Pip Smith AO is a philanthropist, who together with her husband, started the Dick and Pip Smith Foundation. Their daughter, Hayley Baillie, supports several initiatives through her family foundation including the Australian Red Cross Society of Women Leaders and the Sapphire Project for marine conservation.
Pip Smith:
I was a girl guide growing up and Dick was a boy scout, so part of our promise has always been to help other people. We opened Dick Smith Electronics in the 1968. Up the road from our premises, Dr Tony Kidman had a laboratory, where he was doing research work into treatment for muscular dystrophy and that was the first cause we ever gave a donation to.
It was such a wonderful feeling, being able to help these people. Since then, we've been fortunate that our business has grown, and we now give over a million dollars away every year.
There's only so much money that you can spend yourself and helping others is a privilege. We have set up our own foundation, but we also give money to individuals separately. Just recently, I helped a single mum who had experienced awful domestic violence and was living in a shelter. Her young daughter loves ballet, and I gave her some money towards ballet fees, which has been hugely rewarding on both sides.
Hayley Baillie:
From the time I have living memory, Dick and Pip were well on their way to being incredibly generous philanthropists. I've grown up watching them support the things that they were passionate about; mum with the arts, dad with environmental causes and they’ve always shared an incredible drive for humanitarian service.
Giving was always around us. We'd go along to see the different charities they supported and the places where they volunteered their time. When I was a young adult, Mum worked in a school for people with disabilities for many years as a volunteer and dad started some significant fundraising events, like the Variety Club Bashes that are still going today.
So fortunately, it's just been ingrained in us that giving back is something that’s important to do, especially if you’ve done well. I feel we’re celebrating giving a little bit more now in Australia. The ‘tall poppy’ thing is starting to disappear, and I've noticed that more people are proud to share their giving. It's great to know that there are like-minded people who have done well and want to give back.
Pip Smith:
I came from a lower middle-class background. Growing up, we never had spare money. We lived in a simple little house, never went overseas, and our holidays were camping in a tent. I remember we’d go to the shops and choose the fruit that would give us the biggest number of apples rather than the nice-looking ones.
My mother made my clothes and then I did the same. Dick and I married young, and we had no money, so everything was counted and budgeted. We always had the idea that he would start his own business, so we worked madly to save everything we had.
Coming from that background I appreciate, very much, what I have now; I live an amazing life in a beautiful home. I know what it's like not to have that security and what it’s like to help someone else reach their goal.
Giving has given me wonderful opportunities to travel and to go into places I wouldn’t otherwise go. Recently we were invited into Mission Australia, which we support, and they have this building in Surry Hills made up of one-bedroom units so homeless people are given an opportunity to have a home. Meeting and hearing these incredible background stories of the residents who live there; it was really a most special experience to listen and understand.
Hayley Baillie:
I think I’m driven by my passion for the different things I give to. So selfishly, my drive also comes from the enjoyment that I get out of helping and learning about different issues. I'm a passionate ocean lover and I love diving – there’s no better place to be than under the water and I understand what’s required to protect it. So that kind of conservation drives part of my giving.
I’m also driven around women's giving. In the time since I set up my foundation, I’ve noticed more women's giving circles happening across a range fields. I'm involved with the Australian Red Cross Society of Women Leaders, which is probably one of the largest women's giving circles in the country. Since inception 10 years ago, we've raised over $7 million.
I'm also involved in another women's giving circle at Taronga Zoo, that supports women in science, and Pip and I are part of giving a collective with the Sydney Dance Company. I love having these opportunities to connect with other women in a giving environment.
I find that my giving has two lenses; one is through my personal passions, and the other is supporting certain people in what they're doing. I'm very much influenced by supporting other women who are trying to make a difference. Even if the cause is not my absolute passion, often I’ll end up supporting an organisation because I believe the person is doing incredible work.
Pip Smith:
I often joke that whenever Hayley invites me to lunch, it always costs me a few thousand dollars! She has the most incredible friends and acquaintances, and I love that at 75 years old, I get the opportunity to meet all these wonderful people, particularly young women, who I probably wouldn’t otherwise meet.
Pip Smith:
We have a list of over 70 charities, which Dick and I go through. We tend to give to lots of smaller organisations rather than great big ones.
Hayley Baillie:
Dick and Pip have given over $80 million in their lifetime, it's significant. And that was even before their foundation was set up. There's a log of every donation they've ever given, and I think there'd be over a thousand different individuals or organisations.
My sister and I are directors of the foundation and when we have the annual meeting, we put forward extra ideas of organisations that we might be involved in. Dick and Pip are always open to any suggestions we have, but they also have longstanding relationships and partnerships with organisations, some spanning 40 years.
My husband and I set up our own family foundation, after we sold our business and there's quite a bit of crossover. I really like how mum and dad created ongoing commitments and relationships with organisations and that’s what I do too.
Pip Smith:
The bottom line is that if you do well in Australia, you have a duty to give back.
What it really comes down to is that it’s a privilege to give and it's wonderful to be able to help other people in anything they're doing. I mean, how lucky am I?
Hayley Baillie:
Just copy and paste that for my answer too!
I think it gives you a better education. You learn about all these areas and all these people working tirelessly to make a change. And I’m really proud to have a decent sized foundation that's able to give significant money every year to supporting that change.
Pip Smith:
We're leaving a lot of our money to our foundation with the dream that some of our grandchildren will become involved and possibly run it one day. My ambition is that it continues for a few more generations. Until then, I will continue doing what I do because it's a great thing and it brings me a lot of joy.
Hayley Baillie:
For me, it’s similar in terms of getting my kids involved and trying to instil that similar ethos. One day they will be running our own family foundation and potentially involved in Dick and Pip's larger one.
Personally, I want to do whatever I can to encourage other people to give. I've got lots of like-minded friends and we really try to support each other to connect in our giving, and to be supportive of getting other people involved. It's a bit of a movement and the more of us that can do it as connectors who love to bring people together, we can really grow the female-led giving.
Pip Smith:
I just want to say that Hayley’s amazing and she has this incredible gift of surrounding herself with these interesting people and being involved in so many areas of giving. I'm a very proud mother.
Hayley Baillie
Hayley is passionate about travel and adventure, having spent more than a decade as a naturalist guide on expedition ships from the North to the South Pole.
In 2003 Hayley co-founded Baillie Lodges, a growing portfolio of premium luxury lodges in extraordinary destinations, including Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island, Longitude 131 at Uluru and Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island.
Hayley supports several charities and not-for-profit initiatives through her family foundation. She is particularly interested in indigenous, humanities and environmental impacts and outcomes and is an avid supporter of the arts sector. She is the co-chair of the Sapphire Project for marine conservation and is a board member of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, National Portrait Gallery, Australian String Quartet and Australian Ballet Foundation.
Pip Smith AO
Pip grew up on the northern beaches of Sydney, one of four children in a middle-class family. In 1969 at the age of 19 years she married Australian businessman Dick Smith.
She worked with Dick creating Dick Smith Electronics, Australian Geographic magazine and later Dick Smith Foods. They have two daughters Hayley and Jenny and now have a tribe of grandchildren. Pip has always had a love of ballet and is a patron of the Australian Ballet Company, Australian Ballet School and the Sydney Dance Company. She is a keen photographer learning on the job while acting as Dick’s support person when he was flying his helicopter around the world and to the North Pole. Through Dick’s adventures Pip became the first Australian women to stand at the North Pole and the first woman to fly east to west around the world in a helicopter. She drove a vehicle with Dick around the world through the USA, Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Japan and across the middle of Australia. She has flown thousands of hours as a passenger around the world in a helicopter and extensive parts of the world in fixed winged aircraft. Over the top of Mt Everest, across Drake Passage to Antarctica, through parts of Africa and South America, all over Australia and circumnavigated both islands of New Zealand. Having met so many peoples from many countries she realises how fortunate we all are to live in Australia and having been a Girl Guide, she made a promise to help other people who are less fortunate.
