givenow news edition 8, 2010

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

1

Cruelty-freeBacon&Eggs:Avoiding factory farms Page6

GivingbyGivingUp:Making sacrifices for a causePage10

The official news fromwww.givenow.com.au

EDITION8, 2010

Give More, Give Smarter, Give Better, Give Now!

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

2

Vast areas of Pakistan are currently experiencing the worst floods in memory.

An estimated 20 million Pakistanis have been affected by the flooding, with homes destroyed, whole towns evacuated and hundreds dead and injured.

The disaster, described by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a “slow-motion tsunami”, is becoming more complicated as diarrhoea, dehydration, starvation and disease set in.

The situation is dire and getting worse – the people of Pakistan need your help.

t GIVENOW

t LEARNMOREABOUTTHISDISASTER

Weallwanttogive,butsometimesit’shardtoknowhowtogetstarted.

GiveNow.com.au is Australia’s most user-friendly giving portal – a place where you can put your dollars to work to start building the kind of world you want to live in.

No money? No worries! Through GiveNow.com.au you can also find out how to give time, blood, clothes, blankets, computers, mobile phones, bikes, even corks!

Log on to find the tools, ideas, inspiring stories and practical tips you need to convert your good intentions into action.

HELPTHEPEOPLEOFPAKISTAN

t STARTGIVING t READTHEGiveNowMANIFESTO

GiveNow.com.auAboutUs:GiveNow News is the official newsletter of GiveNow.com.au (proudly supported by ) dedicated to helping Australians give more, give smarter and give better. GiveNow.com.au is an initiative of the Our Community Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation established by Our Community to catalyse funding for Australian community groups and to transform the community sector through greater efficiencies and effectiveness. This newsletter has been produced with the support of the Liberman Family Foundation.

Publisher:Our Community Foundation National Headquarters 51 Stanley Street West Melbourne VIC 3003 Australia(PO Box 354 North Melbourne VIC 3051)Telephone (03) 9320 6838 Fax (03) 9326 6859service@givenow.com.auwww.ourcommunity.com.au/foundationISSN 1441-8947

EditorialContent:Mind Film and Publishing www.mindfp.com.au Telephone 0409999529

Copyright:© Our Community Foundation.This is a free newsletter and we would like it to be distributed as widely as possible. Please feel free to send it on. If you want to use the individual articles, however, you’ll need to ask our permission (we almost always give it). Email your request to service@givenow.com.au The articles in GiveNow News do not necessarily reflect the views of the Our Community Foundation, its staff or members. The purpose of this publication is to provide ideas, inspiration and best practice examples. We are not responsible for any actions taken by, or losses suffered by, any person on the basis of, or in reliance upon, any information in this newsletter, nor for any omission or error.

Wewelcomeyourinput:We welcome your article ideas, input and feedback. Email service@givenow.com.au

Productionschedule:GiveNow News is distributed monthly via email. This Issue Published:September 2010

OurCommitmenttoCorporateResponsibility:In line with the Australian Institute for Corporate Responsibility (AICR) model actions for achieving environmental sustainability, this publication is produced for online distribution. Where a hard copy is requested, we use 100% recycled paper.

OurCommitmenttoAccessibility:We are committed to ensuring our resources are accessible. This newsletter is available to subscribers in alternative formats on request. Email service@givenow.com.au

Front cover image used with permission from The Social Studio - www.socialstudio.org

GiveNow

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

3

OCTOBER:

1/10-31/10:MentalHealthMonth(NSW)t GIVENOW

1/10-31/10:Dogtobert GIVENOW

1/9-1/30:RSPCAAwarenessWeekt GIVENOW

10/10-16/10:NationalNutritionWeekt GIVENOW

10/10-16/10:DownSyndromeAwarenessWeekt GIVENOW

25/10:PinkRibbonDayt GIVENOW

MOREEVENTS:

t http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/calendar/

Don’tTowItDonateItIf you have an old car lying around in the driveway and you want to make a significant contribution to the community, call Kids Under Cover. The organisation accepts donations of cars to help support its work with young people who are at risk of homelessness.

There’s no need to haggle over a low trade-in with a car dealer, advertise for a private sale, or obtain a roadworthy certificate. The car doesn’t even need to be running or registered for it to make a real difference for at-risk kids.

If you sign over ownership to the organisation, they will organise a fully licensed and insured towing service to collect your vehicle. They then organise the car’s subsequent sale, with 100% of sales to be used to run a housing program for homeless and at-risk young people.

Kids Under Cover accepts donations of cars, trucks, motorcycles and trailers with proper title information from anywhere in Australia. If the vehicle is valued at over $5000, the donation may even be eligible for a tax deduction.

t GIVEACAR

WHAT’SNOT:COMPASSIONFATIGUE:Also known as a Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder, Compassion Fatigue has been attributed to the saturation of images and stories of suffering in the media, which may cause the public to become cynical or resistant to helping others. Unicef’s marketing director says that the organisation’s outdoor media campaign, which uses stark images of children, is a bid to shock people out of their compassion fatigue and into action.

t FINDOUTMORE

WHAT’SHOT:COMMUNITYFUNDEDNEWS:Australians who hate what is fed to them from news websites now have no excuse to complain following the launch of a new not-for-profit news site.

YouCommNews.com uses the internet to crowd-source both ideas and funds for its news stories.

In a move that brings new meaning to the phrase “you get what you pay for”, interested citizens can choose a news story they’d like to see investigated and written on, or suggest one of their own.

t VISITYOUCOMMNEWS

HELPTHEPEOPLEOFPAKISTAN

What’sOn?W

Take your dog to work to raise money forDogtober More fundraising Ideas t GO

Pink Ribbon Day Wristbands - RRP $4 Order Pink Ribbon Day fundraising merchandise t BUY

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

4

CAMPAIGNCRUSADERROSECUFFSatelliteFoundation

“Thethingwithmentalillnessisthatfamiliescangetsoisolated”

Despite the gruelling nature of the work, the difficulties securing funding for support programs, and the stigma

attached to mental illness in the community, Rose Cuff has been inspired every day of her working life to assist those who suffer from mental illness, as well as their families.

“I am completely overwhelmed by the hundreds and hundreds of families and children I have met in my working life, by their lives and the things they have to overcome,” Rose says.

Having worked in the field of mental health since her first job as an occupa-tional therapist in a psychiatric hospital in London in 1981, Rose was aware of an absence of independent funding for sup-port programs for families and children where a parent is mentally ill. Motivated by her colleagues and clients, Rose established the Satellite Foundation six years ago.

The Satellite Foundation aims to offer support on a voluntary basis to chil-dren, young people and their families where a parent has a diagnosed mental illness. This includes depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bi-polar affective dis-order, panic disorder, eating disorders, personality disorders and phobias.

“The idea of the satellite is that we can put people in contact with each other by being an overarching body. The thing with mental illness is that families can get so isolated,” she says.

The Foundation offers a range of pro-grams, including weekend camps, after-school group programs, school holiday group programs, peer leadership training and parent support group programs.

Its first camp took place in March this year in Warburton. In partner-ship with the Shire of Yarra Ranges and Eastern Health, the Foundation hosted 22 children on a three-day camp providing outdoor and craft activities as well as team building and peer support exercises.

“Interspersed with the activities, we promoted discussion about mental illness and health, looking after self and what you do if things go wobbly at home, crisis plans, support networks, how you get to school if Mum is in hospital,” Rose says.

“Underlying all of the programs is the principle of peer support, providing activities where people with similar experiences can come together to socialise and learn from each other, build confidence, foster friendships and self-esteem.”

Rose, who also has a full-time role as the statewide coordinator of Families where a Parent has a Mental Illness (FaPMI), moved to Sydney in 1986.

She says that while discussion about mental illness has come to the fore in recent times, Australia still has a long way to go in terms of providing adequate and equitable support programs.

“As far back as I can remember I have had a real interest in and passion for trying to reduce the awful stigma about mental health,” she says. “The inequality of it has become so huge.”

The Satellite Foundation ran a two-day music workshop in September and a family day will be held at the Abbotsford Convent in October.

In Australia, it is estimated that around 20% of adults are affected by some form of mental disorder every year.

t GIVENOWt COMMENT

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

5

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, both billionaires with large charitable foundations, have

approached a long list of other billionaires to ask them, too, to donate half their money to charity.

This hasn’t presented me with any particular moral dilemmas. Unless I happen to meet a billionaire in a lift and offer to toss him or her (most likely a him) double or quits 31 times I’m never going to have my doorbell rung on this account.

But a number of other people have voiced strongly held opinions. And opinions I do have.

Most people, of course, are all in favour of rich people giving away money from their superfluity. Of those who are opposed, some come from the right and some from the left.

From the left, the objection is that if much of the money in the not-for-profit sector comes from very rich people, however well-meaning, there will be distortions in the field. If there is money in investigating malaria, say, and not in dengue fever, then doctors and researchers will drift to malaria studies, and while this is better than having all the doctors and researchers working on shampoos that minimise split ends it is still not as if the decision to concentrate work in this area had been taken by the people affected, or their governments, or the United Nations. The Gates Foundation is a whale among minnows, and it has enormous and unregulated power. If you think it’s a bad idea for individuals to have enormous and unregulated power then you must be hesitant about this – especially as that philanthropy moves money out of the taxed economy to the untaxed economy, reducing

the power of government to offer balancing finance.

On the other side of the debate are those who feel that in giving their money out of the corporation, Gates and Buffet are betraying capitalism. he ideal of capitalism is that it is the invisible hand of market that brings progress. Microsoft, for example, makes computer operating systems, and spends money on making them more and more efficient. This is what Mr Gates has shown himself best at over the years, and it is this progress that makes the world better. If malaria gains, then Microsoft Word loses – there’s less money to fix that irritating glitch that makes large documents crash, and untold millions of Windows users around the world are momentarily incommoded. Anything that slows progress, anything that fetters capitalism, slows down the improvement of the world to the point sometime in the future when we will all be so much richer that all these problems will be trivial to fix.

There are also the moral objections. “Isn’t it just an ego trip?” But then, if you’re going round asking billionaires to give you really have no alternative but to make it public that you’ve given yourself. And “Isn’t it ill-gotten gains, from, for example, Buffet’s profiting from stock market crashes?” Though if you’re willing to take money only from the Mother Theresas of this world you may have difficulty making your fundraising target (and Mother Theresa herself would take money from anybody for her work, crooks not excluded ... and was criticised for that ... it’s complicated).

Looking at the big picture, though, the problem seems to be that

UNCHARITABLETHOUGHTSBillionaireChallenge

people tend to confuse the issues of whether billionaires are a good thing in themselves (probably not) with the proper course of action to take in a world that does in fact have billionaires in it. Bill Gates has enough money to build a small street of suburban houses entirely out of gold bricks and still have enough left over to furnish them from Ikea. I have one gold filling in a left back molar. We can still, however, face some of the same quandaries. How much is enough? Who gets to decide how much is enough? Who has claims on me for the surplus?

Actually, what I think is that if donating a billion dollars to charity gets you anything it gets Bill Gates the right to have me assess his activities on the rather more indulgent criteria I use for my own actions. And if I do that, I have to admit, he’s doing rather better than I am. Which means that the next move is up to me.

t COMMENTONTHISARTICLE

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

6

GIVINGDOCTORQ:I’verecentlylearntthatmyfavouriteeggandbaconbreakfastisaproductofmillionsofanimals’silentsufferinginfactoryfarms.WhatisactuallyhappeningandhowcanIhelpstopit?

battery hens confined to wire cages producing eggs for human consumption.

• They are denied their natural instincts to stretch their wings, dust bath, forage, exercise or nest in privacy, living in a space smaller than a sheet of A4 paper.

• Female chicks have the tips of their beaks sliced through with a hot iron to prevent stress-induced pecking injuries to their cage mates.

• Common illness and injuries include feather loss and skin damage from constant rubbing against the wire cage; claw growth around the wire base; and severe osteoporosis resulting in paralysis, dehydration and starvation.

• At around 18-24 months of age — six years earlier than their natural lifespan — battery hens are considered ‘spent’ as egg producers. Destined to become pet food or flavouring, they are systematically pulled from their

As consumers we are mostly unaware of the conditions and practices that animals endure behind the closed doors

of factory farms. Whether you’re a committed carnivore or an ovo-lacto vegetarian, there are things you should know.

THEFACTORYFLOORFactory or intensive farming is the practice

of raising livestock in high density, artificial conditions. It sidesteps the natural conditions animals ordinarily need to survive and thrive by keeping them confined indoors and feeding them hormones and antibiotics to increase growth and production rates, translating to lower prices on the supermarket shelves. Typically, the first time factory-farmed animals see the outside world is the last day of their lives.

LEGALISEDCRUELTYThe Australian Model Code of Practice, which oversees basic requirements for factory-farmed animal welfare, provides absolute minimal standards with no provision for animals’ physiological and behavioural needs. The Code also exempts operators from prosecution under state animal laws.

TASTELESSFACTS

BATTERY HENS*

• In Australia there are 11 million

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

7

cages and packed into transport crates (often resulting in bone breakage due to their frail state).

• Once at the abattoir, the hens are shackled upside down for a pre-slaughter dip in the electrified water bath. Those that unwittingly raise their heads face the automated knife fully conscious.

• Each year over 12 million male chicks are gassed or macerated (disposed of in high speed grinders) soon after birth because they cannot lay eggs.

BROILER (MEAT) CHICKENS*:

• Over 488 million chickens are killed annually for meat.

• A typical broiler factory farm may house approximately 40,000 to 60,000 birds per shed, or 20 birds per square metre.

• Chicks are bred to grow nearly three times quicker than nature intended. Their bodies are put under enormous pressure, causing heart and skeletal malfunctions. Those that can’t carry their own weight are left to lie in damp ammonia-soaked litter and faeces, developing breast blisters and unable to reach food and water stations.

• The life of a broiler chicken lasts six weeks. On the way to the abattoir, one million will die in transport and 7% arrive with bone fractures or dislocations.

PIGS*:

• Pigs are highly intelligent, inquisitive, social animals considered to be as smart as three-year-old human children.

• Deprived of natural light, space and the ability to forage for food in natural surroundings, they suffer depression, emotional and psychological stress.

• A factory-farmed sow is treated as a breeding machine, enduring intense suffering and deprivation with each cycle of artificial insemination, pregnancy and birth.

• Confined to a barren metal crate or sow stall, a pregnant sow can’t turn around and has to lie or stand on concrete for her entire four-month pregnancy.

• Transferred to a bare farrowing crate for birthing, the sow is de-nied her instinct to make a private birthing nest and must suckle her piglets on cold metal or concrete.

• Piglets are taken away at four weeks of age. Not long after, the sow will be inseminated again.

WHATYOUCANDO1. SPREAD THE WORD

• Get educated. Animals Australia, Animal Liberation and Voiceless

Coles responds to sow stall cruelty: In July this year, Coles set an Australian supermarket benchmark by committing to “sow stall free” home brand pork products by the end of 2014.

Tasmania Bans Sow Stalls:

Following a state-wide newspaper blitz, Tasmania’s Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green announced in parliament on June 10th 2010 that he will ban cruel sow stalls in the state. The rest of the country is yet to follow.

all have very comprehensive web-sites full of fact sheets, videos and research papers.

• Talk to family, friends and colleagues about factory farming. It’s possible they’re part of the ignorant majority.

• Raise awareness in your local community with a free Animals Australia action pack.

2. TAKE ACTION

• Petition your local MP and the Federal Minister for Agriculture about animal welfare on factory farms

• Join the “Cage-Free Campus” initiative by campaigning against the use of factory-farmed eggs at your school, college or university

• Urge your supermarket or local restaurant to stop the sale of caged eggs and factory-farmed meat products. Most supermarkets provide feedback forms.

• Adopt a rescued battery hen through Homes for Hens (QLD), NSW Hen Rescue or by emailing adoptahen@gmail.com (VIC)

3. LIVE COMPASSIONATELY

• Stay informed and make educated decisions when buying animal products

• Refuse to buy factory-farmed prod-ucts like cage eggs and ham, bacon and pork products

• Go vegan if you’re totally commit-ted to abstaining from all animal products and the cruel practices associated with them. Vegetarian-ism is the next most effective way to steer clear of the factory farm-ing industry. Find out more here.

4. SUPPORT

• Your financial support is fundamental to the research, education, and legal, advertising and action campaigns that promote the wellbeing of animals.

t GIVENOWt COMMENTONTHISARTICLE

* Information in this article sourced from: Animals Australia - www.freebetty.com and www.savebabe.com | Voiceless - the report

“From Paddocks to Prisons: Pigs in NSW Cur-rent Practices, Future Directions”. | Animal Liberation Qld - www.animalliberationqld.org.au

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS AN ORGANIC ABATTOIR: Products marked “free range” or “organic” usually provide a better quality of life – but be aware that almost all commercially raised animals are subjected to the same stressful transport and slaughtering practices. These include travel over long distances without shelter from extreme weather in multi-level trucks with exposure to falling excrement and possible injury. Abattoirs are loud, unfamiliar places where the animals are moved along the slaughter line often against their will as they witness the deaths of others ahead.

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

8

WHO?Abram Goldberg, 85

WHERE?Elsternwick, Vic

WHAT?Volunteer, Jewish Holocaust Centre

WHY?Abram Goldberg knows first-hand what it is to suffer from senseless hatred and racism. The Polish-born survivor of the Holocaust was orphaned as a young man at the hands of the Nazis.

Born in 1924, Abram was incarcerated in the Lodz Ghetto between May 1940 and August 1944. He was then transported to Auschwitz before undertaking forced labour in camps in Germany.

Since his liberation by the American Army on May 2, 1945, Abram pledged to give a voice to those 6 million Jews who died. To this end, he has been heavily involved with the work of Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Museum, since its beginnings in 1984, as a member of the

WhoGives?

executive, a former treasurer and a committee member.

But it is Abram’s work as one of the volunteer guides to the more than 400, 000 secondary school students that have attended educational tours of the centre that he believes is his

“legacy”.

“I was lucky enough to survive and I promised myself that if I survived I would speak out in the name of the 6 million who didn’t and never allow them to be forgotten,” he says.

Established under the patronage of Jerusalem’s Holocaust memorial and museum Yad Vashem, the Jewish Holocaust Centre’s Nona Lee School Education Program enlightens secondary school students about all aspects of the Holocaust with the added benefit of having survivors share their stories.

Abram says the thousands of letters addressed to him personally, as well

as to other volunteers, is testament to the incredible work the centre does.

“We are spreading the message of tolerance and acceptance. We are speaking out against racism and genocide,” he says.

Abram says that while the students who pass through the centre are irrevocably changed by their experience, he believes the world has a long way to go.

“What still goes on in the world, racism, murder, genocide, you name it, it still goes on. As a survivor it pains me. It is very difficult to accept that after so many years the world has learned so little.”

t GIVENOWTOTHEJEWISHHOLOCAUSTCENTREEDUCATIONPROGRAM

ELLENDEGENERESAfter seeing the reality of factory farm-ing, particularly in the documentary Earthlings, Ellen DeGeneres became vegan and now support countless animal welfare causes including The Gentle Barn, The Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). t GIVENOW

ANGELINAJOLIEAngelina Jolie this month visited Mohib Banda village in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region and areas near Peshawar. Her visit highlighted the suffering of millions of flood victims and the need for continuing aid for the displaced. t GIVENOW

SHANECRAWFORDEx-AFL footballer Shane Crawford walked from Adelaide to Melbourne to raise money and awareness for the Breast Cancer Networkt. His “That’s What I’m Walking About” campaign involved walking 760 kms in 12 days. Supported by the Nine Network and The Footy Show, Crawford raised more than $400,000. t GIVENOW

CelebsDoneGood:Photos by PR Photos

“Asasurvivoritpainsme.Itisverydifficult

toacceptthataftersomanyyearstheworldhaslearnedsolittle.”

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

9

PakistanDisasterReliefScams

In the wake of the devastation caused by the floods in Pakistan, charity scams are beginning to emerge. Potential donors should be wary of

any unsolicited approaches (usually by email) from someone purporting to be from a victim of the floods or from an organisation purporting to help the victims.

Scam emails usually request that money be deposited into a bank account or that the donor’s own bank details be supplied. The emails are a usually variation of the “Nigerian”-style scams that have been prevalent for many years and are usually scant on details about how the disaster victims will benefit. Some emails direct the recipient to a website that falsely uses the name of a genuine not-for-profit organisation but is completely bogus.

t VISITSCAMWATCHt GIVENOWTOAGENUINEGROUPt COMMENT

Here are some tips to avoid being scammed and to help ensure you give wisely to the disaster relief appeal:

DO NOT donate to someone who contacts you out of the blue with an unsolicited email, phone call or text message – check their credentials first.

DO NOT deposit money into a foreign bank account unless you’re absolutely sure of the recipient.

DO NOT supply your own bank details to strangers – ever.

DO NOT give or send cash to an overseas address unless you’re absolutely sure of the recipient.

NEVER press on a link in an email from an uncertain source. If you do press the link, even if the site appears genuine, do not provide any personal information.

DONATE ONLY TO RECOGNISED ORGANISATIONS that are supporting the relief effort. See GiveNow for a list of genuine agencies.

IF APPROACHED IN PERSON by someone seeking a donation, ask for identification.

Vale‘Curly’VeithEugene ‘Curly’ Veith dedicated his life’s work and earnings to helping those in need, handing out more than $23 million over the past half a century. “I have never been rich in my life. Now I have enough to bury myself that’s about all,” he told GiveNow News in June. Eugene, who made his fortune after founding a parcel delivery company, died earlier this month aged 95.

t READCURLY’SSTORYPhoto: Angela Wylie

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

10

AGOODNIGHT’SSLEEP

On Thursday June 17, 2010, 684 business and community leaders slept rough in capital cities across Australia, in a bid to experience first-hand what it is like to be homeless. The $2.6 million raised by the CEOSleepout will go towards the ongoing provision of Vinnies’ homeless services across the country.

ALCOHOL

DryJuly

Founded in 2008, this year’s Dry July raised more than $2.4 million for causes that support adults living with cancer. “Dry Julyers” are encouraged to sign up as an individual or a team and are asked to clear their head to make a difference. Prizes are given to the highest fundraisers in each state.

GIVINGBOOTCAMPGivebyGivingUp

With so many good causes competing for donor dollars, fundraising has become increasingly creative and engaging. A committed supporter can now fill a calendar year with a different attention-seeking activity each month.

Usually these events involve abstinence or sacrifice – it’s giving by giving up!

ALCOHOL

FebFast

Over the past three years more than 10,700 people have taken up the FebFast challenge to give up grog for a month. Their efforts have succeeded in raising more than $1.7 million to support 14 organisations in the alcohol and other drugs service sector around Australia. February is perceived to be a good time to abstain from alcohol after the excess of an Australian summer.

HAIR

“Be Brave and Shave” is the catch cry for The World’sGreatestShave for the Leukaemia Foundation. Held in March each year, registrations will open in October. This year the

event raised nearly $15 million dollars. The philosophy behind The World’s Greatest Shave is to create empathy for those who lose their hair whilst undergoing chemotherapy. Businesses are encouraged to participate as a team-building exercise that boosts employee morale, identifies team leaders and associates the company with a worthy cause. Shaving a head also provides great photo opportunities.

JUNKFOOD

TheGreatAustraliaBite is an Australia-wide community participation event held every April where businesses, individuals, schools, and other social groups are encouraged to get together with friends, family, and workmates to share a healthy bite to eat and, at the same time, make a tax-deductible donation to Diabetes Australia. Money raised from the event goes towards diabetes awareness and education programs, advocating for the rights of people living with diabetes, and research to find treatments and a cure.

World’s Greatest Shave

www.givenow.com.au GiveNowNews

11

t COMMENTONTHISARTICLEt VISITTHECALENDAROFEVENTS

BEFORESIGNINGUPTOGIVESOMETHINGUP–ASKSOMEQUESTIONS:

Q1:Howmuchofthedonationisgoingtothecause?It’s important to realise that not all the money raised will go to the cause you are choosing to support. Check the websites carefully – many of them announce the fundraising ratio (e.g. Dry July Foundation states that 80c in every dollar goes to the nominated beneficiary.) If the website doesn’t disclose the information, contact them and ask the question directly. For more information about fundraising ratios go to the Fundraising Institute of Australia website.

Q2:Areyoucomfortable(ethicallyspeaking)seekingsponsorship?Not everyone is comfortable asking friends to support their fundraising stunt. Some fear “guilting” mates into contributing while others take rejection badly. Make sure you are aware of what’s involved and apply appropriate sponsorship etiquette.

Q3:Areyourfriendssponsoringyouorthecause?If you are asking your friends to sponsor you, remember they are supporting you but not necessarily your cause. Make sure that their names don’t automatically go on a mailing list or a calling list for the organisation. This can cause great annoyance and they will be reluctant to ever sponsor you or anyone else again.

Q4:Arethesponsorshipsdonations?Aretheytaxdeductible?

“Sponsorships” are, in practical terms, the same as “donations”. Sponsors are entitled to and should always be given a receipt. Many of the beneficiary organisations, par-ticularly the larger ones, will have Deductible Gift Recipient status so donations of over $2 are tax deductible. (Don’t let the fact that some are not DGRs put you off raising money for them – find out why here.)

ALCOHOL

Ocsober

The money raised from Ocsober goes to Life Education, the organisation behind the educational giraffe mascot, Healthy Harold, who promotes a healthy lifestyle to kids. It’s all about resisting participation in drug and al-cohol abuse. This year, Ocsober aims to raise $1 million and to highlight the growing danger of binge drinking and alcohol abuse, particularly among young Australians.

FOOD

LiveBelowtheLine is a new campaign that ran from August 2 to 6, 2010. Designed to help Australians understand the challenges faced by those currently living in extreme poverty, participants were asked to feed themselves with just $2 per day to raise funds for The Global Poverty Project and The Oaktree Foundation to support life-changing education programs. Many took to the difficult challenge and almost $500,000 was raised.

FACEBOOK

After 35 years, The40hourfamine is now about more than giving up food. Young participants are opting to give up things that are more important to them than food, like their mobile phone and Facebook. Some more creative supporters this year gave up footwear and others chose to give up use of their arms.

NATURALCOLOUR

BlueSeptember aims to raise awareness among all Australians about cancers affecting men and urges men to take preventative action by improving lifestyle choices. It en-courages people to organise fundrais-ing events involving the colour blue

– painting faces, dying hair, wearing blue clothing and eating blue food.

ANIGHTONTHETOWN

Girl’sNightIn encourages supporters to invite the girls around, get them to bring a friend and collect donations at the door. Event ideas include a pyjama party, a movie night, a karaoke night or even an evening of meditation. Most supporters hold their events in October during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

CLEAN-SHAVENFACE

Now in its seventh year, Movemberencourages Mo Bros to give up their clean-shaven face and to grow and groom a moustache. During Movem-ber, each “Mo Bro” becomes a walking billboard for men’s health and, via their Mo, raises funds and awareness for The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue.

‘Mo Bro’Dressing upfor Movember

GiveNowNews www.givenow.com.au

12

TWOGREATCAUSES:

PORTPHILLIPECOCENTREThe Port Phillip Eco Centre is located in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens in Victoria. It is a place where environmental solutions are “hatched and nurtured”. Donations are used to support programs which create environmental improvement and community wellbeing by engaging and empowering people to take positive action

t GIVENOW

FRIENDSOFLEADBEATER’SPOSSUMThe Victorian Leadbeater’s Possum is now critically endangered due to loss of habitat from decades of clear fell logging and from the devastating 2009 Victorian bushfires. It is estimated that there are just 1000 left in the wild, with none in captivity. Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum Inc. is working to reverse the decline and advocate to stop the habitat destruction. Funds are needed to support conservation, education and research programs.

t GIVENOW

GIVINGSTATSIt’s official. Australia and New Zealand are, jointly, the most ‘giving’ countries in the world, according to the World Giving Index 2010 report issued by the international Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

The CAF gave both countries a score of 57% (the average of their scores on ‘giving money’, ‘giving time’, and ‘helping a stranger’). Ireland and Canada were next in the charitable stakes, in third and fourth place respectively. Switzerland and The United States tied for fifth place.

The study, which the foundation says is the most ambitious of its kind, reviews the state of giving in 153 countries, representing 95% of the globe’s population. According to the Index, the link between the giving of money and happiness is stronger than the link between the giving of money and the GDP of a nation. In other words, happier people are more likely to give money than those who are wealthy. t COMMENTt READTHEWORLDGIVINGINDEXREPORT2010