THE evening of Thursday, May 23 saw a crowd of more than 70 turn out to celebrate the official launch of the region’s newest philanthropic organisation, the Greater Shepparton Foundation (GSF) at Billabong Garden Complex’s Garden Kitchen Café.
The new foundation is effectively an evolution of The Community Fund Goulburn Valley and aims to capitalise on the success and community-driven work and programs The Community Fund has developed over the past 18 years.
Since inception, the GSF has seen strong support from both the local community and beyond and the launch evening saw more of the same, with pledges of more than $500,000 in donations a highlight of the event.
This particular generous pledge came from the Fairley Foundation, who for more than 50 years, have been supporting local community projects with philanthropic funding.
Their contribution will be dispersed over a five-year period in support of the ongoing aspirations of the GSF.
Fairley Foundation chair, Andrew Fairley said, “The Fairley Foundation, over the past 50 years has been very successful in many ways in ameliorating some of the social disadvantage in Shepparton, but there is still much to do.
“With our experience in philanthropy, one of the abiding lessons that we have learned is that successful philanthropy requires the creation of leverage on funding that is being provided. This is something that we have consistently sought to do in Shepparton.”
Other generous donations of $10,000 were also made from Leon Carp and family and Radek Sali and his business, Light Warrior. The Carp family came to settle in Shepparton from Europe more than 70 years ago and say this donation is to acknowledge the importance of Shepparton in accepting and settling immigrants over generations.
The announcement of the appointment of local businesswoman and former Fairley Foundation executive officer, Cheryl Hammer, as GSF’s new chief executive officer was also a highlight of the event, explained the foundation’s inaugural Chair, Garry Smith.
“The board is very pleased to welcome Cheryl as CEO. With her extensive experience in the not-for-profit and philanthropic sector we are looking forward to fulfilling our vision of, ‘No-one living with disadvantage in Greater Shepparton’,” Garry said.
The Greater Shepparton Foundation is a Public Benevolent Institution and has a legal status of DGR 1, which allows both businesses and individuals to make tax-deductible donations to a broad range of activities.
