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Message from Peter Shergold
I would like to thank all of our supporters for your contribution to CSI over the last year. 2009 has been an extremely busy and successful year for us, and we greatly appreciate all your help, participation and feedback. One last favour we would like to ask for the year is that you take four minutes to complete our very important, confidential survey, which will provide us with invaluable feedback on how CSI can best create social value. Please complete the survey. One respondent will be offered a place at a 2010 exclusive CSI event (randomly selected).
I am delighted to announce our new Director of Research, Les Hems. Les comes to us from GuideStar UK. We are fortunate to have someone of Les’ ability, experience and energy to lead our research initiatives. Read more about Les. Mark Lyons was familiar with Les’ background and experience, and was instrumental in helping to recruit him. We welcome Les and his family to CSI and to Australia.
Our major research study on workplace giving conducted in partnership with the Australian Charities Fund has now been completed. It provides important insights into employee motivations for participating in workplace giving and how we can increase it as a form of fundraising. I recently wrote an article on measures that governments could take to help promote and develop workplace giving in Australia, which appeared in The Australian Financial Review on Nov 27 2009. This topic is also addressed in more detail in our submission to the Productivity Commission on the contribution of the not-for-profit sector, one of three submissions we have made. Read them here.
First the good news: Sally Capp has accepted the role of Agent – General for Victoria in London. Now the bad news: that means Sally is no longer able to continue in her role as a board member of CSI. I would like to personally thank Sally for her immense contribution to the Centre, and we wish her well in her exciting new endeavours.
Breaking News
Ian Williamson has joined CSI as a Professor with Melbourne Business School. He has been appointed the Helen Macpherson Smith Chair of Not-for-Profit Leadership. We welcome Ian to the team. Read more about Ian.
Peter Shergold,
Macquarie Group Foundation Professor
Yakety Yak Conversation Series
Treasury Secretary Ken Henry spoke about his passion for Australian wildlife and his commitment as well as his wife's to take care of injured animals 24/7. (Watch the interview).
Arthur Sinodinos, chief of staff to the former Prime Minister John Howard and senior leader at NAB, provided the audience with fascinating insights into politics and leadership, and particularly the importance in his life of the community role played by the Greek Orthodox church. The video of this interview will be posted on our website shortly.
The Yakety Yak series will be running again in 2010 in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
Graduate Certificate and Scholarships
Applications are now open for the Graduate Certificate in Social Impact and for scholarships. This is being offered at the Australian School of Business UNSW, Melbourne Business School and Swinburne University of Technology (apply now). The University of Western Australia will offer the Certificate from 2011.
We are pleased to advise that a large number of scholarships are available for Semesters 1 and 2, 2010. Applications are now open for UNSW and close on Sunday 31 Jan 2010 (apply now for Centre for Social Impact scholarships at the UNSW).
We are very grateful to our sponsors Chief Executive Women (CEW), Clayton Utz, AMP, Macquarie Group Foundation, NAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers, for supporting these scholarships.
Keep visiting the CSI website for updates on scholarships.
Knowledge Connect Literature Review
The latest issue of Knowledge Connect has now been released and looks at the debates on how best to measure social impact. JBWere hosted a lunch led by editor Barbara Merz, to discuss the benefits and challenges of measuring social impact, and the different frameworks and methods available. Gianni Zappala and Mark Lyons' background paper 'Recent approaches to measuring social impact in the Third Sector' discusses this topic in more detail.
We thank Goldman Sachs JBWere for hosting the 2009 Knowledge Connect sessions and look forward to JBWere’s continuing involvement in Knowledge Connect next year.
PRIA scholarship winner (Society for Participatory Research in Asia)
Keya Saha-Chaudhury, our 2009 PRIA scholarship winner has recently returned from her eight week international internship in India, offered in conjunction with Chain Reaction Foundation. Keya undertook two field placements, with the PRIA Jalpaiguri office in West Bengal and Seva Mandir in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
This internship was an opportunity for Keya to learn about rural life and local self-governance structures in India, and to see first hand how participatory development works in action. Read more about the incredible experiences Keya gained through participating in the internship program, and connecting with the local communities.
ASIX Social Innovation Camp
We have been receiving many great ideas for using the internet to meet a social need. But we are looking for more! If you have a new idea, submit it to the Social Innovation camp which brings together social innovation ideas and technical experts in web development, business and marketing.
We are also seeking web developers and advisors who are interested in supporting participants in the camp, which will be held in Sydney in March 2010. Please apply.
Leading learning
This month, our visiting fellow Dr Thomas Schillemans finishes his four month fellowship with CSI, through the Australian School of Business. Thomas’ research has focused on the role played by the media for government agencies, regulators and third party organisations in their relationship with stakeholders. Thomas talks about some of his findings in a video interview and is currently writing a report which we will share with you when it is completed.
In November we were fortunate to hear from the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP (UK) who spoke about 'Mutual Action, Common Purpose: Empowering the Third Sector'. His speech discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the Third Sector, in particular the issues of globalisation, Information Technology and communications and the aging population. This function was organised in partnership with Vision Australia. Watch the video.
Challenge yourself
If you think we are counting the days until the holiday season, there’s 105 reasons – that’s the number of events we’ve held in 2009. Planning is currently underway to do it all again next year! Our 2010 program promises to be jam-packed with informative and thought-provoking discussion. Preview our executive course calendar and our events calendar, and register your interest in a specific course or event by emailing csi@unsw.edu.au
CSI is committed to stimulating debate and discussion about current issues on social impact. Many of our events are recorded and we encourage you to visit our 27 videos or 20 podcasts to hear from a range of prominent speakers. Alternatively, you might want to take a look at some of the 21 CSI publications now available.
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