Greatest Good Newsletter January/February 2024
Happy New Year!
It almost seems too late to be saying that. But as I've just returned from my first holiday of over a week since 2019, it seems like a great excuse! I was extremely fortunate to tick continents 6 and 7 off my bucket list. This started with spending New Years Eve with 2 million strangers on a 3km strip of Copacabana beach in Rio (yep, 2 million people on one beach!). 95% of the crowd were dressed head to toe in white, whilst I didn't get the memo and was dressed in Melbourne black. Along with the police (black), military police (beige) and sanitation workers (orange), I stood out like a sore thumb, so made a hasty retreat to the hotel rooftop balcony to watch the fireworks!
This was followed by some more time in Brazil, as well as Argentina and Chile, and a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica, where I kept expecting to hear David Attenborough voiceovers every time I looked at the constantly changing scenery. You can expect to see some awesome images of icebergs, penguins, whales and seals over the coming year on our social media, so if you aren't following us, please click on the links at the bottom of this newsletter and jump on board. Some images are amazing (and made the "'berg of the day" list), others are very cute.
My holiday ended with a series of long flights home, with the last of these sitting next to an Australian Olympic and sporting legend, chatting about charities and social enterprises, whether charity directors should be paid or unpaid, and various other for-purpose topics. To be honest, some of these are my standard topics of conversation with anyone, but our chat was after more than 24 hours of flying/stopovers, so I didn't actually recognise my seating companion until about 10 minutes into our chat, and was quite chuffed that he knew of Greatest Good.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, there's been lots going on, so check out the rest of the newsletter for updates, activities and inspiration.
We have some exciting news to share next month, so keep an eye out for our next newsletter. As always, we always welcome your feedback, so please reach out to us if you'd like to share your thoughts on how we can improve. Let's make 2024 the year we all do our greatest good!
Jenni - Founder/Managing Director
Inspiration from our members
- The Dolphin Research Institute raised over $6,000 in their pre-Christmas auctions and ran a range of summer school holiday programs in January
- CuriousWorks secured multi-year funding over 4 years from Creative Australia
- Avodah Global produced the Jingle Belles outfits for the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Christmas Carols for the second year in a row
- The social impact of Be Hers in 2023 included funding 50 toilets in the Philippines, 100 online child sex traffickers arrested, 16 survivors supported with house mothers and social workers, and more
- The team at Mosaik Experiences entertained Melbourne Christmas shoppers and shopkeepers alike with dancing and hugs with or limbo-ing under stilt walkers in the iconic Royal Arcade and Bourke Street Mall - to the delight, dancing, smiles and laughter of many watching on
- SisterWorks won a Gold Australian Design Award, for their graphic design, identity and branding retail for their iconic Melbourne tram (designed in collaboration with Principle Design). They have also just announced a partnership with L'Oréal Groupe's Fund for Women, providing the ability to expand much needed services in Dandenong. If you want more inspiration, check out their International Women's Day event coming up (early bird tickets end on 6th February)
- The Reconnect Project was one of the 14 Work Integrated Social Enterprise (WISE) organisations to receive a grant from the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation
News and updates
Charities minister backs charities and building community
In December 2023, Charities Minister, Andrew Leigh made a speech to parliament outlining the significant contribution that charities made to Australia. He outlined a seven-step plan to rebuild the relationship with charities, and collaborate with the charities and not for profit sector to build community.
Regulatory updates (the sometimes boring, but always important stuff)
Legislative changes:
- The Federal Government released it 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy, outlining its vision for a cyber secure Australia and the process to get there. The strategy focuses on protection of individuals and organisations via six cyber shields
- Various legislative changes became effective during December 2023 and January 2024, including:
- DRG Reforms
- prohibitions on fixed/maximum term employment contracts
- expanded enforcement powers for the Australian Human Rights Commission to investigate an employer's compliance with the positive duty in relation to sexual harassment and discrimination
- the right to superannuation contributions becomes one of the National Employment Standards, meaning unpaid (or underpaid) superannuation will also be enforceable directly under the Act
You can more on these items and other regulatory updates in our monthly regulatory updates and other updates posted on the Blog Pages (use the Regulatory Updates filter). We can't provide legal advice but you can find proposed and upcoming legislative changes to discuss with your legal advisers.
Grants, funding and free resources
Grants
There's lot's of money on offer in our grants database! Community Engagement and Marketplace members can log in to access the grants directory and use the 60+ filters to find relevant grants in seconds. We are updating these regularly so that you always have the latest active grants at hand.
Opportunities to support for-purpose organisations
Events/Courses
Following on from the events we ran last year, we have some events lined up again this year and will release dates and more info in next month's newsletter.
If the meantime, check out the events and courses on our Events/Course page to find help you find events that support the social, environmental and community issues you care about. We are adding new events and course as they are being announced, so keep checking back to find the latest events creating ripples of change.
If there are any topics you'd like to learn more about in 2024, please contact us and let us know.
Collaborations - asking for help and offering assistance
You can find lots of free resources on our Collaborate pages.
These range from individual scholarships and accelerators, donating items (perfect for that post-Christmas clean out), to a range of videos, reports, business and other resources.
