On intergenerational giving and taking the lead

I grew up in a family where my parents were always helping community organisations. I remember my dad sitting on the phone in the evenings, ringing people to fundraise for our school or for the Jewish community and mum did a lot of fundraising for the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation. We often had events to fundraise at our house and even as children, we were invited to join in and sit at the table. It was a great introduction to giving because it was simply part of how we grew up. It was just what our parents did.

To make a difference. As the executive officer at our family foundation, I met the most extraordinary people who were working in grassroots organisations. Those leaders were so passionate about what they were doing and by supporting them, we can make a difference too.

When my parents first started the foundation in 1978, their giving was very much focused around their passions and where their friends were working. The Peter MacCallum Foundation came from one of their friends who was a cancer specialist, and they saw the difference that this work could make.

Mostly through the family foundation. When the second generation became involved, we were mindful how generous our parents were in allowing us to be involved in their giving. They encouraged us to take the lead and make changes. Out of respect for them, we kept several of their areas of interest like health, welfare, education, the Jewish community and the arts. But in the mid-nineties when I became involved in the foundation, we started supporting environmental causes, because we could already see the need for funding. But one of the biggest changes we made was around how we give. While my parents had given to major organisations, we believed that giving to smaller and mid-sized organisations would make a more significant difference. We wanted to find the organisations that were doing important work, and we knew that even a small grant of $20,000, could go a long way.

I worked as the executive officer for 20 years and have been chair for the last 12 years. Very early on, I went to the Potter Museum at the Melbourne University, and as I walked around with the Director, she mentioned that my parents had always been incredible supporters. When I told her that I didn't realise my parents had given to the museum, she replied, “Oh no, your parents haven't given financially, but they come to every event that we have and they're incredibly supportive.” It made me understand that it's one thing to give money, but it's also about putting yourself out there and showing support. It’s something that has always stayed with me, and now, if I can’t give to an organisation financially, I’ll go to the events and show my support by being there and talking to other people about the work they are doing.

When I reflect on how our parents involved us in their giving and allowed us to take the lead in the foundation, these were incredibly important lessons for me. When the third generation of our family came into the foundation, I saw how much they learned from their grandparents, especially my father, who passed away at the age of 99 in 2023. There’s so much you can learn from a multi-generational engagement in giving. 

Another lesson came from a trip to Israel in 2012 with an organisation called Australian Jewish Funders.  We met with local philanthropists and NGOs working in the region, and at every single meeting Eve Mahlab, Founder of Australian’s Investing in Women, would ask whether they had a gender lens on their giving. Did they look at how many women and girls were affected by what they’re doing, as well as the men and young boys? And it was interesting to hear how many people just hadn't given gender equity any thought.

When I came back to Australia after that trip, I was on the foundation at the Arts Center Melbourne, and they asked me if I would help with a program to include young women in a hip-hop program. They'd noticed that a lot of the young women were not engaging in the program, and from the research they'd done, realised that they needed to offer it to young girls separately to young men. And because I’d just been with Eve on that trip, I told them that I wasn't going to promote it, I was going to fund it, because I understood how important it was to encourage girls to participate. 

Several years ago, my father made the decision that the third generation should be given some funds to allocate to organisations they were passionate about. Before our trustees meeting, they would decide which area they were going to support and then present it at the meeting for us to note. That was the first step.

Then, around 10 years ago, we were undertaking a strategic review for our foundation and all three generations were involved. We were chatting about health and welfare and wanted to hear what areas the third generation thought we should support. For many years we'd supported organisations doing great work for disadvantaged families and young people, but the third generation wanted to focus on early childhood development for First Nations people and newly arrived immigrants. And that's exactly what we did.

Our CEO at the time was researching how we could better support early childhood development, with a focus on the first 1000 days of development. We found some fantastic research projects and grassroots organisations that were working in this area, and this was all guided by our third generation. Listening to them and allowing them to choose the areas where we can make a difference was a very similar approach to the one my parents took with us. It’s about respect across all generations and it’s been very successful. 

I want to encourage our next generation to develop their own philanthropy and take the lead. In our foundation, many of our third generation are in their thirties and forties and it would be great to see them grow their influence on where the Foundation is giving. One thing that I’ve often brought to the table is looking at giving out more of the corpus of the foundation and really look into how we want to give over the next five to ten years. Because I believe that the difference we make today has the potential to create an incredible impact in the future. Now is the time.