I have a question for you what comes to
mind when you hear the word philanthropy
who do you think of Bill Gates Oprah
maybe even Andrew Forrest what all these
people have in common
yes they’re all very wealthy very famous
business owners without a doubt their
giving is inspiring but it can also make
you feel that only certain people can be
philanthropist what if I told you that
you didn’t have to be rich and famous to
be a philanthropist back in 2012 I was
driving back to Perth with my good
friend Megan after running a community
workshop in 2j now I’ve loved
volunteering since I was 10 years old
and I have a confession to make one of
my favourite pastimes is actually
brainstorming ideas to change the world
for the better I know I know so Megan
and I were passing the time in the car
by sharing our latest ideas I told me
can about a book I just read about the
discrimination that women still face
around the world this book so moved me
that I just knew that I couldn’t sit by
any longer and don’t do something about
this issue I knew there were plenty of
organizations doing great work in this
area but what they lacked was funding I
turned to me cannon said I sure I know a
hundred women who’d give a hundred bucks
on a month that we could pull together
and give away as grants to these
organisations she turned and look and
said I love that idea so simple let’s
just do it now at this point in time
Megan and I know nothing about
philanthropy we are passionate
volunteers who give our time and
expertise to community projects but in
our late 20s at that stage we’ve never
really given money like that before but
in that car
we became two women on a mission we need
to make this ID
a reality we would have to bring a team
together so like any good Jen wise we
put out a call on social media we got an
amazing response we thought maybe we’re
onto something here
ten women come to our very first meeting
ready to join the committee no one had
done anything like this before
but this idea had captured all of our
imaginations as we were pulling together
the elements of this organization it was
like a dream team coming together smart
passionate women who had all these
different skills around the table that’s
not to say that it was easy we had to
get our heads around trust deeds
fundraising licenses tax deductibility
and that was just the beginning but in
six months time we had set up the
foundations of this organization and we
were ready for our first event would
anyone join us we had no idea but eight
months later at the end of 2014 we had
85 members and $100,000 to give away in
our very first year and here we are four
years later just about to give away an X
lot of annual grants over 300 men and
women from around WI Australia in the
world have given between three hundred
and twelve hundred dollars to one
hundred women and together we’ve nearly
raised $400,000
in philanthropy 100 women is what you
would call a giving circle where a group
of people come together and commit to
donating an amount of money that is
pulled together and given away
collectively usually every year giving
circles are one of the fastest-growing
trends in philanthropy across the world
it’s an opportunity for everyday people
to get involved in philanthropy it’s one
of the best ways of being able to give
it’s an exciting way that we can give
back to the community and learn more
about giving the trouble is donating
money can actually be quite difficult
what organizations do I give to how do I
know which one’s a good one should I be
worried about administration fees how do
I make sure that my donation is getting
through to those who need it the most
with 60,000 registered charities across
Australia and a few bad apples it can
actually be quite confusing
that’s where collective giving can
actually make a lot of sense coming
together with like-minded people
learning from and with each other
leveraging our donations together and
being able to see the impact firsthand
people love to find out more about the
grant making process at 100 women you
can get involved as much or as little in
grant making as you like you can join up
to this grant subcommittee read the
applications do the reference checks and
meet and decide on the finalists or you
can simply just add in your vote at the
end of the process I want to tell you
about just three of the projects that
we’ve been able to fundraise for and
give our funds to a 100 women in our
first year our smallest brand of $14,400
had a big impact now one of the things
that every girl and woman will have to
deal with at some point in their lives
is their period imagine the women in the
rural villages of Cambodia where they
have limited access to expensive
sanitary products
most often it is a choice between food
and sanitary products and you can
imagine which one wins out what would
you do if all of a sudden you couldn’t
afford it this is what the situation
that many women in rural Cambodia find
themselves in the restore rose program
gave nearly five thousand women are safe
hygienic and reusable menstrual cup
called a rose this was not just a health
project even though it had many health
benefits this also supported girls to
stay in school and women to stay at work
something that we might all take for
granted in a place like Australia can
have a huge impact in a place like
Cambodia in our second year we give
$40,000 to the telethon kids Institute
to support 10 Aboriginal women to become
community health researchers now one of
the biggest challenges in our regional
communities at the moment is the effects
of alcohol during pregnancy which can
cause the lifelong fetal alcohol
spectrum disorder or fusty there is no
cure for this and rates of fazzy in our
remote communities are one of the
highest among the world the idea of this
brand was that the community research
would be more effective if it involved
Aboriginal women from the local
community rather than researchers from
out of town
in fact telethon kids Institute have
been blown away by the impact of
educating local women to be involved in
their community research with our 2016
funding we give $28,000 to girls from Oz
to work with the Aboriginal girls in
Horse Creek this is an innovative
performing arts program that encourages
girls to attend and finish high school
in a place where less than 13 percent
will finish year 11 it offers high
quality music and dance instructors for
4 weeks during the year girls learn
songs in their local languages and work
on their music and dance and
storytelling skills culminating into a
big performance in front of 300 people
in a halls Creek
in fact 10 bills will be coming down to
Perth to perform alongside the
Australian girls choir right here in the
Perth Concert Hall you can imagine what
an experience like this will be for a 12
year old girl from Horse Creek I’m
constantly amazed at what we’ve been
able to achieve with 100 women I mean
this funding didn’t even exist a couple
of years ago and now we’ve funded
projects here in Perth around Australia
and in three other countries around the
world I have to admit even $100 a month
was a big step up for me in my giving
but then I look and I see the impact of
those grants on the girls from halls
Creek and the women from Cambodia no one
has to convince me that this was the
best way to spend that money look around
here today imagine if we all
collectively gave a hundred bucks
this month we could collectively give a
hundred and fifty thousand dollars just
this month and if we did that for a year
we could grant one point eight million
dollars collectively how many lives
could we change I believe the power of
collective giving has only just begun I
believe it’s time to take back the word
philanthropy to get more people involved
in giving and directing funds where it’s
needed most
Anne Frank famously said how wonderful
it is that nobody need wait a single
moment before starting to improve the
world what are you waiting for
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
mind when you hear the word philanthropy
who do you think of Bill Gates Oprah
maybe even Andrew Forrest what all these
people have in common
yes they’re all very wealthy very famous
business owners without a doubt their
giving is inspiring but it can also make
you feel that only certain people can be
philanthropist what if I told you that
you didn’t have to be rich and famous to
be a philanthropist back in 2012 I was
driving back to Perth with my good
friend Megan after running a community
workshop in 2j now I’ve loved
volunteering since I was 10 years old
and I have a confession to make one of
my favourite pastimes is actually
brainstorming ideas to change the world
for the better I know I know so Megan
and I were passing the time in the car
by sharing our latest ideas I told me
can about a book I just read about the
discrimination that women still face
around the world this book so moved me
that I just knew that I couldn’t sit by
any longer and don’t do something about
this issue I knew there were plenty of
organizations doing great work in this
area but what they lacked was funding I
turned to me cannon said I sure I know a
hundred women who’d give a hundred bucks
on a month that we could pull together
and give away as grants to these
organisations she turned and look and
said I love that idea so simple let’s
just do it now at this point in time
Megan and I know nothing about
philanthropy we are passionate
volunteers who give our time and
expertise to community projects but in
our late 20s at that stage we’ve never
really given money like that before but
in that car
we became two women on a mission we need
to make this ID
a reality we would have to bring a team
together so like any good Jen wise we
put out a call on social media we got an
amazing response we thought maybe we’re
onto something here
ten women come to our very first meeting
ready to join the committee no one had
done anything like this before
but this idea had captured all of our
imaginations as we were pulling together
the elements of this organization it was
like a dream team coming together smart
passionate women who had all these
different skills around the table that’s
not to say that it was easy we had to
get our heads around trust deeds
fundraising licenses tax deductibility
and that was just the beginning but in
six months time we had set up the
foundations of this organization and we
were ready for our first event would
anyone join us we had no idea but eight
months later at the end of 2014 we had
85 members and $100,000 to give away in
our very first year and here we are four
years later just about to give away an X
lot of annual grants over 300 men and
women from around WI Australia in the
world have given between three hundred
and twelve hundred dollars to one
hundred women and together we’ve nearly
raised $400,000
in philanthropy 100 women is what you
would call a giving circle where a group
of people come together and commit to
donating an amount of money that is
pulled together and given away
collectively usually every year giving
circles are one of the fastest-growing
trends in philanthropy across the world
it’s an opportunity for everyday people
to get involved in philanthropy it’s one
of the best ways of being able to give
it’s an exciting way that we can give
back to the community and learn more
about giving the trouble is donating
money can actually be quite difficult
what organizations do I give to how do I
know which one’s a good one should I be
worried about administration fees how do
I make sure that my donation is getting
through to those who need it the most
with 60,000 registered charities across
Australia and a few bad apples it can
actually be quite confusing
that’s where collective giving can
actually make a lot of sense coming
together with like-minded people
learning from and with each other
leveraging our donations together and
being able to see the impact firsthand
people love to find out more about the
grant making process at 100 women you
can get involved as much or as little in
grant making as you like you can join up
to this grant subcommittee read the
applications do the reference checks and
meet and decide on the finalists or you
can simply just add in your vote at the
end of the process I want to tell you
about just three of the projects that
we’ve been able to fundraise for and
give our funds to a 100 women in our
first year our smallest brand of $14,400
had a big impact now one of the things
that every girl and woman will have to
deal with at some point in their lives
is their period imagine the women in the
rural villages of Cambodia where they
have limited access to expensive
sanitary products
most often it is a choice between food
and sanitary products and you can
imagine which one wins out what would
you do if all of a sudden you couldn’t
afford it this is what the situation
that many women in rural Cambodia find
themselves in the restore rose program
gave nearly five thousand women are safe
hygienic and reusable menstrual cup
called a rose this was not just a health
project even though it had many health
benefits this also supported girls to
stay in school and women to stay at work
something that we might all take for
granted in a place like Australia can
have a huge impact in a place like
Cambodia in our second year we give
$40,000 to the telethon kids Institute
to support 10 Aboriginal women to become
community health researchers now one of
the biggest challenges in our regional
communities at the moment is the effects
of alcohol during pregnancy which can
cause the lifelong fetal alcohol
spectrum disorder or fusty there is no
cure for this and rates of fazzy in our
remote communities are one of the
highest among the world the idea of this
brand was that the community research
would be more effective if it involved
Aboriginal women from the local
community rather than researchers from
out of town
in fact telethon kids Institute have
been blown away by the impact of
educating local women to be involved in
their community research with our 2016
funding we give $28,000 to girls from Oz
to work with the Aboriginal girls in
Horse Creek this is an innovative
performing arts program that encourages
girls to attend and finish high school
in a place where less than 13 percent
will finish year 11 it offers high
quality music and dance instructors for
4 weeks during the year girls learn
songs in their local languages and work
on their music and dance and
storytelling skills culminating into a
big performance in front of 300 people
in a halls Creek
in fact 10 bills will be coming down to
Perth to perform alongside the
Australian girls choir right here in the
Perth Concert Hall you can imagine what
an experience like this will be for a 12
year old girl from Horse Creek I’m
constantly amazed at what we’ve been
able to achieve with 100 women I mean
this funding didn’t even exist a couple
of years ago and now we’ve funded
projects here in Perth around Australia
and in three other countries around the
world I have to admit even $100 a month
was a big step up for me in my giving
but then I look and I see the impact of
those grants on the girls from halls
Creek and the women from Cambodia no one
has to convince me that this was the
best way to spend that money look around
here today imagine if we all
collectively gave a hundred bucks
this month we could collectively give a
hundred and fifty thousand dollars just
this month and if we did that for a year
we could grant one point eight million
dollars collectively how many lives
could we change I believe the power of
collective giving has only just begun I
believe it’s time to take back the word
philanthropy to get more people involved
in giving and directing funds where it’s
needed most
Anne Frank famously said how wonderful
it is that nobody need wait a single
moment before starting to improve the
world what are you waiting for
thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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