Some examples
The Trust for Nature Foundation
The Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women
The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award
Teen Spirit Foundation: total control
Brian Wilson and his wife Wendy Edwards wanted to make a difference to angry or mixed up youth in Australia. They also wanted to see their contribution work as effectively as possible.
A Prescribed Perpetual Private Fund structure was the ideal model for the Teen Spirit Foundation that the couple set up in 2001 to fund preventative programs for teenage children before they get into trouble.
Brian and Wendy chose Perpetual Trustees as a co-trustee after examining several options, including banks. “I felt that Perpetual Trustees was best equipped to look after the administration and invest the Teen Spirit funds. We wanted full control over where the money went. I didn’t want to employ someone to do the administration yet I wanted confidence that the investment side was looked after,” reports Brian.
“Establishing the foundation was easier than I expected. The role of Perpetual during the complicated application process with the ATO was very useful,” Brian adds.
Teen Spirit has an unpaid Advisory Board of eight people from senior corporate and community positions. Brian and Wendy’s daughter – the genesis of the whole foundation – is now a qualified social worker and is one of the board members. The board reviews all applications; the members talk to the bodies seeking grants to establish plans, meet the criteria and follow up to ensure funds are used for the benefit of youth.
“There really is a need in Australia for more people to set up this sort of thing, or even team up with others to do it. We lag behind other countries in the place of philanthropy in society,” Brian noted. “Also, the engagement of the donors with the programs funded is critical to the effective use of funds and to maximise outcomes.”
Brian and Wendy are hoping the foundation will be trans-generational. “We’re hoping over time that our daughter and our younger son will become involved in running it. The general idea is for this to go on indefinitely. It’s a family thing.”
Visit http://www.teenspirit.info/
The Trust for Nature Foundation: living and growing
A working partnership with Perpetual Trustees is seeing precious tracts of Victoria’s natural landscape protected in perpetuity.
The Trust for Nature Foundation was established to help support Trust for Nature, a non-profit organisation that has worked to conserve privately owned natural bush for more than 30 years. The foundation has four trustees, Dr Janet Schapper, Dr Neil Byron and Mr John Bate, with Perpetual Trustees as co-trustee and fund manager.
Dr Schapper, a landscape architect and Senior Fellow at Burnley College, University of Melbourne, explains: “We set up the Trust for Nature Foundation in 2002. It was one of the first foundations able to use the flexibility of the PPF’s tax effectiveness and leveraging.
“The reason we chose a trustee company to administer the foundation was because we wanted the fund manager to earn its returns primarily by building the funds, rather than just earn transaction fees.
“Perpetual Trustees offered us this performance-based return. They have a mutual interest in building the funds, both as the fund manager and as co-trustee.”
The Trust for Nature Foundation has attracted donations from those who support the trust’s activities and assists landowners to apply conservation covenants. It helps with land stewardship programs and the purchase of land for nature conservation. The Trust’s landmark property, Ned’s Corner Station, a former sheep and cattle property 80km west of Mildura, is being managed for nature conservation. These activities are supported by funds from the foundation.
Dr Schapper adds: “We are very pleased at the way the foundation is building and I personally am very satisfied with our relationship with Perpetual Trustees.”
Visit http://www.tfn.org.au/
The Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women
Established under the Will of Nita May Dobbie, the Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers is an excellent example of how an individual can promote cultural endeavour through a charitable trust.
Miss Dobbie established the Nita B Kibble Literary Award in memory of her Aunt, Nita Kibble, who raised her after the death of her mother in childbirth. Nita Kibble was the first woman to be appointed a librarian with the State Library of New South Wales and the presentations of this award are held at the State Library each year.
Since the inception of the Kibble Awards for Literature in 1994, many of Australia’s leading women writers have received prizes under the Awards, each benefiting from Nita May Dobbie’s foresight and vision.
The Awards are recognised by writers, publishers and the wider literary community as an exciting feature on the annual calendar of women’s writing.
Australian Bush Heritage Fund – An ecosystem preserved
The Charles Darwin Reserve, located north-east of Perth, is home to several threatened bird species including the Mallee Fowl, Regent Parrot and Major Mitchell Cockatoo. It also contains several threatened vegetation systems including large stands of Salmon Gum, York Gum and Gimlet woodland.
The Perpetual Foundation provided funding to the Australian Bush Heritage Fund to develop a management plan for its newly created 68,600 hectare Reserve and to implement a Volunteer Ranger Program on site. These activities will help protect this significant area from the ongoing threats of feral animals, weeds and wildfire.
Conservation of this delicate ecosystem is important as it lies within the internationally recognised Southwest Botanical Province and is considered one of the world’s ‘biodiversity hotspots’.
The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award
The Award is the realisation of a bequest by the late Keith Wood, honouring his wife, Helen Lempriere. Helen Lempriere was one of Australia’s leading female artist’s in the mid-20th Century, attracting national and international acclaim for her painting, printmaking and sculpture.
Developed with the advice of Perpetual Trustees, the Helen Lempriere Award fulfils Keith Wood’s aims of making a significant philanthropic contribution to the arts whilst commemorating Helen Lempriere, a leading figure in the development of a unique Australian aesthetic.
Launched in 2000, the Helen Lempriere Award, Australia’s richest annual prize for sculptors, has introduced a renewed vigour in the contemporary Australian sculpture scene. Following the call for submissions, the annual exhibition of finalists’ works sparks essential discourse on sculpture and it’s meaning in the Australian cultural community. In addition to this vital dialogue, the Award presents a total of $145,000 to Australian sculptors – fundamental funds that help to cultivate the vitality of this art form.