Dear Friend,

2021 has been quite the year for us all. Thank you for staying the course with us as Australians Investing In Women.

As we grapple with the social and economic repercussions of COVID-19 locally and globally, the evidence is clear – we must put women and girls at the centre of efforts to recover from the pandemic.

We are grateful to have worked with our project partners, donors and supporters throughout the year on impactful research and practical tools that help philanthropic individuals and organisations apply a gender lens to their giving.

Thank you most sincerely for your continuing commitment to strengthening society by investing in women and girls.

More and more Australians want to invest with impact. Together, we can take actions to strengthen the impact of Australian philanthropic giving, keeping gender equality in the frame. It starts with knowing ourselves, the State of Gender-wise Giving in Australia. We sincerely hope that you will find time to reflect on your philanthropy and complete a survey to help us understand the impact of Australians’ philanthropy on women and girls.

We look forward to sharing the insights with you in the new year. (Our office will be closed from 24 December to 10 January.)

In the meantime, here is a snapshot of our achievements over the past busy twelve months:

• Firmly established our new brand in the social sector;
• Finalised our new website and enhanced the features of the Project Showcase;
• Released two significant research papers from Equity Economics on the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls in Australia;
• Introduced the newly named Eve Mahlab AO Gender-wise Philanthropy Award and with a commitment for the next 10 years.
• Launched a significant new resource developed in collaboration with the Champions of Change Coalition – Sharpening Our Focus on Corporate Giving: Keeping Gender Equality in the Frame;
• Secured a commitment from B4SI (previously London Benchmarking Group) to incorporate gender impact into their new global impact measurement framework; and
• Undertook an Impact Evaluation Process with Social Ventures Australia and developed a new survey on the State of Gender-wise Giving for the philanthropic sector and in particular the AFR Top 50 Philanthropy and Top 50 Corporate funders.

We will share further details in the New Year but most importantly for now, we wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and safe holiday with much joy and success in 2022.

Julie and the team at AIIW.