Melbourne Community Foundation Newsletter - April 2011

In the News

Funding Request Directory
The new Funding Request Directory facility launched on our website last month has really proven popular. We are delighted with the number of not-for-profits that have already submitted a request and the feedback has been very positive on the simplicity of the form. Our donors have also reported how useful it is to be able to access the requests through the website’s donor only area ‘Donor Central’ .

Attention PAF’s
30 June is fast approaching, the deadline for making grants from private ancillary funds. Melbourne Community Foundation’s grantmaking consulting can assist with grant research to match donor’s area of interest with projects Australia wide and overseas.

Influencing Government Policy
Melbourne Community Foundation Chair, Chris Lovell and CEO, Sarah Davies met with Prime Minister & Cabinet and Treasury to discuss the role of community foundations in Australia including the current Treasury review of Public Ancillary Funds. Following this an invitation was extended for MCF to participate in a consultation in relation to a Commonwealth Government proposal for addressing issues of disadvantage and social inclusion in communities of 5,000 inhabitants or less.

Corporate Funds

Dina Grollo Community Fund
Recently Melbourne Community Foundation presented to staff at Grocon’s Sydney Office and at one of their major construction sites, to update them on their workplace giving program and to encourage participation. We also to reported on some of the projects Grocon has supported through the Dina Grollo Community Fund in NSW including the Salvation Army Oasis Centre in Surry Hills and Father Riley’s Youth off the Streets - Step Up program at Chapel School. This is an accredited high school which offers a flexible curriculum with a focus on literacy and numeracy for young people disconnected from mainstream education.

Grocon also invited the Salvation Army to talk about the Oasis Centre and other projects including the "Get skilled for work" and the "Drivin'4 Employment" Program.
Photo: Stephen Nicoll (Grocon), Andrea Heffernan (MCF) and Major Robbin Moulds AM (Salvation Army)

Donor Stories

Phyllis Budd Fund
Phyllis Budd (or Aunty Phil as she was affectionately known) came to Australia as a cook/nanny in July 1958 and soon took up a chef’s position at a suburban hotel in Melbourne’s west run by the Caneva family. The family recently established a sub-fund to support second and third year apprentice chefs who might be disadvantaged through financial or family circumstances.

From Gumnut to a Sub-fund
Melbourne Community Foundation Gumnut Accounts were introduced just over two years ago and this month our first Gumnut Account matured and was transferred into a sub-fund. To date we have opened 26 Gumnut Accounts and with 30 June fast approaching now is the perfect time to make a tax deductible donation…why not think about your own philanthropic savings accounts.

Donor Granting In Action

Clemenger Staff Fund & Green Gecko
The international organisation Green Gecko has been established to benefit the lives of street children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Located in the north-west of the country, Siem Reap is home to the world’s largest religious site ‘Angkor Wat’.

The Clemenger Staff Fund has supported, the Green Gecko literacy program for upper primary school aged children to learn, write and comprehend the Khmer language.

The goal of the program is to increase the children’s level of confidence in Khmer literacy and their desire to learn Khmer through formal schooling, and to provide additional tutoring to support their studies and accelerate their progress.
Khmer literacy is an integral part of the Green Gecko education program, and is an especially strong focus because many of the children – due to their turbulent pasts as street children – are 3 to 7 years behind their equivalent peers.

The literacy program is a creative, interactive approach to Khmer literacy, supporting formal schooling with extracurricular activities and moves away from the more formal rote approach of the Cambodian education system.
Photo: Green Gheko.