So…I guess I’m one of those philanthropist wankers. (Part 2)

In part two of this special four part series, David Hardie takes us on his initial journey into philanthropy and explains how important personal connections are when starting to give. If you haven’t already, you should check out part one of David’s story, which gives you the low down on how he came to be a philanthropist.

The personal connection I formed with the Founder of the Sydney Community Foundation led me to make the decision to establish a sub-fund as part of the Foundation. This model appealed to me – it enabled me to have input into the areas the sub-fund might support but meant that I did not need to concern myself with the grantmaking and investment logistics – but knew that these were being well managed. That felt right and so in 2005 my sub-fund (named after my nephew Jack) was established and I started to allocate my annual proceeds from the family investment company into the sub-fund. The initial project that was supported through the sub-fund was one that had a deep personal connection for me. It was a project to support grandparents raising their grandchildren- being administered by the NSW Council on the Ageing. The connection was that this reflected my personal story as I had been raised by my grandparents from the age of seven. When I heard about the project it was a no-brainer that this would be my first sub-fund project!

The community foundation model has worked well for me – governance and investment decisions are sound and I’ve been able to have a level of input that has been appropriate for me at the time. I’ve also been able to diversify the areas I support. An area of growing interest for me over many years has been the challenges facing refugees and asylum seekers. I volunteered for a few years providing hands-on settlement support to newly arrived refugee families and also worked as a program coordinator for a project supporting refugee kids in schools (part of a massive career change but that’s another story!). Increasingly I have also despaired at the quality of political and public discourse on this issue. The most recent organisation supported by my SCF sub-fund has been the NSW Asylum Seekers Centre – a small organisation doing excellent work with very limited resources.

So my engagement in formal philanthropy has progressed in a slow but considered and increasingly structured manner over the last ten years. Alongside this I’ve also supported a couple of other initiatives – again they have a personal connection – and that does seem to be the consistent theme that drives my personal giving. The first was setting up an annual scholarship to fund a place for an individual from the not for profit sector to undertake the Sydney Leadership Program. That was a pivotal experience for me and one that I wanted others to share.  Secondly, I’ve provided three years of support to fund an annual student bursary (in the name of my niece Tara) in the recently established School for Social Entrepreneurs Australia. This came about because I was working alongside two amazing women who were involved in the initial establishment of SSE Australia back in 2008. I wanted to support their work and also wanted to help support the initial set-up of a program with huge potential.

That brings me to the here and now and the recent set up of a private ancillary fund. How did I get to this stage? Well, again it took a personal experience to show me the way. In 2010 I took up a role working at The Myer Foundation. When applying for this role it had become abundantly clear that I really wanted this experience (you know that rare moment when you can just feel that something is the right thing for you to be doing). Fortunately I got the job and apart from learning a lot about good grantmaking I also learnt about other formal forms of philanthropy such as private ancillary funds. Quite quickly I decided that this was the next step for me to take and so the Slingsby Foundation was founded in 2010. The name comes from the name of my grandad’s company – after all it only exists because of him. It’s a very small PAF at the moment but it will continue to grow during the remainder of my lifetime.

When I was signing the Trust Deed for the Foundation I did feel like it was the culmination of a journey that began with my grandad sitting me down with the financial section of the newspaper very patiently trying to share his knowledge with his disinterested grandson. It took almost 40 years from that time, but this Foundation will be a legacy of not just his work but also the very different work that I have undertaken during my life.  His and my skills are very different but this Foundation brings the best of both of us together. Now, it’s up to me to develop its strategy and I’ll share some of my early work in this area with you in parts three and four.

Before that, I should provide some final reflections on the key things that have helped me to finally embrace my inner philanthropist!

• I’ve realised that there are lots of different ways you can take part and that all of them (personal donations, sub-funds, PAF’s etc) have an important role to play
• Personal connections and relationships have been critical
• My values have driven my actions
• My level of interest, engagement and involvement has progressively increased as I’ve learnt about myself, my skills and developed my own confidence to participate in this field
• I see this as my opportunity to lead good work in the world.

David Hardie recently worked as a Program Manager and Intern at the Myer Foundation and Sidney Myer Fund. He is the Founder of the Slingsby Foundation and strongly believes that those Australians who are financially well-off should grow Australian philanthropy and help build the social fabric of the nation that has provided their wealth.