After three years, we were finally able to gather our Melbourne Women’s Fund community in-person for our Annual Grant Awards Celebration. This event, which took place on Thursday 17 November at Melbourne Town Hall, marked the eighth year of our giving circle’s support to hard-working non-profits supporting vulnerable women and families in Melbourne.
And what a night it was! Over 120 members and guests—including budding philanthropists as young as ten-years-old—attended.
Nicky Friedman, Director of Community Engagement and Head of Pro Bono at leading commercial law firm Allens and Deputy Chair of the Victorian Women’s Trust and of Justice Connect, was our guest speaker. Justice Connect was the recipient of MWF’s 2017 Signature Grant for their Women’s Homelessness Prevention Project. Nicky opened the evening by sharing some of her insights and knowledge, poignantly highlighting the pressing circumstances underpinning vulnerable women.
First Step, Northern Community Legal Centre and You Matter each presented for the $40,000 Nurturing Grant. Law and Advocacy Centre for Women, Tradeswomen Community Foundation and Wellsprings for Women followed, each presenting for the $75,000 Signature Grant.
Our FY21/22 members voted to award the Nurturing Grant to You Matter and the Signature Grant Tradeswomen Community Foundation. We were very pleased to award $7,000 to each of the very worthy runners-up organisations.
The evening also inspired new friendships and connections. Representatives of private ancillary funds in the audience committed at least $33,000 across several of these organisations after hearing their presentations.
Our Annual Grant Awards Celebration is the highlight of our year, encapsulating our spirit and dedication as a giving circle. Our sincere thanks to all our supporters and, fundamentally, to our members for making our collective giving model work. They do this not only by paying their annual membership donations to create our granting pool—which, at $143,000, was the second largest granting pool we’ve had to date— but also by providing our crucial volunteers.
Our thanks also to our Gold Sponsor, Bendigo Community Bank Elwood, and Silver Sponsors Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Melbourne Town Hall/Epicure and Audio Visual Dynamics for making the event itself possible. Interested in learning about our 2022 Finalists and their proposed initiatives? Click here.