Backed by some of “the most generous people in the country” (Canberrans), Jo Dean-Ritchie, Genevieve Jacobs and Emmanuel Rodriguez from Hands Across Canberra say the future is bright for the national capital’s community foundation. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
In southwestern Ontario, just north of the US border, is London, a Canadian city roughly the same size as Canberra.
Over 100 years, this city’s local charitable foundation has used investment to grow its funds to $100 million, allowing it to give large grants to community organisations to undertake powerful projects such as social housing.
This charitable model is well known in Canada, where bigger cities might have foundations that have grown to considerable heft, investing over $1 billion in charity to fund grants back into the community.
The model exists in Canberra, too. Though at 14 years old, Hands Across Canberra (HAC) is a much younger organisation than its Canadian peer, it has lofty (but achievable) goals to meet and even exceed the $10 million mark, according to its new CEO Genevieve Jacobs.
“I’m so excited about what the future could be if we get this right,” she says.
Genevieve says while there are hurdles ahead, community generosity is not one of them.
“Australia is a generous nation, and I believe Canberrans are among the most generous people in the country. We won’t hesitate to turn out our pockets and give everything we can, but we’re not necessarily able to look downstream,” Genevieve says.
“The HAC model is simple – we raise funds for Canberra’s most vulnerable people, we invest the money to make it grow and we give it back in grants. That investment becomes a powerful tool for transforming communities and solving problems proactively rather than being reactive.
“It’s about setting ourselves up to look at the long term and seeing what we can build ourselves, rather than going out cap-in-hand when things go wrong.”
New Hands Across Canberra CEO Genevieve Jacobs is on a mission to ensure all Canberrans understand their community foundation so they can share in the pride of its achievements and the excitement of its potential. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
In its infancy, HAC’s focus was on assisting Canberra’s charities in their fundraising efforts. Today, not only does the organisation assist 350 local charities in this way, but its model of using investment to grow its own pool of funds is gaining momentum.
Ensuring Canberrans understand the HAC model will be a key step in maintaining the trajectory.
“One thing we’ve identified is that while a lot of people have heard of the name Hands Across Canberra, they don’t necessarily understand how it works,” Genevieve says.
“So much work has gone into building this model, and we’re now in a position to build those investments going forward. One of my main tasks is to increase awareness of the model, what it has achieved so far and what it’s capable of achieving in the future.
“I’ve been fortunate a couple of times to work with the Raiders. I want to one day stand in the middle of the field at halftime, with everyone in that stadium – people of Canberra from all backgrounds – and for them to say, ‘Hey, that’s our community foundation, it’s here to help all of us’, and for them to feel proud of that.”
HAC’s most recent round of grants, administered in partnership with The Snow Foundation and the John James Foundation, helped fund 60 projects with $1.5 million.
However, the true power of the HAC model lies in its ability to amplify generosity from all corners of the community.
“That’s the beauty of community foundations – they’re democratic. It isn’t about asking people to give all their gifts and talent to help build the community,” Genevieve says.
“A giving circle, for instance, can muster huge power – it could be your mother’s group or the handful of mates who go away fishing every year, and if you add an element of giving, even modest individual donations become sizeable. And in the end, whether you’ve pulled together $10 from your giving circle, or you’re lucky enough to be able to donate millions, it all goes into a pool that helps your community locally,” Genevieve says.
Given statistics around charitable distributions, which indicate that 80 per cent of charitable funds donated in Canberra leave Canberra, “local” is the operative word at HAC, where the motto is “Give where you live”.
In this, the HAC model empowers people with the ability to help build their community with their own hands.
“And it stops at being something aligned to the government of the day or even the financial conditions,” Genevieve says. “This is about us doing it for ourselves.”
For more information, visit Hands Across Canberra.
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