Giving away money is easy to do. Doing it well is a different story.

As one of the largest providers of philanthropic giving in Australia, Equity Trustees is responsible for giving over $80 million of philanthropic money to the community every year. This is a privilege and role that we take very seriously. 

We've released a review which is extremely important to us, as it is the starting point of our journey towards measuring impact.

A brief look at the numbers begins to tell the story about why we need to do this.

That is a lot of giving, both alongside and on behalf of many inspiring philanthropists like you. It is the scale of this giving that is our opportunity. It puts us in a privileged position to more effectively support the work of incredible people and for-purpose organisations, all striving to meet the needs of the community – many seeking the support and collaboration from funding partners to deliver this critical social change. We do this in partnership with our expert fellow trustees, advisory boards and inpidual philanthropists.

The publication of our inaugural Annual Giving Review represents the start of a new phase in our journey, stepping further into our role of responsible stewardship and indeed beyond. We see this as not only our responsibility but our duty to our clients as well as the wider community.

Equity Trustees’ commitment is to be accountable and to strive towards mapping, measuring and communicating how we are deepening impact through our funding.

We realise this is a complex task and we do not have all the answers in a changing world – but we aim to do our very best to achieve this over the coming years.

We see our opportunity to do this by:

• helping educate, build and inspire greater philanthropic giving from inp iduals and organisations
• investing our funding back into the for-purpose sector, in order to strengthen the system (not just funding service delivery)
• sharing our knowledge of impact and measurement with all of our stakeholders along the way
• being transparent, collaborative and accountable in all that we do.

We know that we are not able to solve all social issues, which is why we have refined our giving strategy to four key areas of focus where we have knowledge, expertise and access to funding.

We also know we need strong partners and collaborators alongside us to innovate, work and learn with. We cannot move the needle on the big issues while our partners’ sustainability is challenged. This is why we are committed to strengthening and investing into the system.

Over the next three years, we will be building an impact measurement framework that provides us with the evidence base we need to demonstrate the impact we are contributing to.

We understand the unique role we play as a trustee, and we commit to openly communicating our progress, our successes and the areas in which we can evolve and do better. Most importantly, we will always acknowledge the incredible work of the forpurpose organisations and great philanthropists we partner with.

Only together can we fulfill our shared mission and realise our vision of a better Australia.

Read our Philanthropy Annual Giving Review online at www.eqt.com.au/givingreview