and the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, with support from sector partners Volunteering Australia, Philanthropy Australia, Fundraising Institute Australia and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal.

Like many, I truly respect the nonprofit and philanthropy sector. It’s not perfect but it is great: its fervour for every kind of cause; its clout to effect change; its passion for and by people; its compelling voice for those humans, animals and landscapes that have none.

Its ironies should be cherished: its most valuable workers are often unpaid, those with most help those with least and the worst in society brings out the best in our people; equality-based entities battle inequality and tenaciously pursue profit for nonprofit purposes; and the sector works with, while also advocating against corporate or government actions.

It is a unique and inspiring space and force.

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