2021 EVENTS
2021 Grant Awards Celebration
At our 7th Annual Grant Awards Celebration on Thursday, 14 November, our members awarded MWF’s 2021 $75,000 Signature Grant to Fitted for Work and $35,000 Nurturing Grant to The Social Studio.
Recognising the challenging service and funding demands non-profits face, particularly over the last two years with the pandemic, MWF members also awarded each of the four runners up – Banksia Gardens Community Services, Free to Feed, Juno and River Nile Learning Centre – $5,000 in untied funding.
This event is the culmination of our annual efforts to support vulnerable women and families in Melbourne. As a special touch, we opened the event with this short video to provide an overview of each of these organisations. Although only two could win the larger grants, they’re all deserving. We encourage you to become familiar with them!
2021 Site Visits
In addition to our Grants Information Night, our site visits provide an important opportunity for our members to become as informed as possible about our finalists before they cast their votes at our annual awards celebration. Due to Covid restrictions, this year we conducted these site visits virtually in early November. This new approach nearly doubled attendance versus prior years, further strengthening awareness of the great work each of these non-profits does to assist vulnerable women and families in Melbourne
2021 Grants Information Evening
On 14 October 2021, the MWF Grants Committee held our annual Grant Information Evening, and was pleased to announce our six 2021 Grant Finalists.
Due to ongoing restrictions, we once again came together as a community online. Watch below to find out more about our six finalists and their important projects.
Autumn Luncheon with Carmel Guerra OAM
The MWF Autumn Luncheon was held on Friday 30 April at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club. On a magnificent sunny day, over 60 of our members and guests enjoyed a glass of bubbles and mingled on the balcony overlooking the historic tennis grounds.
We heard from our special guest speaker Carmel Guerra OAM. As the experienced Founder and CEO of Centre for Multicultural Youth, Carmel shared with us some personal stories about her own experiences growing up in Melbourne and gave us an informed understanding of the many challenges faced by young refugee and migrant women across Australia.
In virtual conversation with Belinda Bardas
Melbourne Women’s Fund member Belinda Bardas is a contributing member of the Bardas Family Foundation and Fouress Foundation. She is also Trustee of the Loti & Victor Smorgon Family Foundation.
In this event, hear Philanthropy Australia’s Victoria and Tasmania Manager and Melbourne Women’s Fund Co-Founder, Patricia Burke OAM, interview Belinda to explore the reality behind effective family foundation management.