Newborn Mothers Philanthropic Goals
Recently on the blog I discussed how I’m dreaming up bigger giving goals in order to get my business to the next level. In this blog post I’m going to spell out exactly what my giving goals are.
Newborn Mothers Fund
This is a fund held in endowment by my local community foundation that I give to directly from my business. I put aside 4% of all my business revenue for my giving, and hope to increase this percentage as my business becomes more profitable. The focus of this fund is women and girls.
As a mother - and having experienced an unplanned pregnancy myself - I know the impact that babies have on women’s lives in a multitude of ways! Having a baby is not an easy undertaking and I was in the fortunate financial, health and social position to be able to keep my baby, but many women around the world are not so lucky. There are 214 million women in developing regions who currently do not want to become pregnant but do not have access to any family planning services.
Family planning and education of women and girls combined is also the number one solution to climate change according to Draw Down - The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Plus it’s very cost effective at $4.50 per tonne of CO2 if directed to family planning, compared with $20 per tonne if directed to low carbon energy strategies.
Pretty freaking amazing right?
Smith and Jones Fund
This is our family fund, we currently aim to give 10% of our personal income after taxes, rent and childcare and aim to increase this giving as our personal income grows. The focus of this fund is reconciliation and decolonisation.
This year we are giving to Lock the Gate, a country based environmental group whose vision is of healthy, empowered communities which have fair, democratic processes available to them to protect their land and water and deliver sustainable solutions to food and energy needs.
The funding will resource local Aboriginal advocates to travel across the potential fracking regions of the Kimberley and reach out to Traditional Owner groups to present factual information about fracking, their rights, and economic alternatives to oil and gas fracking.
Informed consent is something we talk about a lot in the birth world, and so I can see how all people have the right to information before being asked for consent on any issue. Without this work the only information on fracking that many communities receive will be from the gas companies themselves.
Personal Investments
We are also moving all of our personal investments into areas that will have a greater impact on the planet. We currently own a couple of small residential apartments, which we are selling in order to use that money as a deposit for investing in regenerative agriculture.
Due to destructive farming practises introduced by European settlers Western Australia (where I live) is experiencing some of the world’s highest fauna and flora extinction rates and more than 1 million hectares of agricultural land in the south-west of Western Australia is severely affected by salt.
We aren’t farmers (though I’d love to be!) so we’ll buy land with the plan to lease it to a farmer to practise regenerative agriculture and set part of the land aside as a sanctuary to protect biodiversity. We’d also love to learn about Indigenous farming practises and native foods if some of our Nyoongar friends want to lead the way.
Volunteer Work
Although I’m writing about my financial goals I wanted to mention that there is more than one way to give! If you don’t have a lot of money to give you can still make a big impact by volunteering. When my children were younger I had to take a break from volunteering as there simply weren’t enough hours (and energy) in the day.
Now that my children are a little older I’m on our primary school board and volunteer at our local social farm, as well as spending my time campaigning for climate action. I also love to do tree planting as it’s great volunteer work to do with children.
What are your giving goals?
