Over the last decade, I've worked for nonprofits and charities dealing with international development and human rights. After running my own social enterprise for six years, in 2023 I handed over the business and faced that moment of “what am I going to do next?” 

Part of my sense-making process was chatting with different people in the impact sector, and I ended up connecting with a lot of people in Australian philanthropy. I’d worked for charities and ran my own so I knew some of the pain points in fundraising, but after having conversations across the spectrum of institutional philanthropy, family offices, corporate and community foundations, I realised how highly concentrated the sector was. 

The Productivity Commission Future Foundations for Giving Inquiry Report showed that around 10% of charities get 94% of the funding, and that the number of Australians who give to charity has been dropping for 15 years. Both of these statistics got me thinking about the consequences of cash-poor charities and declining giving in a country as lucky as ours. 

I was also becoming increasingly interested in how we might be able to democratise and diversify the way charitable money enters the system and at the same time, think divergently about how it reaches organisations who need it. As a young person myself, I naturally started to think about my peers and the role they play in giving. 

In June 2024, I surveyed almost 200 young people between 23 – 36 years old to find out more about their attitudes towards giving, how much they were giving and whether they felt like they had capacity to give more. The results were really exciting. 4 in 5 respondents wanted to and could give more but faced barriers; they felt like they didn’t have enough to give and many of them were paralysed by decision overwhelm and compassion fatigue.

Five Bucks’ low value high volume model was built in response to these insights. 

We started in July 2024 with a big push to get a hundred members in five days. We achieved that target and since then most of the growth has been organic. We're currently sitting at around 350 members and on track to give our first $60,000 in June this year. 

Our plan is to give grants to four organisations who align with our two giving pillars: Social Foundations and the Ecological Ceiling. And yes, it’s intentionally very nerdy language! Our model is based on the concept of Donut Economics, which involves thinking about creating better social foundations in relation to planetary boundaries and climate. Our approach was informed by the survey I conducted, because when I asked young people what they care about the top issues were climate, equity around education outcomes, employment, financial empowerment and mental health. 

Five Bucks is a sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation (ACF), and because we’re in our first year ACF are helping us select some of the organisations from within their networks. We’re also crowdsourcing organisations from our community. We’ll blend the two lists together to produce a short list of 20 organisations, and our committee will vote on which ones our grants go to.

Our members are predominantly urban-based and live in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra. The gender split is pretty even at the moment, and most are 25 to 35 years old. What's really interesting is that we have this growing group of people who are outside the demographic but see Five Bucks as a meaningful way to give. It’s something I'm really excited about because it means that there’s potential to appeal more broadly to different Australians and to really expand the community long-term. 

If I was to take a really long term view, the notion of giving – no matter how much you have - has always been around. I grew up in a poor single-parent family but my mum always gave to charity; we had a World Vision sponsor child on the fridge, and she donated regularly to the Guide Dogs and Breast Cancer Australia. I watched my mum chip in what she could and I think there are a lot of everyday people who give in similar ways but are underrepresented in the larger story of giving in Australia.

When I was learning about the philanthropic space, I could see the need for charities growing at a rate that’s not being met by the amount of capital in the system. But what I was most interested in was this idea of declining generosity - what does it mean for a society when less people are giving? What does it mean when fewer people in a population are connected to that feeling of contributing to something that's bigger than their own direct lives?

Obviously, generosity can show up in lots of different ways. It doesn't always need to be financial, but in a country as wealthy as ours, giving financially is one of the best ways we can demonstrate generosity. I like to think of Five Bucks not only as a giving circle, but as a movement: of everyday people giving small amounts regularly. Everyone has to start somewhere and if Five Bucks can provide that starting point and foster a community of generous people, I believe that will generate impact in multiple ways – not just monetary.  

Our short-term goal for 2025 is to hit 5,000 members and that million-dollar mark. Beyond that, I would love to see that number grow to a million Aussies which would raise $260 million a year. How good would it be to have a movement where everyday Aussies chip in five bucks a week? My ambition is for this community to become one of the top givers in Australia, alongside wealthy individuals. I really believe that simple solutions help people buy into things that feel complicated and overwhelming.