Media, marketing + advertising foundation UN LTD doubles charity partner support for 2015
The media, marketing and advertising foundation UN LTD has doubled the number of charity partners its supporting this year, today announcing 43 organisations that will receive support as part of the foundation’s mission to UNdo youth disadvantage in Australia.
Across the selected programs delivered by the 2015 youth charities, UN LTD’s support will now directly impact the lives of over 91,000 young people.
Says Carol Morris, general manager, UN LTD: “We are absolutely thrilled to be adding some of the most effective operators in the youth charity space to our portfolio of highly effective charity partners. We now have beneficiaries that work in every Australian state and territory and across every form of youth disadvantage.”
New charities that UN LTD will be supporting in 2015 include: The Mirabel Foundation, Youth Futures WA, Hear For You, Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia, The Lighthouse Foundation, the Tamworth Aboriginal Land Council , Child Wise and GIVIT Kids.
The foundation is now addressing UNacceptable youth issues including children abandoned by addicted parents, Indigenous youth health, improving literacy for foster children, mental health awareness, counseling and mentoring for the highest risk young people, education on ethics, accommodation for homeless, accommodation and nutrition for teenage mums, bullying and transition programs for refugee children.
Says Morris: “After receiving a 400% increase in grant submissions this year and recognizing that over 82% of our industry wants to do more* – it’s clear that the youth NFP sector desperately needs UN LTD’s support in 2015.”
Tasked with the very tough and rigorous process of selecting the 2015 charity partners was a group of representatives from across the industry who donated their time, expertise and feedback in assessing the grant applications that were received directly and via recommendations from across the industry.
The UN LTD audit and grants committee members are: Neil Shoebridge, director of corporate and public communications at Network Ten; Tom Armstrong, commercial director at Fairfax Media; Alison Vandyke, knowledge and data director at GroupM; Kerry Field, chief of talent at Mindshare; Stephen Ward, head of investor services at Society One and Kerry McCabe, managing director – APAC at RadiumOne and UN LTD chairman.
New committee members Neil Shoebridge, director of corporate and public communications, Network Ten and Tom Armstrong, commercial director at Fairfax Media, both said the task of assessing the applications was a challenging yet rewarding one.
Says Shoebridge: “As a committee, we were able to shape a powerful social impact program focused on delivering maximum impact from our sponsors’ investment in UN LTD. UN LTD can now introduce these charities to the industry, knowing all the hard work and rigour has already been done in auditing and selecting the organisations.”
Says Armstrong: “The depth and breadth of issues facing the younger people in our community was one that really resonated in this process. The 2015 UN LTD portfolio of charities, which are largely unrecognised brands, gives the industry a broad choice of quality organisations to connect with.”
UN LTD will support the 2015 organisations through cash grants to assist in funding their projects, corporate mentoring to help build a sustainable operation and build scale, volunteering and fundraising with aim of all support to empower the organisations to achieve their goals and progress towards self-sufficiency.
For more information on how to get involved in UN LTD contact carol Morris carol@unltd.org.au.
To see the full list of UN LTD’s 43 2015 charities, click here.
* Media I survey 2014