Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation has announced it has provided grants worth $10.4 million to charitable and not-for-profit organisations across greater Melbourne at its recent Inspiring Philanthropy Celebration.
Chief Executive Officer Catherine Brown said it was a remarkable achievement as it was the first time the Foundation had reached $10 million for its annual grants program.
“It’s been a very exciting 95th anniversary year for the Foundation. We are incredibly grateful for the support we have received from our donors, grant partners and supporters over many years to reach this inspiring milestone for the Melbourne community.”
In the past five years the Foundation has provided $56 million in grants in four key impact areas. This year’s distribution includes:
“The Foundation’s corpus has now reached $250 million, and we are now one of the largest philanthropic organisations in Australia. This has been achieved through careful investment and the generous support of our donors who have created a lasting legacy through a bequest or established a charitable fund account with the Foundation.”
The Foundation is highly regarded as a leader in Australian philanthropy and is well known to provide funding to innovative projects that test and demonstrate solutions to community challenges.
“Melbourne is facing some tough challenges, particularly affordable housing and the impacts of climate change. We use research to understand current and emerging issues and then, through our grants program, seek out new solutions to respond to these issues head-on.
“We provide grants to support the capacity building of the not for profit sector ($1.7 million) and we work with our donors to support their areas of interest ($2.9 million). Fifty-five per cent of our grants supported innovation and the exploration of new ideas to find solutions ($5.73 million), which is something we are very proud of,” added Catherine.