Corporate philanthropy and SOHK

Do you know what corporate philanthropists are? According to a textbook I'm reading, they 'make gifts of money, goods, or time to help non profit organizations, groups, or individuals.' (Kotler et al) First I've ever heard of them, especially in Australia. This textbook has more than 874 pages, yet all I could find in there were some small articles on McDonalds, Nike and Google.

The pic on here is one of the quotes from my website page. That was published in one of my blogs before I ended up in hospital, and back then I'd had a good feeling about my future when I got my GradDipOHS. It vanished when I had my stroke, but often now I feel close to it.

As the administrator of the BASA Facebook page, last year for Brain Foundation I had done two applications to SunSuper 'Dreams for a Better World', with a video I'd produced. The first application was to the Open Round and the second was to the Health & People. We didn't get to the finals.

I had tried twice, through 2015 and 2016, to raise funds to get my own books published. The First Person Singular was advertised on the project website, Pozible, got funds and was published. I did two well-attended launches in the Redcliffe area. My second, Aneurysms with Aphorisms was also advertised on Pozible with another video I'd produced. I should have met with donations from the group BASA, but didn't, and as I ground my teeth and slid through depression again, I didn't know how I could have gotten any funds. That book is now available on pdf. For my third book, I wrote..., I decided not to even try for funds, because I don't know how to do the marketing which seems to be essential... and expensive. I'm on DSP, I can't afford it. It's available on pdf too.

This afternoon I googled “corporate philanthropy australia” and found a website for an organisation called Philanthropy Australia. Looking throughout their website was difficult, but what turned me off was going into the Fund Seeker page, looking for a list of the non-for-profit grant-makers, to be told that there is a fee of $165: 'The Essentials for Not-For-Profits subscription offers you almost $200.00 of value for only $165.00 '. For access to Directory of Funders, the cost is $99.

I went on to Our Community website. Looking on the Grants & Fundraising page (which says it's for non-for-profits but doesn't mention that it's not for individuals), I was taken to another website, Funding Centre. Clicking on Donations, a “Help” column was on the left hand side of the page. It kept mentioning groups. The next column was about “Training” - How to Win Grants and Influence People. Really?? Apparently you have to win your grant, and it would cost you $160 per person.

So I still didn't have any real explanation about what “philanthropy”, or corporate philanthropy, was in Australia. Funding Centre had a rather large panel which said “Get Donations”, and sent us onto Give Now. Get donations? Give now? Again, I was dismayed with how this was set up, but I clicked on the page called What's On just to see what they had throughout November. The week 19-27 November ad intrigued me. The ad was called Social Inclusion Week, something which I thought would work for me. I went into their website... and found that I'd just been into the page which spoke about the choir I have very recently joined – School of Hard Knocks!

I don't know what corporate philanthropy means, but now I understand what philanthropy means! According to Wikipaedia, it's the love of humanity. It means caring, nourishing, developing and enhancing what it means to be human. The SIW home page says: “Created by Dr Jonathon Welch AM, Social Inclusion Week aims to help ensure all Australians feel included and valued, giving everyone the opportunity to participate fully in society. It’s about connecting local communities, workmates, family and friends in order to build and strengthen relationships and networks, addressing isolation and exclusion by supporting people who may be unable to help themselves.”

Perhaps I shouldn't have become intrigued with some words I'd read in my textbook this afternoon. SOHK may not be corporate philantrophy, but, for me, it certainly means love of humanity. I need that.