Dear Friend,

I hope wherever this finds you, that you and your family are safe and well and managing amid the current challenges of the pandemic, climate change and disturbing global events.

The shocking images from Kabul this week have seen many Australians asking how they can help – in particular how they can best support the women and girls of Afghanistan. Below we share some relevant news reports and philanthropic opportunities for donor support, including an invitation to an intimate donor briefing next week directly from Kabul.

While Afghanistan is the focus of this newsletter, we also want to share some good news.

• Thanks to the generous support of the Bell Family Foundation, we will deliver a research program over the next three years to help inform and guide philanthropic investment in women and girls, particularly in the context of the ongoing impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This research will build on our recent research report from Equity Economics – Gender-wise Investing: A Springboard for Australia’s Recovery.
• We can also report significant progress on two major projects we’ve been working on behind the scenes: the development of a new corporate resource in collaboration with the Champions of Change Coalition, and the development of a new survey on the state of Gender-wise giving across private and corporate philanthropy, with Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and The Evolved Group.
• We were thrilled with the number and quality of nominations for the Eve Mahlab Gender-wise Philanthropy Award 2021 and thank everyone who took the time to submit a nomination. We can’t wait to share the Committee’s decision with you once announced at the Philanthropy Australia Awards celebration on 16 November – event details below.
• We warmly welcome Pitcher Partners to our circle of supporters as our new pro bono auditors. We thank Deloitte most sincerely for their service in recent years.

Finally, we offer our heartfelt condolences to the Besen and Gandel families following the recent passing of Eva Besen AO. As a generous philanthropist and the mother of some of our leading philanthropic funders of women and girls, Mrs Besen leaves a powerful legacy of generosity in her own right and through her children and their families.