$1.5m grant for the Leadership and Social Impact of Philanthropy [18.04.2008]
The Trustees are proud to announce a grant of $1.5 million to establish the Helen Macpherson Smith Chair of Not-for-Profit Leadership at the newly created Asia-Pacific Centre for Leadership at the Melbourne Business School of University of Melbourne.
Melbourne Business School has committed its own matching investment of $1.5 million to the new Chair and will now seek a further $3 million to endow the Chair in perpetuity. Once the funds are raised, the selection process for the new Chair will commence.
Upon appointment, the Chair will play a major role in the National Centre for Social Impact, headed by Professor Peter Shergold. The Centre is a powerful collaboration with the business schools of University of NSW, University of Melbourne and Swinburne University.
As well the School will seek further philanthropic investment to fund all elements of the Centre including Visiting Fellowships, and scholarships for Masters, PhD, entry level and executive education programs for people working in the not for profit sector.
The Chair will be the first of this type in Australia and one of only a few in the world. As such it will become a focal point for research and leadership teaching across the community in the areas of welfare and community, environment, health, arts, and education.
This will be the largest grant in the Trust’s 56 year history. The trustees anticipate it will have major long term impact on capacity building in the not-for profit sector, and will enhance the advancement of philanthropy in Australia
In announcing the endowment, Mr Darvell M Hutchinson AM, Chairman of Trustees, said “the Trust sees this opportunity to engage with the third sector in a very strategic way, by leveraging resources through partnerships that will provide long term benefit to the sector”. Mr Hutchinson said that “the time was right for significant investment in developing strong leadership capability in the third sector”.
The focus on social impact provides an opportunity for unprecedented alignment between governments, philanthropists, corporations, business schools and third sector organisations.
CEOs from the not for profit sector across Victoria have welcomed the opportunity for greater access to high quality leadership and management development opportunities.
Dean of Melbourne Business School, John Seybolt, highlighted the significant opportunity to create a powerful focus on the third sector with this endowment. “Our support for the third sector is symbolic of the School’s recognition that it has a crucial role to play in the creation of a civil society through its core educational and research offerings in leadership.”
Melbourne Business School created the Asia-Pacific Centre for Leadership for Social Impact in 2007. The Centre is a first in the Asia Pacific and is one of a few in the world. Dr Karen Morley, Executive Director of the Centre has indicated that the Centre’s vision is based on a long-term perspective, and through “innovative programs and research will aim to break new ground in the understanding of leadership especially in our region, and will ensure more mindful approaches to leadership for the 21st Century”.