Melanie Cooper is a fifth-generation family member of Australia’s largest independent family-owned brewery and the first female Chair in the Company’s 162-year history. She is also Chair of the Company’s charitable arm, the Coopers Brewery Foundation.
I’d say that I came into it later. Growing up, our family business was struggling, and my parents did it tough, even though we were probably seen as a wealthy family. After my marriage broke down, I experienced real financial insecurity for the first time, with two young children to care for.
Interestingly, it was at this stage of my life that I came into giving and I noticed that whatever small amount I gave, more would come back to me. I started testing it by giving more, and every time, more came back. I realised that giving is circular, there’s a synergy to it. This really increased my confidence around giving so I continued from that point on. Now, the rewards are not so much about the financial returns but the satisfaction I feel from a job well done or watching a charity thrive. The reward is about the impact from giving.
My girls have grown up with this philosophy. My eldest daughter is a mining engineer and works up to 14-hour days eight days straight, but when she has time off, she has volunteered at the children's hospital and the RSPCA. My youngest daughter is about to join our foundation as a governor and is also going to continue that legacy.
That it's the right thing to do. I think giving is a responsibility, whether it's ethical, personal or corporate. If I'm in a position to give, then it's simply the right thing to do, because there are so many people and animals who are not fortunate and in need of assistance.
The Coopers Foundation was founded in 2006 because the company was regularly being approached by charities, but the giving was rather ad-hoc. We set up a public ancillary fund to structure our giving and looked to our founder, Thomas Cooper, for the principles that were important to him.
He had 19 children and understood both food and financial insecurity. He educated his children privately, despite his lack of wealth, and as a Methodist lay preacher, Christian values were important to him. The Coopers Foundation supports charities that focus on health, medical research, aged care, youth education and community support.
The Foundation has given approximately $8 million to around 370 charitable projects over the past 18 years. We were worried that the sixth generation may not want to continue the legacy of the Foundation, so we set up a perpetual fund that has around $13 million invested to ensure that there's always an income stream for these charities.
Of course, there are other charities that are not covered by the Foundation and that's where I tend to give personally. For the last 20 years, I’ve supported multiple children through World Vision and other health and overseas charities, along with organisations such as the RSPCA and the Animal Welfare League.
I also give my time to different boards. In addition to chairing the Coopers Foundation and the Coopers Investment Committee, I've been on the Board of the Neurosurgical Research Foundation since about 2008, have served on the Burnside Hospital Foundation, am an ambassador for Koala life and a patron of St. John's Youth Services. I am a trustee of the DC Cooper Trust, a large donor to an overseas university and I was also part of the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership for three years to advise on philanthropic giving and how to increase it in private and business sectors.
My first learning is around how important it is to give back to the community that has supported Coopers for 162 years. But the other learning is around taking people along for the journey. We set up a public ancillary fund to engage our staff and shareholders in giving which has been a lovely thing to share and the rewards have been immense. We have about a 44% participation rate with staff giving, which is set up an opt-in rather than an opt-out.
Every 18 months we have a party where we invite charities to come along, and our staff and shareholders can have a drink and something to eat and talk to the family and to each other about the charities they've supported. There's a level of engagement in giving back to those who've supported us and there’s a high level of pride within the organisation for what we've achieved.
It's a fairly unique model and we had to be quite creative in how we resourced it, other than partially through returns from the investment fund. We've had donations from some generous shareholders and suppliers, hold an annual Golf Day and the staff come up with ideas for fundraising.
We set an aspirational target of $20 million in the investment fund which could generate a million dollars a year in income, or for reinvestment. This is our plan to create a self-sustaining foundation. Once you reach those high levels, it gains momentum and the income grows. Hopefully by the time the next generation are finished with it, it will be a very substantial foundation. But you have to start somewhere.
I would love to see middle Australia and wealthy Australians give more. Whether it's financial contributions or volunteering, like helping to feed breakfast to kids in schools, we all have some capacity. We're probably in the top three lucky countries in the world, yet our philanthropy is still lagging behind the UK and America.
I think we need to raise awareness around bequests. It could be a big gamechanger for the charitable sector with the shift in generational wealth that’s about to happen. Even if you can capture just a small part of that, it’s going to add up.
I think one of the reasons women don’t speak up is because they are afraid of not being heard or valued. In which case, it's easier to just get on and do the job. We need to create more role models to empower women.
Melanie Cooper is the Chair of Coopers Brewery, Australia’s largest independent family-owned brewery.
A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Mel became the first female of the Cooper family and the first of the fifth generation to be employed at Coopers Brewery on a permanent basis, later becoming the first female director of the company in 2009, holding positions as Director of Finance, Corporate Affairs and Company Secretary.
She is also Chair of the Coopers Brewery Foundation, which last year distributed $656,000 to 19 charitable projects and in total has donated more than $7.8 million since its formation in 2006.
Mel has been Governor of the Foundation since its inception and replaced Dr Tim Cooper as Chair in 2011.
In 2014, Melanie was invited to join the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership (PMCBP) for a three-year term to help promote philanthropic giving and investment in Australia.
Mel has held many Board positions during her career including with J & AG Johnston, Burnside Hospital Foundation, the Neurosurgical Research Foundation, The DC Cooper Trust, and the Drinks Association’s national committees on gender reform.
In 2017 Mel received the Member of the Order of Australia Medal (AM) for significant service to the community through philanthropic support for, and leadership roles with, charitable foundations, and to business in the Australia Day Honours’ List.
In 2023 Mel was appointed Patron of St John’s Youth Services.