Recipients funded in the last 3 years
The June Canavan Foundation has provided funding to over 30 organisations since inception in 2010. These organisations are listed below – scroll down the list to read about the diversity of projects funded by the JCF.
Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program
The Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program aims to foster the development of a vibrant network of community and business leaders by:
- Offering potential and emerging leaders an intensive annual program that develops the participant’s personal leadership skills, their knowledge of the region and their network of professional and community contacts.
- Providing participants from a wide range of business and community backgrounds an opportunity for personal and professional development in an environment that is safe, supportive, stimulating and enjoyable.
- Providing an opportunity to interact and learn from exemplary leaders, and from each other.
- Encouraging ongoing learning through participation in the AVCLP alumni’s activities
The Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program covers North East Victoria and the New South Wales border regions encompassing the Local Government Areas of Alpine Shire, Albury City, Benalla Rural City, Indigo Shire, Mansfield Shire, Moira Shire, Rural City of Wangaratta, Towong Shire and the City of Wodonga.
The program is delivered from July to May annually. Each year up to 24 participants are selected, and these participants represent a diverse range of ages, professions and communities. Participants meet fortnightly at locations across the region, and work with the region’s most outstanding leaders. The course is punctuated with three retreats where the personal leadership skills of participants are developed, and the culmination of the Program is a visit to Melbourne to meet with leaders not ordinarily accessible to those living in regional Victoria.
For more information:
Aust. Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship (The Beehive Project)
Through the Beehive Project, a unique opportunity exists to provide young Australians with entrepreneurship education and direct support to incubate and accelerate great ideas that rejuvenate and sustain rural communities.
The Beehive Project aims to achieve the following:
- Establish the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship (A.C.R.E) to create an exemplar learning environment for young people to accelerate rural entrepreneurship nationally.
- Focus the Mayday Hills site in Beechworth north east Victoria, as Australia’s premier bicycle destination.
- Develop an innovation hub for the attraction of entrepreneurial technology and environment businesses.
The Beehive Project’s cycle tourism businesses will operate as a social enterprise. To balance commercial sustainability with social benefits, 51% of profits will be directed to supporting the activities of the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship (A.C.R.E).
For more information:
Australian Sports Foundation
| JCF Focus Area | Sport |
| JCF Geographical Area | North East Victoria |
| Donation Amount | $14,000.00 |
| Donation Date | July 2020 |
| Donation Purpose | To assist the bushfire recovery efforts of three community sporting clubs in North East Victoria |
As Australia’s leading nonprofit sports fundraising and charity body, the Australian Sports Foundation (ASF) addresses issues that block participation in sport. They fund a number of grant programs to help overcome these challenges.
The ASF believes in a future where every Australian has access to play sport and be active, regardless of age, gender, ability, culture, language or financial circumstances.
The ASF focuses on breaking down barriers so that disadvantaged and marginalised people and communities can play sport. Despite the many positive aspects that sports contribute to our society, funding for these activities are often critically short or non-existence.
For more information:
Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Fund
Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Ltd was established in 2002, initially by Steve and Terri Irwin, as a way to include and involve other caring people to support the protection of injured, threatened or endangered wildlife – from the individual animal to an entire species.
The vision of the fund is that people, wildlife and habitat survive and prosper without being detrimental to the existence of each other.
Their mission is to be the most effective wildlife conservation organisation in the world through the delivery of outstanding outcome-based programs and projects, inclusive of humanity.
Wlldlife Warriors supports 8 separate projects. The June Canavan Foundation has chosen the following two projects to support:
- The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Beerwah, Qld
- Orangutan conservation, Sumatra
For more information:
The Burnet Institute
Burnet is an Australian, unaligned, not-for-profit, independent organisation that links medical research with practical action to help solve devastating health problems. Burnet’s vision is equity through health.
The Institute’s mission is to achieve better health for vulnerable communities in Australia and internationally by accelerating the translation of research, discovery and evidence into sustainable health solutions.
The Institute is named in honour of Sir Macfarlane Burnet OM, AK, KBE who received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960.
Burnet brings together a highly diverse skill base, with more than 400 staff and students working across cutting-edge research and projects to address some of the most relevant global health issues including:
- Maternal and Child Health
- Disease Elimination
- Behaviours and Health Risks
- Health Security
- Healthy Agein
The June Canavan Foundation supports the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB) Project in Papua New Guinea. One of the greatest human needs in our region is the appalling level of death and disease among women and children in Papua New Guinea. HMHB is a collaborative research program aimed at providing life-saving health care for women and their new born babies.
For more information:
Cittamani Hospice
Cittamani is a specialist palliative care service offering physical and emotional support to people who are experiencing the end of life and to their families and loved ones.
Their goal is to provide the highest quality care in order to maximise comfort and peace of mind for people facing a terminal illness and their families and carers. They are committed to providing information and support to enable people to maintain control of their choices in care and to enjoy the highest quality of remaining life as they define it
Cittamani’s belief is that an effective hospice palliative care service is best provided within the context of a healthy and supportive community where death, dying and bereavement are openly discussed and acknowledged. They are committed to developing the capacity of our community to be able to support one another through the experiences of illness, death and bereavement. The service is developed from a Buddhist value base which affirms the preciousness of life, mutual respect, compassionate service, empowerment and universal responsibility. Their staff and volunteers come from diverse faiths and spiritual traditions but are all personally committed to these important universal values.
If you would like to make a donation, Cittamani’s Financial Manager, Leanne Bennett, will welcome your call on (07) 5445 0822.
For more information:
Confident Girls Foundation (formerly The Netball Foundation)
The Confident Girls Foundation aims to provide opportunities for vulnerable girls to thrive through netball.
The Foundation helps girls achieve their dreams by highlighting and helping eliminate key drivers of gender bias including, financial barriers, lack of leadership opportunities, isolation, gender stereotypes that negatively affect young women, and barriers to physical activity.
Engagement through sport
The Foundation recognises that participation in sport is key in providing opportunities to girls to develop physical, social, and emotional health and wellbeing; fundamentals in fulfilling dreams and aspirations.
Creating safe environments in netball
Netball provides safe places for girls and their communities to come together in building confidence, empowerment, leadership, acceptance and a sense of belonging.
Empowering girls
The Confident Girls Foundation raises funds to invest in programs and opportunities designed to help and encourage girls to be the best they can be.
For more information:
Cystic Fibrosis Qld
Research on the link between exercise and the management of Cystic Fibrosis demonstrates there is a positive effect on the sufferer physically and mentally. There are 55 sufferers of Cystic Fibrosis on the Sunshine Coast – 20 adults and 35 teenagers. The June Canavan Foundation has supported Cystic Fibrosis Qld to offer Sunshine Coast sufferers a program called Active Summer for Cystic Fibrosis where members are supported financially to participate in a physical activity of their choice. In 2017 members rated this program as one of the top three support services provided by Cystic Fibrosis Qld.
For more information:
Documentary Foundation Australia
| JCF Focus Area | Sport (Athlete Mental Health) |
| JCF Geographical Area | National |
| Donation Amount | $30,000.00 |
| Donation Date | July 2020 |
| Donation Purpose | To assist in the making of Unbreakable, the story of tennis player, Jelena Dokic’s survival through war, bullying and extreme violence by her father. |
Established in 2008, the mission of Documentary Australia Foundation (DFA) is to advance awareness and inspire action on important social issues, by supporting independent documentary filmmakers and organisations on the front-lines of social change, and amplifying the impact of their works to encourage empathy, activism and social transformation.
The expertise, guidance and resources of the ADF help film-makers, not-for-profits, educators and change-makers work together to achieve their goals. They do this by offering fiscal sponsorship, access to online resources and in-person training to help films achieve their goals and maximise their social impact through the power of documentary.
For more information:
Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal
The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) is a not-for-profit organisation that harnesses the power of collective investment between government, business and philanthropy to improve the lives of those living in rural, regional and remote Australia.
Their vision is for vibrant, sustainable and adaptive communities across rural, regional and remote Australia.
Since being established in 2000, FRRR has distributed more than $75M to around 8,000 projects across rural, regional and remote Australian communities. Those funds have focused on enabling communities to respond to the needs of their:
- People, by developing healthy, connected, skilled communities and individuals;
- Place, by building vibrant cultures, healthy environments, sustainable social and physical infrastructure; and
- Prosperity, by supporting sustainable, viable and adaptive local economies that are inclusive and provide opportunities for economic participation and financial wellbeing.
The intention of the Repair-Restore-Renew (RRR) Program is to help communities recover by addressing needs that emerge in the twelve months after a disaster event.
Funds are raised from the time of the event, however in keeping with FRRR’s Natural Disaster Framework, funds are not dispersed until 12 months after natural disaster has been declared.
This ensures support is available for the medium to long term recovery process.
JCF Contribution: 2017 – $6000: Cyclone Debbi Repair-Restore-Renew Fund.
For more information:
Friends of Lacluta
Friends of Lacluta is a Friendship Agreement between the Rural City of Wangaratta in Victoria, Australia and Lacluta, which is a sub-district of the East Timor district Viqueque. Lacluta is located about 250km to the east and south of the capital Dili.
Following a proposal by Abel Guterres, Consul-General to Australia, at a meeting with Wangaratta Councillors, the idea of a friendship relationship between Wangaratta and Lacluta was born. A Wangaratta delegation visited East Timor and the relationship was formalised at a signing ceremony in Lacluta on 25 September 2005.
The mission of the Friends of Lacluta is to promote friendship between the people of subdistrict Lacluta and those of Wangaratta and surrounding districts. We aim to help empower and grow the capacity of the people of Lacluta in the areas of health, education and democratic, community development.
For more information:
The Funding Network
Through their live crowdfunding events, The Funding Network (TFN) connects grassroots causes and projects needing financial support with people who want to help. They seek to transform the way non‐profits, individuals, business and government come together to build the capacity of Australia’s social sector. Since 2013, through an established calendar of TFN events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, TFN has facilitated the raising of over $11.2 million for 280 non‐profit projects, engaging a network of 10,000 people along the way.
TFN vision: A more equitable society and a social sector that has access to the connections and resources it needs to thrive.
TFN purpose: To build the capacity of grassroots non-profit organisations, by helping to democratise giving and facilitating greater community engagement.
With 17,000 small charities operating in regional Australia, TFN piloted a regional affiliate event in Wangaratta in 2019. Building on this pilot, they plan to expand the funding model to new regions to achieve place‐based collective giving and community support. To scale their reac, the Affiliate regional model has been developed to purposely build capacity in regional Australia, to teach local backbone organisations how to leverage the TFN partnership model of collaboration to deliver their own live crowding events, and support local change‐ makers.
The JCF has supported The Funding Network with two grants of $10,000 and $15,000 to assist in their capacity to host an expanded network of Funding Network Events
JCF Focus Area: Growing Giving
JCF Geographical Area: National
For more information:
International Needs Australia
International Needs Australia (INA) is an international aid and development organisation, which was founded in 1974 to find local solutions to global poverty problems. In order to do this, INA works across 8 countries with local, innovative partners focusing on four key areas: Education, Health, Women’s Empowerment and Sustainable Livelihoods.
INA Vision: A just world where all people are treated equally to reach their God-given potential.
INA Mission: We are committed to building innovative partnerships for community well-being and empowering women and children in our work.
Through their “Women at Risk” Project, INA targets the most vulnerable mothers in an evidence-based way to improve household food security and income to enable families to overcome poverty in Buikwe district, Uganda. The women will learn basic literacy and numeracy skills through training workshops. Afterwards, they will be introduced to savings and credit initiatives plus enterprise identification, selection and management so they can establish and manage income generating activities alongside savings. In these ways this project will enable mothers to provide adequate for their children’s needs in a sustainable way.
The JCF has supported International Needs Australia with a grant of $13,000 for their Women at Risk Project.
JCF Focus Area: Education
JCF Geographical Area: East Africa
For more information:
Into Our Hands Foundation
Into our Hands is a Community Foundation which supports projects
that enhance community strength, cohesiveness, and wellbeing in North East Victoria. They invest in initiatives that build community capacity, resilience, and sustainability within communities of North East Victoria.
Their vision is: Community Capacity, for good, for ever
Their mission is: We invest in initiatives which build resilience, cohesiveness, and wellbeing in North East Victoria.
The North East is a vibrant and active region of Victoria with high levels of volunteering and a community that supports one another. The region is very good at cause-related fund raising and crisis-related philanthropy for families and individuals in need. However, there is a challenge to educate the community about the value of endowment-based philanthropy and the long-term benefits and opportunities created by strategic social investment.
This challenge is shared across Australia and the broader community foundation network. Through their “Transfer of Wealth” Project, Into our Hands are currently trialling a methodology that can help North East Victoria to imagine and realise an even better future while demonstrating a new and scalable approach to locally led philanthropy that could be used by other placed-based foundations
The JCF has supported the Into our Hands Foundation with two grants of $15,000 for their Transfer of Wealth project and $5,000 for the Beechworth Festival of Ideas
JCF Focus Area: Growing Giving
JCF Geographical Area: North East Victoria
For more information:
Midwife Vision Global
Midwife Vision Global has supported maternal and neonatal healthcare in Tanzania since 2014.
Through education and providing resources for the Midwifery and Nursing workforce, its purpose is to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in Tanzania and reduce mortality during pregnancy and childbirth.
Caring for 100 – 200 mothers and newborns per week, Midwife Vision Global established a state-of- the-art training clinic at Amana Hospital, training and educating women, midwives and health workers in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the leading morbid conditions that consequently lead to death during and after childbirth.
Their award-winning training program, SHINE (Survival, Happiness, Intervention, Nurturing and Education) up-skills health workers in emergency obstetric care, professionally develops skills, knowledge, attitude and performance needed in Midwifery and educates childbearing women and mothers to make informed decisions on nutrition, family planning and essential care for themselves and their newborn.
Supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal – to ensure good health and well-being and Tanzania’s Strategic Plan – to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths, Midwife Vision is committed to make a lasting change in Tanzania and utilises a holistic approach that is practical, empowering and sustainable.
The JCF provided a $6,000 grant for the purchase of additional training models and equipment for Midwife Vision’s training and educational program
JCF Focus Area: Health
JCF Geographical Area: Sunshine Coast / East Africa
For more information:
Library For All
Library for All are a global team of authors, illustrators, designers, curators, developers, and entrepreneurs, with a passion for improving the lives of children through technology enabled learning tools.
From our origins as a digital library, they have grown to become a leading education technology developer and mid-tier publisher of high quality, culturally diverse and age appropriate children’s books, delivered digitally and in print on demand.
They believe that education brings opportunity. They invest in supporting early years literacy and numeracy education, knowing this support directly impacts how a child will learn and develop in the future.
They provide evidence backed, technology enabled learning tools to engage students, and guide teachers and families as they nurture each child’s unique learning journey.
Library for All Vision: Creating and delivering a digital library for the world to provide relevant content to 20 million users by 2030.
Library for all Mission: To make knowledge accessible to all, equally
The JCF has supported Library for All with a grant of $13,000 for their Digital Library of middle and upper school books in Papua New Guinea.
JCF Focus Area: Education
JCF Geographical Area: Papua New Guinea
For more information:
Project Vietnam Inc
Project Vietnam Inc. (PVI) is a registered Australian charity which has been providing aid in the fields of health and education to Vietnam since 1989 and more recently to Cambodia. Donations and grants made to PVI are tax deductible.
PVI is a small organisation made up of individuals who come from all walks of life including doctors, nurses, builders, tradesmen, teachers, farmers, and retired business people. The team members are well experienced volunteers who have been involved in the Projects for many years. Members of PVI willingly donate their time and substantial cost to be involved in these projects. These costs include airfares from Australia to Vietnam and return, accommodation, ground transport, meals, insurance and all other ancilliary costs. Volunteers also contribute $200 each toward the cost of building materials.
The Vision of PVI is
To meet the medical equipment, health and education needs of the people of Vietnam and any bordering country, using professional input from Australia, Vietnam and such bordering country in developing programs in specific areas to improve their quality of life.
For more information:
Reef Check Australia
Reef Check Australia protects Australia’s reefs and oceans by empowering people. They are an innovative environmental charity dedicated to building community capacity to understand, appreciate and protect the oceans. Their programs are designed to help people help reefs through hands-on research, inspiring education, and opportunities for grassroots positive action. Their core activities are:
- Inspiring reef-minded people: We connect people with reef science by providing an unbiased source of accessible, meaningful and accurate information about reef health.
- Engaging volunteers in reef health monitoring: We foster best-practice reef citizen science programs by providing our volunteers with the training, resources and networks to collect and share robust reef health data for science and management.
- Empowering local conservation action for the Reef: We create opportunities for people and communities to identify how they can help tackle reef health issues with local on-ground action through knowledge, tools, resources and support.
JCF Supported Project: Sunshine Coast Reef Ambassadors – 2017: $35,000
This project will launch and grow a Reef Ambassadors community outreach program on the Sunshine Coast. Reef Ambassadors are reef role models who actively inspire and catalyse their communities to better understand and help protect local marine environments. The program trains and supports volunteers to be reef role models by providing capacity building, resources, mentoring and support to facilitate grassroots community leaders who activate their communities. This framework supports communities that are informed, engaged and empowered to actively participate in protecting reef and ocean health.
Key activities that will take place in the Sunshine Coast region include:
- Building community environmental leadership capacity by training a minimum of 45 Reef Ambassadors through a 2 day science, communication and leadership program.
- Providing ongoing support, and skill building for Ambassadors through 9 annual development workshops with relevant experts to further grow skills and networks (3 per year), and ongoing mentoring with RCA staff, volunteers and partners.
- Increasing awareness and engagement in reef health topics by supporting Ambassadors to undertake and participate in a minimum of 60 community events (20 per year) to actively engage community members
- Working with Ambassadors to develop scalable resources that activate their networks to take tangible, science-based action on local issues.
For more information:
The Regent Honeyeater Project
The Regent Honeyeater Project is an independent not-for-profit organisation that is bringing real change to the landscape and environment of the Lurg Hills of North Eastern Victoria, providing a more secure future for a number of threatened bird and animal species.
Our core aims are action-oriented, informed by the best research available, empowered by a huge volunteer network, and showing inter-generational equity by supporting today’s landholders in tackling the ecological issues they’ve inherited from previous generations!
The project’s purposes include:
- Increasing the population of several threatened species in the Lurg Hills district of NE Victoria, focussing particularly on the Regent Honeyeater, Grey Crowned Babbler, Squirrel Glider and Brush Tailed Phascogale.
- Protecting and restoring all significant remnants of Box/Ironbark habitat in the project area, aiming to reinstate ecological balances and create self-sustaining vegetation communities.
- Boosting ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change, through an active revegetation program, using plants indigenous to the district.
- Creating strategic habitat links within the project area and beyond, to assist rare species’ seasonal movements and improve genetic diversity.
- Initiating educational opportunities for landholders, schools, universities and community volunteer groups, aiming to develop awareness, understanding, skills and commitment to threatened species habitat restoration.
- Engaging community volunteer groups, school students and university students, to assist landholders with the massive amount of on-ground work required.
- Encouraging biological research projects, to quantify the flora and fauna benefits of the restoration work.
All of the work seeks to address the ecological issues at their root causes and are in close accord with the official Recovery Plans for each species. Specific actions include fencing and enlarging existing habitat; planting on highly productive sites to give high nectar flows; pruning heavy mistletoe infestations to save old growth trees; increasing plant diversity to improve habitat structure and restore ecological balances in the long term; and improving habitat connectivity at both the local and landscape level.
For more information:
The School of St Jude
In 2002 a young Australian woman, Gemma Rice (now Gemma Sisia), from a sheep farm in Australia, opened a small school in Northern Tanzania with the help of her family, friends and local Rotary Club.
What started with only three students and one teacher is now a thriving school of approximately 1,900 students and around 350 local Tanzanian staff. The students and staff are located across three campuses and includes two boarding houses to accommodate more than 1,500 students.
The school is achieving it’s vision of educating the future leaders of Tanzania through it’s leadership promotion of critical thinking and expectation of high moral values from its students, staff and the school community. Over 90% of the children at the school receive a totally free education as local and international sponsors individually cover the costs of not only the educational fees but also the uniform, stationery, transport, hot meal, snacks and drinks of each child.
What makes this school even more special is the fact that this success comes about due to the group effort of thousands of ordinary people from all over the world coming together to do something quite extraordinary. Individuals, families, schools, church groups and service clubs are joining forces by supporting the school’s various sponsorship programs. Every day staff and students work hard to fulfill the school’s philosophy of “Fighting Poverty through Education” helping the students break the cycle of poverty that has gripped their families for generations.
For more information:
Sport North East
| JCF Focus Area | Sport |
| JCF Geographical Area | North East Victoria |
| Donation Amount | $10,000.00 |
| Donation Date | March 2021 |
| Donation Purpose | To fund high quality speakers for the 2021 Learn-Support- Lead women’s leadership Program. |
The core purpose of Sport North East is to support people of all ages and abilities in North East Victorian communities to live an active lifestyle, and participate in sport and active recreation. They work with sporting clubs, community organisations, and local people in Alpine, Indigo and Towong Shires, the Rural City of Wangaratta, and City of Wodonga.
Sport North East helps sporting clubs build their capacity to provide sport to more people, and to people of all abilities. They are the ‘go to’ resource for clubs, local government, and other community stakeholders.
They provide ideas for growth, sustainability and long term survival, governance, compliance and administration support, so club members can spend more time playing the game they love.
For more information:
Start Some Good
StartSomeGood is the leader in cause-driven crowdfunding, innovative partnerships and social entrepreneur education in Australia.
They are social enterprise ecosystems builders, providing technology, coaching and support for early-stage social entrepreneurs, helping them find and rally the financial, intellectual
and relational support they need to start social good in the world, including at crowdfunding platform StartSomeGood.com.
The StartSomeGood mission is to create a world where “everyone can be a changemaker.” A world where everyone has access to the information, inspiration and tools to make a difference, to maximize their chances of success and avoid the mistakes common to crowdfunding.
StartSomeGood launched in 2011 with an aspiration to be the “Kickstarter for social change.” Since then they have evolved into an all-purpose ecosystem builder for the social enterprise sector. They now provide a pathway for aspiring social entrepreneurs, from inspiration (The #StartingGood Virtual Summit) to design (Good Hustle), launch (StartSomeGood) and soon, growth (LendforGood).
The JCF supported StartSomeGood with a $10,000 grant to commence building their new portals: Activon – a platform for recurring giving and LendSomeGood a crowd lending platform.
JCF Focus Area: Growing Giving
JCF Geographical Area: National
For more information:
The START Foundation
The START Foundation was created to assist Amputees to achieve their sporting dreams.
It was established in 2013 through the inspirational story of Kerryn Harvey, who contracted a life threatening flesh eating bacteria as a result of a seemingly minor cycling accident. Radical surgery was required and a right forequarter amputation (arm and shoulder) was performed.
The mission of the foundation is Empowering Amputees in Life through Sport
The Objectives are to:
- Provide grants for Amputees* to participate in their chosen sport in order to achieve their sporting dreams.
- Generate funds to award in the form of grants to Amputees* to participate in their chosen sport in order for them to achieve their sporting dreams.
- Generate funds or partner with organisations to undertake research to benefit Amputees*
The START Foundation recognises the key benefits for Amputees participating in sport, including a sense of achievement, improvement of health, social interaction and community engagement. A grant program will provide grants for a new limb, limb modification or equipment modification, to enable Amputees to participate in sport.
For more information:
Sunshine Butterflies
Sunshine Butterflies is a boutique, not- for-profit charity based on the Sunshine Coast that has built a network of flexible services to provide information, support, resources and programs to individuals and families living with disability in a safe and happy learning environment.
Sunshine Butterflies pride themselves on being able to improve all areas in the lives of people with disabilities by providing individual assistance, swim, social and recreational opportunities, early intervention programs, post school recreational programs, respite and personal fundraising plans and by providing families with parent support, information and resources
Sunshine Butterflies Vision is to empower families and individuals living with disability and to provide them with the support they need to achieve a happy and fulfilled life.
Sunshine Butterflies’ mission is to create and build a network of flexible services that will provide, from one accessible location, information, assistance, support, resources and programs in a safe and happy living and learning environment to individuals and families living with disability.
Sunshine Butterflies Sport and Recreation Club is open to all ages and abilities and is held at various locations along the Sunshine Coast. Sports include swimming and water activities, special needs AFL, and Fitability.
The JCF has supported Sunshine Butteflies with a grant of $2,400 for the purchase of equipment used in their Water Sports Program.
JCF Focus Area: Sport
JCF Geographical Area: Sunshine Coast
For more information:
Tomorrow Today Foundation
Tomorrow Today Foundation is all about community philanthropy – local people improving Benalla and surrounds through thoughtful, structured and focused giving of time, money and skills.
They work with individuals and organisations across business, government and community to create and sustain vibrant projects and activities. They are particularly focussed on improving the retention of children in education and building a Community Fund.
Tomorrow Today Vision: A generous community, able to deliver a stronger tomorrow by challenging itself today.
Tomorrow Today Purpose: To enable the people of Benalla district to create a stronger, more resilient and prosperous rural community.
Their major project is the Education Benalla Program, which improves educational outcomes for Benalla’s children. With families, schools and the community we support children at critical times, from cradle to career.
“Connect9” is community-based mentoring program for students in Year 9. Young people in the Connect9 program spend 10 weeks participating in activities that connect them to new hobbies, people, experiences and different sports, as well as set life and career goals. Each Connect9 student is matched with a community mentor, who will be their ‘buddy’ throughout the program. Community Mentors are local people who volunteer their time to make a positive difference in the lives of Benalla’s young people
The JCF has supported Tomorrow Today with two grants of $16,000 and $13,000 for their Connect9 Program.
JCF Focus Area: Education
JCF Geographical Area: North East Victoria
For more information:
University of Sunshine Coast
To assist the University of the Sunshine Coast with its growth, the University Development Office has a number of giving initiatives.
The Development Office was established in 1998 to assist the University in its development and enhancement by garnering donor support and providing valuable networking opportunities for alumni, community members, and friends of the University.
The key activities of the Development Office are:
- assisting alumni and friends to maintain contact with each other and the University
- building strong relationships with the community
- increasing donor support for University initiatives
- reporting the progress of this support and how it aids the University’s development
In 2012, the Development Office launched the USC Starfish Program, a giving program for staff, alumni and the community.
For more information:
Wantaim PNG
Wantaim PNG is an Australian not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the remote island communities of Rambutso (Rambutyo) in Papua New Guinea through community based health, education and conservation programmes. They are connected to these communities by humanity, history and the Pacific Ocean with its dazzling diversity. They reach out to these communities through story-telling.
Wantaim PNG partner with community leaders and village institutions to ensure alignment with local, district, provincial and national development priorities.
Our 4 key focus areas are critical to sustainability: health; education; the conservation of environment; the preservation and valuing of traditional knowledge and culture.
JCF Supported Projects:
i) Village Toilet project -2016: $5000
A community led dry composting toilet construction which encourages community adaptation to the use and maintenance of composting toilets in low lying island and coastal areas where pit toilets and sea-closets are not appropriate. A community led train the trainer approach is capable of delivering toilets to more people more quickly and at a reasonable cost with greater local engagement and skills transfer.
ii ) Feminine Hygiene Pilot (FHP) – 2017: $12000
A community led feminine hygiene pilot (FHP) which teaches women’s groups to sew reusable sanitary kits which last up to 3 years. Improved access to safe, hygienic feminine hygiene products lifts school attendance of young girls and ultimately improves gender equality. By reducing rates of infection it also helps improve health outcomes for women and girls. The FHP trained 14 women in 4 villages; established a Manus Support team; generated orders of PGK5000 from local schools and identified a clear pathway to further income.
For more information:
Recipients who have been funded in the past
The Alola Foundation
The Alola Foundation is an organisation operating in Timor-Leste to improve the lives of women and children.
Founded in 2001 by Melbourne woman who was the then First Lady, Ms Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the organisation seeks to nurture women leaders and advocate for the rights of women.
Alola’s mission is Feto Forte Nasaun Forte – Strong Women, Strong Nation Alola was originally created to raise awareness of the widespread sexual violence against women and girls in Timor-Leste during the militia attacks of September 1999. Though this is still a key issue for Alola, today the Foundation also provides a wide range of vitally important support programs for the women and children of Timor-Leste.
Working with community groups and individuals, our programs aim to improve maternal and child health, create employment, promote human rights, strengthen community development, and improve the status of women. Now employing over 100 staff, Alola is committed to developing strong women who will be the leaders of the future in Timor-Leste. All Alola programs support the Government of Timor-Leste to achieve the National Development Goals.
The vision is that Women of Timor-Leste have equal status in ALL aspects of life (access, participation, role in decision making, enjoyment of benefits of development) through education, economic development, health and community leadership.
- To promote women’s rights and increase women’s leadership capacity
- To improve health status of women and children
- To increase access and quality of education for women and children
- To strengthen women’s small enterprise at grassroots level
For more information:
Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation
The Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation (ACCF) works in indigenous communities in Australia to enhance and protect women’s health. The ACCF’s Overseas Relief Fund works in developing countries also to enhance women’s health and to eliminate cervical cancer.
The ACCF’s Vision is to protect and enhance women’s health by eliminating cervical cancer and enabling treatment for women with cervical cancer and related health issues, in Australia and in developing countries.
Through its programs in support of women’s health and wellbeing, ACCF is committed to improving health and reducing poverty and disadvantage to contribute to sustainable development. ACCF and its program partners have a policy of zero tolerance to fraud and corruption and to family and sexual violence, particularly against women.
ACCF aims to minimise the incidence and burden of cervical cancer and related women’s health issues: to assist women, their families, and communities by developing and implementing practical and appropriate programs, and by partnering with like-minded governments, organisations, and individuals to achieve health outcomes which reduce marginalisation and contribute to developing stronger communities
For more information:
Australian Himalayan Foundation
Following in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary, the Australian Himalayan Foundation (AHF) is working to help the people of the Himalaya through improvements in health, education and conservation in Nepal, the Indian Himalaya and Bhutan. AHE works in partnership with local communities to help the people of the Himalaya in a long term, sustainable way.
The AHF works across the Himalaya to empower and educate women and to improve the lives of women and girls in the region. When a family can’t afford to send all their children to school, it is the daughter who is kept home. When a family can’t afford to provide food for all the family, it is the woman who goes without. And when a country like Nepal suffers from a natural disaster like the recent earthquakes, it is the women and girls that are left the most vulnerable and are the most at risk.
For these reasons the AHF is working to ensure women and girls have access to the same health, education and work opportunities as men. For more than ten years we have been providing school scholarships for girls in Nepal and Bhutan to ensure gender parity in education and more recently have begun offering young women vocational training scholarships to equip them with practical skills in trades like weaving, textile production, nursing, teaching and building construction. These skills will help lift women out of poverty, stimulate income generation and provide greater financial security, independence and self-esteem.
We also provide maternal health support in Nepal and Ladakh for mothers in remote mountain communities who are otherwise cut off from basic medical services. These programs are essential for the safe and healthy future of women across the Himalaya.
For more information
Children's Therapy Centre
The Sunshine Coast based Children’s Therapy Centre provides therapy services to children with functional impairments arising from physical, sensory, emotional, speech and language, behavioural and mental health conditions and disabilities. Services operate within a collaborative team approach and include Psychology, Speech and Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. Services are delivered in community centres or in the child’s natural learning environments.
The service also helps families cope with their individual challenges, giving them peace-of-mind and enabling them to fully foster their child’s potential to lead full and rich lives. Family services include:
- supporting families in times of crisis
- offering counselling when required/needed
- developing family service plans in conjunction with the therapy teams
- developing behaviour support plans
- assisting with funding applications
- connecting families to each other, and linking families to relevant resources
- arranging information sessions, parenting workshops and support groups
- arranging outings for sibling
In 2017 the June Canavan Foundation funded a very successful weekend camp for 18 children who are all siblings of children with disabilities. The purpose of the camp was to facilitate connections with other children who are having similar experiences, to have a break from the complexity of family life where one or more children have needs, and very importantly, to have FUN.
For more information:
Cycling Cares - Cure For MND Foundation
The Cure for MND Foundation is Australia’s leading independent MND foundation, focussed on funding large-scale collaborative research projects, clinical trials, and vital assistive equipment for all Australians living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
In 2016, just prior to the Rio Olympics, Cycling Australia’s head track sprint coach Gary West was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease . Joined by champion cyclist Anna Meares, Gary hopes to push MND into the public spotlight and raise much needed funds for vital research through the Cure for MND Foundation and a campaign they’ve launched called Cycling Cares.
In 2017 The June Canavan Foundation made a donation to the Cycling Cares campaign, to be directed towards provision of vitally important adaptive equipment to help people like Gary maintain communication and independence as the MND progresses.
For more information:
Glasshouse Country Men’s Shed
The Glasshouse Country Men’s Shed at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast is one of network of Men’s Sheds established around Australia. Men’s sheds have been established for a range of reasons. At the heart lies some common interest that is shared, and often involved activities built around arts, crafts and technical skills – the kind of things done in the backyard shed. Rather than work on those interests alone, a community shed introduces a social interaction among the participants that is an important part of well being. The interest of the group develops from that interest and copious coffee to expand the range of things that they do.
The vision for men’s sheds is to:
- Provide support to men in need of help arising from mental illness or other debilitating illnesses;
- Ease the transition of men from full-time employment to other activities in retirement;
- Provide an additional link between the primary health network and the many men who have no regular contact with that network;
- Establish a place for men that enabled social interaction and activities to maintain the health and wellbeing of those men;
- Build a culture in the sheds where all men are welcome and where mutual respect and trust are paramount;
- Become a focal point in the community for the identification of men’s health issues and actions to resolve those issues.
To make a donation or to provide support to the Glasshouse Country Men’s Shed please contact Bob McLean on 0427 606 240.
For more information:
Harmony House
Harmony House is the Maroochydore house of the Sunshine Coast Family Contact Centre – a children’s contact centre which ensures the smooth changeover of children between separated parents and appropriate contact visits between children and their non-residential parents/guardians.
The service is for families who are in conflict and cannot arrange a mutually agreeable or safe venue for child-parent contact.
Trained staff ensure contact and changeover is free of any conflict. The Sunshine Coast Family Contact Centre is an independent service, and is operated on a non-judgmental basis. Facilitated Contact is supervised under strict guidelines from the Centre Board of Management. The primary objective of the centre is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child and the empowerment of the parents and the child.
For more information:
The Jannie Moala Foundation
The Jannie Moala Foundation was established, after the death of the late Captain Jannie Moala, who died in a plane crash in Kokoda, in August 2009, with 11 passengers and a first officer.
The mission of the Foundation is to educate young female aviators of Papua New Guinea and to increase the safety of air travel in Papua New Guinea.
The Jannie Moala Foundation is currently working towards installing an automated weather station at Abuari village along the Kokoda trail. The weather station once installed, will aid pilots in their flight plan into Kokoda airstrip, instead of them relying on visual observation, which has being the case to date. The automated weather station costs around k30,000 and once installed, will be donated to the P-N-G Weather Bureau.
The foundation aims to develop air safety infrastructure around P-N-G and the installation of the automated weather station at Abuari Village, will be the first pilot project.
John McLean Foundation
The John Maclean Foundation (JMF) exists to change the lives of young Australians who use wheelchairs. Their mission is to inspire, motivate and enable these great kids to chase their dreams.
The JMF Kids 4 Kids Program is an opportunity where children use their physical abilities to assist other children who are more physically challenged and need wheelchairs. Over four, six or weeks, participating kids will complete the ironman triathlon distance by swimming 3.8km, riding 180km and running 42.2km.
The number of overweight children in Australia has doubled in recent years, with a quarter of children considered overweight or obese. Causes of obesity in children include unhealthy food choices, lack of physical activity and family eating habits. Australian children are less active than they were in the past. Australian children watch, on average, around 2½ hours of television a day, as well as spending time using computers and other electronic games. It seems that these pastimes are replacing active ones.
This event is designed to encourage kids to be active as well as encouraging families to spend active time together. Along the way, participating kids can share what they’re doing with friends, family, their schools, local community, and media. This will encourage other kids to become more active.
For more information:
Katie Rose Cottage
The Sunshine Coast Community Hospice Ltd (SCCH Ltd) was founded by two palliative care nurses, Terry Clarke-Burrows and Sue Story, who through their work in the community, identified the evident ‘gap’ in services when terminally ill people and their families were no longer able to cope at home. They became aware of the need to help the many alone and suffering dying people in need of a compassionate, caring home-like place to die as they near the end of their lives.
The SCCH Ltd operates independently. developing and implementing a new model of community based Hospice care. This innovative and cost effective model will provide care to people who can no longer stay at home and do not need hospitalisation. Currently they are working towards the establishment of Community Hospice Guest Houses, each accommodating 2-3 terminally ill people in a homelike environment.
The first of these cottages, Katie Rose Cottage with 6 beds has now opened it’s doors to Sunshine Coast communities. Katie Rose Cottage is a beautiful extension to a person’s home, fully equipped and adapted to provide high quality nursing support care to those unable to manage their final journey in their own home.
For more information:
The Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships Australia is a charity registered in Australia and governed by the Australian Board. The Australian Office, based in Caloundra, Qld, is part of a global network of offices whose mission is to promote the work of Mercy Ships through fundraising, volunteer recruitment and the procurement of materials and services.
Mercy Ships want to help alleviate the pain and suffering in the lives of those who live in the less fortunate areas of the world. Three things make Mercy Ships unique in performing this function:
- Unique Service – We can’t bring them to our hospitals, so we take a floating hospital to them
- Unique Platform – A floating hospital
- Unique Staff – The vast majority (over 90%) of our staff, from doctors to deck hands, provide their services free!
For more information:
Motivation Australia
Motivation Australia is a not for profit disability and development organisation that works in partnership with local organisations to enhance the quality of life of people with mobility disabilities in the Asia Pacific region, including rural and remote Australia.
For people living in low income countries, where there is limited rehabilitation and almost no access to an appropriate mobility device – such as a wheelchair or prosthetic limb – the effects of a mobility disability can be devastating. Essentially – a mobility device which meets a person’s physical, lifestyle and environmental needs is an essential tool. Mobility opens up opportunities for people with a mobility device to study, work, engage in cultural activities and access services such as health care.
For more information:
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is the world’s largest conservation organization working to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.
In October 2017 The Nature Conservancy conducted a workshop with women from Northern Australia, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. Women from these areas have a customary understanding of certain bush foods, plants and cultural practices integral to protecting the natural ecosystems, and they are often the primary resource managers for their families, growing crops and gathering food, water and firewood.
The workshop served as a learning exchange enabling the women to share and showcase their experiences – looking at what works and what doesn’t. It also focused on developing leadership as well as improving financial literacy and building entrepreneurship through microfinance and local business opportunities including ecotourism.
The JCF sponsored 9 women from PNG to attend the workshop. They worked on a project to stop overfishing of their mangroves and explored ways of pursuing a sustainable economic living. They named their project ‘From Mangrove to Menu’!
For more information:
Noosa and District Landcare
Noosa & District Landcare Group (NDLG) promotes the value, protection and rehabilitation of coastal and hinterland ecosystems within the Noosa Biosphere and local associated regions, particularly where areas have been impacted by development and environmental weed infestation. They encourage best management practices and sustainable use of land within the region that will assist in the preservation of water quality and ecosystem health. This in turn helps to create productive and biodiverse landscapes capable of supporting the future generation.
NDLG aims to educate and raise awareness of environmental concerns within the community through a series of community programs and events, informative and interactive workshops, and a successful traineeship program.
NDLG is committed to addressing land condition at a local level and habitat connectivity at a regional level. They provide a range of services including ecosystem restoration, carbon and biodiversity offsets, catchment health monitoring, as well as raising community awareness through plant identification workshops, school visits and field days, and technical and vocational training.
Their expertise covers project management, from the planning and consultation stage, through to implementation and post-implementation monitoring. Their two nurseries together produce over 200,000 native tube stock each year.
JCF supported project: Coxen’s Fig Parrot Monitoring Project – $10,000 – 2016
The Coxen’s Fig Parrot is listed as an endangered species in Queensland and New South Wales and there is very little observational data recorded relating to its call and no captured images. The nature of the bird does not lend itself to the use of regular/standard equipment – It is very fast and very quiet.
The Upper Pinbarren Catchment in the Noosa Hinterland has been subject to extensive clearing in the past for both timber production and ongoing dairy operations. Despite this, and most likely due to many landholders leaving many old growth fig trees in situ, there have been a significant number of recent unconfirmed, yet reliable sightings of the parrot and one confirmed nesting site. The site is mentioned in the accredited ‘Coxen’s Fig Parrot National Recovery Plan’ as having high likelihood of holding a significant population.
To that end, and to support the current and future protection and enhancement of the areas native habitat, the JCF supported Noosa and District Landcare for a parrot monitoring program using new state of the art survey techniques. If populations of the bird can be shown to categorically exist in the area, it will be possible to attract funding to accelerate plans to remediate the catchment area.
For more information:
The Orangutan Project (TOP)
The Orangutan Project (TOP) supports orangutan conservation, rainforest protection, local community partnerships and the rehabilitation and reintroduction of displaced orangutans back to the wild, in order to save the two orangutan species from extinction.
TOP is a non-partisan organisation that collaborates with several orangutan conservation projects, as well as providing habitat protection through its own programs to deter wildlife poaching, illegal logging and land clearing in Indonesia.
The organisation provides technical and financial assistance directly to conservation projects and orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centres. This includes much needed resources for the day-to-day care needs, the reintroduction of orphaned orangutans and the locating and securing of release sites. Presently there are over 2,000 orphaned orangutans living in care centres in Borneo and Sumatra.
TOP’s philosophy is to work flexibly and tailor what is necessary to get the job done for orangutan conservation and welfare, with TOP’s organisations needs always subservient to the best outcome for orangutans.
The underlying philosophy of the TOP is:
- no criticism of fellow orangutan organisations
- building partnerships between organisations, and
- funds to be distributed according to scientifically determined conservation priorities
TOP aims to ensure the survival of orangutans in the wild within available populations and their welfare. This is done by conducting TOP’s own work and assisting other accredited conservation projects according to the most effective outcomes for the species.
For more information:
Open Heart International
Open Heart International provides the opportunity for those living in developing countries to receive the specialised healthcare that they deserve, yet cannot access.
We Treat, We Teach, We Empower
Open Heart International implement projects that: Provide medical treatment for patients in developing countries who do not have access to such treatment owing to a lack of the necessary technical or financial means in their own country, irrespective of their nationality, race, or religion.
Provide training for local medical, nursing, and allied health staff in the specialist fields associated with different diseases.
Empower local health professionals and support staff in the countries we visit to deliver enhanced health care.
Create awareness and support the development of prevention and rehabilitation services in developing countries.
Facilitate and support Australian healthcare professionals to engage in the health care development processes in developing countries
For more information:
Philanthropy Australia
Philanthropy Australia is the national peak body for philanthropy and is a not-for-profit membership organisation.
Its members are trusts and foundations, businesses, families and individuals who want to make a difference through their own philanthropy and to encourage others with their giving.
As the national peak body PA offers representation, networking, services and information to members and others in the not-for-profit sector. Its aim is to represent, grow and inspire an effective and robust philanthropic sector in the community.
Philanthropy Australia also provides information to those seeking to understand, access or partner with the philanthropic sector.
For more information:
Sport Access Foundation
The Sport Access Foundation provides financial assistance and support to enable children with a physical or intellectual disability to participate in sporting activities that would otherwise be beyond the financial means of that child or their parent(s) or guardian(s)
Each year, the Sport Access Foundation Grant offers grants of $2000 for children and young people with a disability to provide some assistance with expenses for their participation in sport.
The initial Grant was announced in June 2017. Grants will be awarded to applicants who best demonstrate the desire to succeed in their chosen sport and where the financial and moral support from Sports Access Foundation would assist in their access and development in their sport. The grants may be used to cover a range of different costs associated with providing access to sporting opportunities including:
- the costs of travelling to and from sporting events and training;
- the costs of participating in sporting events including participation, entry or enrolment fees;
- the purchase of specialist sport equipment or clothing;
- the purchase of protective or adaptive equipment; and
- the costs of consulting with health professionals to develop an appropriate sporting program for that child
JCF contribution: 2017: 3 x $2000 grants
For more information:
SunnyKids
SunnyKids provides a social and emotional safety net for thousands of children and their families through their “Virtual Village” practice model.
They also offer up to 8,000 nights of emergency accommodation, as well as domestic violence and referral counselling, each and every year to local families in need. They partner with health, education and child protection agencies to keep kids safe. Their underlying, driving belief is that any issue is not the child’s problem to fix, nor is it the family’s or the community’s problem alone. It requires a community solution in which everyone takes responsibility and works together, empowering us all.
The SunnyKids Virtual Village uses five key areas to identify and secure the support that at-risk children, young people and families need to overcome issues and be their best. Each of these areas is important and they mesh to ensure a child’s wellbeing.
SunnyKids vision is a society in which everyone feels safe, belongs and has a chance to reach their full potential. Their mission is to achieve this by working with children, families and communities to help everyone take responsibility for the future.
The JCF supported Sunnykids with a grant of $20,000 for a new website portal called The Sunnykids Village Connective Hub.
JCF Focus Area: Health
JCF Geographical Area: Sunshine Coast
For more information:
Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge
The Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge (Sippy Creek Animal Refuge Society Inc) was established in 1979. Our Mission statement is ‘Giving refuge to abandoned and surrendered cats and dogs until permanently rehomed and educating the community on responsible pet ownership”. The Refuge is an independent, non-profit, charitable organisation and has a strictly regulated non-euthanasia policy. We also run education programmes for the community on responsible animal ownership
All cats and dogs admitted to the Refuge are Vet checked, vaccinated, wormed, desexed, micro chipped and medically treated if necessary prior to being available for sale to the public. We have comprehensive terms and conditions of sale to ensure the animals are adopted into an appropriately loving home.
The Refuge is managed by an unpaid, elected committee, and run by a small staffing compliment and a large dedicated group of volunteers. The Refuge operates from a 1.08 hectare site at Sippy Creek Road, Tanawha (adjacent to the Council Pound) and can house approximately 70 dogs and 50 cats at any given time. We accept cats and dogs from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council Pound after owners cannot be traced, and from private surrenders.
For more information:
Wangaratta Youth Health Service
Wangaratta High School and local health and youth services have established an “onsite” Youth Heath Service at the school The health service is available to all Wangaratta secondary school aged young people.
The vision of the WYHS is to improve health and well-being outcomes for young people in the Rural City of Wangaratta by providing a range of accessible health services within a school environment.
The purpose is to respond to the health and well-being needs of young people by establishing a hub for the provision of co-ordinated services at Wangaratta High School (WHS).
The benefits of the service are:
Comprehensive health and support services to young people in a location that would be more accessible for them (Youth Needs Assessment Survey 2006)
- A health service that is preventative, early intervention, and educationally focused
- A health service which builds on existing services and relationships within the school and community
For more information: