Cindy Carpenter is co-founder and Chair of The Global Refugee Academy which provides training to refugees around the world to help them access humanitarian and complementary pathways, such as via skilled visas and university scholarships.
I started out by giving my time and expertise. When you give your time, you see at a grassroots level what disadvantage really looks like. I chaired advisory groups and boards for social enterprises like the Bread & Butter Project, which is a bakery here in Sydney that trains refugees to become professional bakers. I feel a strong sense of responsibility for the part business plays in creating a sustainable planet because I have been a strategy consultant for many years with Boston Consulting Group and now my own consulting firm Cast, and I desperately want to foster an alternative business model because I strongly believe it's totally unsustainable for business to remain profit-obsessed. That sort of hands-on exposure to areas of disadvantage inevitably leads to places that really speak to your heart. And for me that was the refugee cause. There are over 110 million forcibly displaced people in the world, the highest ever in history. Over 31 million people are registered as refugees by UNHCR but only about 100,000 of them are settled globally. Most of my giving relates to supporting refugees to settle successfully and gain meaningful employment in safe destinations.
It is about respecting every single person needs to have equal opportunity to reach their potential. I think everybody deserves access to that. I grew up in a working class semi-rural community, surrounded by a lot of migrants who were working on fruit farms and growing flowers to sell at the markets. It wasn’t until I joined a large multinational and started working with people who had been given training and career opportunities that I realised there was just so much talent where I was growing up but many people didn't have access to fulfil their potential. So, the heart of my giving is about maximising talent and potential. I also learned that my great grandmother's father, who was West African, escaped from a life of slavery in the Danish Virgin Islands. He jumped on a boat to Australia and eventually landed in Sydney. He and his family suffered horrific racism and abuse and he managed to escape that. I only recently discovered this. It was something my family didn't talk about, but it gave me an understanding of why I respond so emotionally to people who are escaping abuse and persecution.
I'm involved in a range of initiatives in both a hands-on sense and via donating. For example, I have founded and led advisory groups for social enterprises like FoodLab Sydney, a kitchen incubator for immigrant and refugee food entrepreneurs, training them and providing kitchen space until they're ready to grow their wings and become independent. I recently co-founded and Chair The Global Refugee Academy that supports refugees to access alternative pathways to safety such as via skilled visas, university scholarships and community sponsorship. I also run a strategy consulting firm, Cast, and channel my personal consulting fees into organisations like FoodLab and Global Refugee Academy. So, I'm giving time and effort but am also donating funds.
I know it's a platitude, but I’ve learned that giving is receiving. This is absolutely, absolutely true, particularly if you give where there's an intuitive and heartfelt connection for you to the cause, something that really speaks to your heritage, the things you care most about. And we are most definitely the continuation of our actions. We don't really understand the exponential impact when we give, but when you're involved in grassroots organisations, you start to see it. In 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban, I launched an initiative, with a wonderful group of senior executive women, to secure safe passage for Afghan career women to Australia via skilled visas. All of these women are now employed and actively helping other refugees. It was truly a group effort. There were probably about twenty senior executive women involved, as well as NGOs, who contacted about 80 corporate employers to land the jobs that were needed to bring about 200 Afghan career women and immediate family members to safety. There was so much generosity and patience and resilience to help respond.
I’m really excited about the next generation. I'm currently putting together a philanthropic fund for artist’s residencies because I have three kids who are filmmakers and artists – they have gone in the completely opposite career direction to me! My kids know a lot of artists and I have come to know artists, too, as I'm spending more time doing creative things. Residencies massively fuel an artist’s practice; they give artists the space to create. I think this world needs to move back towards soulfulness. Art and poetry are how we re-embrace this, they combat our increasing alienation from our environment and each other. We need art to create the symbolism that is critical for us to understand how best to survive and thrive. That's why I’m so interested in funding artist’s residencies and my kids are excited about this project too. I love being able to bring them into the giving journey. I feel so grateful to be able to say: I have enough, and my kids have enough, too.
I've been very inspired by VivCourt, a trading firm that gives 100% of their profits to social causes, and involve their staff in the decision-making process about where those funds are directed. I'm really motivated and inspired by that. I want the generosity that the universe affords me to be channelled to appropriate causes, and hope in the future I can follow VivCourt’s lead and involve my consultants in the giving. I'm excited for the future.
Cindy was the General Manager of the Boston Consulting Group in Australia/NA and is now MD of her own consulting firm, Cast. She is co-founder and Chair of The Global Refugee Academy which provides training to refugees around the world to help them access humanitarian and complementary pathways, such as skilled visas and university scholarships. Until recently, she was Chair of The Bread & Butter Project, Australia’s first social enterprise artisan bakery, investing 100% of profits to provide training and employment pathways for refugees. Cindy also led the advisory groups supporting three refugee-focused social enterprises: CommUnity Construction, FoodLab Sydney and Aunty’s Ginger Tonic. She co-founded the work-integrated-social enterprise hub within Social Enterprise Australia, which advocates for payment by outcomes funding models for social enterprises, and she sits on the national judging panel for Westpac Foundation’s Social Change Fellowship. She is a Board Director for Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia, and a member of the Governance Group for Settlement Council of Australia’s ‘Road to Belonging’ national strategy. She thrives on helping organisations achieve their boldest aspirations and has advised many corporates as well as not-for-profit and public sector organisations.
