News | The Foothills Foundation

Bendigo Bank Contribution

by Bec Tonkin | Nov 16, 2023 | News

One of the great contributors to the work that we do at the Foothills Foundation is our major sponsor, Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

They have been a sponsor of the Foundation and an active participant in our fundraising events for over 15 years.

We are just one of the charities and other good causes that Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark supports and we are extremely grateful for that support.

It really does make a difference to our grant recipients – people living with disadvantage in our community in Melbourne’s outer east.

Last year, we were delighted to be invited to take part in the Bank’s 20th anniversary which was a great celebration of their connection and contribution to community.

Thank you for your continued support, Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

UR Retreat

by Bec Tonkin | Nov 16, 2023 | Events, News

The Foothills Foundation is a proud supporter of the UR Retreat which is a 4 day camp for teenage girls aged 13-15. Many of the girls have been put forward by their schools who feel they would benefit from the camp which focuses on self esteem, leadership skills, positive body image, and many other life skills and topics that are so important in this day and age.

This amazing camp has been put together and run by the local charity Bridge Builders. Each year they host between 50-70 young women. The UR Retreat is planned and executed by an experienced team of volunteer leaders, who use their skills and knowledge to create a caring and nurturing environment where the young people feel safe, loved, and free of judgement so they can begin their journey of development and discovering their value. Along with our leadership team, the UR Retreat also provides a range of inspirational speakers and educational workshop facilitators to give the girls a wide range of skills, to learn how to live their life to their full potential, and bounce back from setbacks.

President Tamara Lloyd was privileged to attend, and hand out achievement medals to the girls, at the Sponsors Dinner at the Toolangi camp on 27th September. She commented “it was so wonderful to meet many of the girls on the night and chat to them about the positive experiences they’d been having on the camp and all the beautiful friendships they’d made. It was particularly great to hear how much more confident they felt in themselves, and how they felt they were more ready to take on the challenges of life after being on the camp”.

We want to congratulate the UR Retreat leadership team, headed up by Bonnie Knight, who have done an amazing job again this year. This year we contributed $5000 toward the camp and we look forward to again sponsoring the camp in 2024!

President’s Report 2023

by Bec Tonkin | Nov 16, 2023 | News

To the Board, Trustees, members, and followers of the Foothills Foundation, it has been my pleasure
to be the present of the foundation this past year and here is my report.

The Board
A continuing goal of the foundation is to continue to grow the board and to develop board members
into new roles to gain experience in such roles, as well as to continue to diversify the board. Our goal
is to grow the board to 12 members this year.

This year has been no exception, with myself and Tamarra taking on roles of President and Vice
President. Peter has kindly always been available to help guide and offer his previously gained
knowledge as President. Lauren, Colleen, Tegan and Martin have also added so much experience and
value to their roles on the board throughout the year, I thank you all.

We have also gained an amazing new board member, in bringing on board Charles, he has bought
new skills, enthusiasm and access to his network for events, it has been a pleasure watching him join
in and develop this foundation.

We have carried out some amazing and discussion provoking strategic planning meetings this year,
which have shown the diversity in our board. It has been exciting to gain a good understanding of
where this current board sees this foundation going and the goals we would like to achieve, both in
the foundation team and out in the community.

The Events
Our Annual Golf Day went well, lower numbers than previously seen but still a successful event. The
Team put in a lot of collaborated hard work and made the day fun for all, even if the weather didn’t
play ball.

The Mother’s Day High Tea went very well indeed with a good amount of money being raised. We
were fortunate enough to have some high-end auction items donated and bid on which really gave
the profit margin from this event a great boost.

We did find this year a little more challenging to get people to purchase tickets and we discussed that
this appeared to be a ripple effect from Covid and the fact that the continual increases in interest
rates have made people a little anxious and less likely to spend on events like these.
The Team pulled together an amazing event all the same and as usual the Foundation and the
individuals we give grants out to, have benefitted from the dedication and hard work put into this
event.

We sadly had to cancel the AFL Lunch this year as we did not get enough interest or ticket sales.

Sponsorship
We are delighted that Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark has continued their commitment to
the Foundation by renewing sponsorship. Their generosity and support in challenging times is
fantastic, especially when our normal fund-raising activities have not all proceeded this year. Tamarra
and Peter with the bank and have secured sponsorship moving into this next year also, great work
team and once again Thank You to Bendigo Community Bank Mooroolbark.

One of our goals is to develop our ongoing business sponsorship income, this has gone around in
circles a little with some differing opinions on price point, what is considered “Value” for a business
to want to support the foundation and how to promote this out. The board will be reviewing and
finalizing this soon, so we can get this live and accessible on the new website.

Grants
We have continued to step up this year to support community needs in these ongoing tough times.
We have had grant applications from a variety of people with some very interesting and heartfelt
requests. I have been proud to be involved in masking some of these decisions and in us as a board
discussing how much more we would like to do.

We have discussed coming up with some community based project grants, which would be a larger
sum of money and allow us to assist with bigger projects in our community that will provide to a
larger amount of people. I am looking forward to watching how this idea develops and what projects
we will be able to support.

The Grants committee have done a great job in responding quickly and appropriately to grant
applications, ensuring we can assist those people when they need it.
Thank you, Tegan, Lauren and Mandy.

Donations
The Foothills was very grateful in receiving a donation this year of $90’000 from The Committee of
Management from Abbeyfield, facilitated by Peter Feeney. These funds will massively assist the
foundation to keep providing grants, both to individuals and community projects. We as a committee
thank Peter and his team for this donation.

Closing Thoughts
This year has been a fantastic experience to be President of this Foundation, I have learnt a lot more
about how things are run, what we can achieve as a team and how much good work we do out in the
community, that is very much required.

As many of you know this has been a tough year for me personally with medical issues arising
suddenly that took my time away from the Foundation and then I had a pre-booked trip to the UK to
see my family after a long 5 years away from them all, this again took me away from being involved
in the foundation’s running’s for a further 6 weeks.

I would like to thank you all for your support during the first half of the year, especially when things
were tough, you all rallied round and helped take over the running of the Foundation in my absence,
you also called and messaged me to check in on myself and my family and that meant a great deal.
With the above still going on and other priorities I need to address this year coming I will be stepping
down as President today and look forward to supporting whoever takes over the reins.

I believe this year was again another tough one out in the world with the financial changes
happening, but I believe we have done some marvelous work providing the grants that we have,
running the events that we could and carrying out the planning sessions required to ensure the
foundation continues to develop and grow for years to come. I have seen it as a privilege to be
involved in the above-mentioned things.

Many Thanks
Natalie Hallett
President of The Foothills Foundation

President’s Report 2022

by admin | Oct 13, 2022 | News

This is my fifth and final report as President of the Foothills Foundation and Charitable Trust.

2022 has been another challenging year as we have still been wrestling with the pandemic and its impact on both community needs and our social connection and fundraising with our community.

The highlight of the year has unquestionably been the success of the High Tea event which raised over $15,000 and provided 35 young women with a wonderful opportunity for personal development through the UR retreat run by Bridge Builders Youth Charity.

We have continued to see growth in relationships with the likes of Anchor and IOOB and we are venturing into new relationships with the likes of Eastern Palliative Care, Communities of Wellbeing and Our Local FIRM.

We are also continuing to see changes in the nature of support needs that we are being asked to help with as well as a fall in some of the traditional supports (eg with gap funding for mobility devices now covered through the NDIS).

So the world continues to change around us and we must continue to evolve.

Additionally, we have recently clarified our area of operations to Maroondah, Yarra Ranges and Knox which had become a bit of a contentious issue. It was good to have that settled.

Our People

Colleen Sinclair joined us officially as a Board Member at the last AGM and has been a welcome addition quickly becoming part of the team.

Bruce Stewart, Tegan Rose and Mandy Maguire have done a great job with grants as Tamara, Paul, Colleen and Lauren have with events and Martin has continued his good work as Treasurer.

Natalie was absent for much of the year by agreement but jumped in to be the MC for the High Tea at a moment’s notice when Lisa Glassborow couldn’t make it and she did a great job.

Thanks also to Daryl Stephens for hopping in to help with the Le Tour Dinner.

Section Media has continued to help with our communications as have Tamara and Colleen.

Looking forward

When I took on the presidency, my role was primarily focused on building sustainability for the organisation beyond the very healthy funds base that has been built under previous leaders. We have done that in a number of ways:

1. Firstly, with the name and branding of the organisation to be inclusive and consistent with the organisation’s history – that was done with the transition from the Footmen Foundation to the Foothills Foundation

2. Secondly, with modernisation of the foundation’s infrastructure and that has been done through the acquisition of a free charity Microsoft licence (which has been little used at this stage) and with the commissioning of new websites initially with Footprint Web and more recently with Section Media

3. Thirdly, in commissioning some professional support in key areas such as graphic art as a paid service so as not to be totally reliant on non-specialist volunteers

4. Fourthly, in establishing a Grants Committee with delegated authority which has efficiently, proactively and fairly dealt with grants requests and enhanced our relationship with our community

5. Fifthly, in refreshment of events – primarily with the High Tea which has been an outstanding success two years in a row and is now a signature event

6. And finally, with our regeneration of the Board with 5 new members added in the past 5 years, all of whom are talented and accomplished professionals in their own fields and influential in their own right.

All of that provides a great foundation for the future.

Thank you

I wish to offer my thanks to Daryl Stephens firstly for seeing my potential and welcoming me into the Board and community of what then was the Footmen Foundation.

To Martin Lane, Paul McPherson and Bruce Stewart who have been there throughout my time on the Board and in the President’s chair. Your support and your reliability in the performance of your roles and the occasional word of wisdom have all been invaluable and made my job much easier.

To the 5 Board members who have joined the Board during my term as President – thank you Tegan, Tamara, Natalie, Lauren and Colleen for your trust and support and the outstanding contributions that you have made since joining the Board.

And the great thing is that it has been a lot of fun and something that has given me a lot of fulfilment.

I will continue on the Board and help out where I can because I believe in the Foundation and the difference that it can make in our local community. I am confident that that will continue to be the case under the new leadership team.

Finally, in closing, I want to celebrate the wonderful contributions that Paul McPherson and Bruce Stewart have made as they step down from the Board. Paul was recently recognised with the Clinton White Award for his outstanding community service with the Foundation and other causes. Bruce has been exemplary in his performance as Secretary and Grants Committee Chair over the past 5 years in his calm, methodical, empathetic and professional discharge of those responsibilities. I am sure that I can speak for the Board as a whole and all of the Foothills community in thanking you both for your outstanding service and wishing you the very best for the future. Hopefully we will see you at our events for many years to come.

High tea a hit again!

by admin | Jul 11, 2022 | Events, News

The Foothills Foundation’s Annual High Tea celebrating women and family in our community was again held at Karralyka on Sunday 15 May 2022.

This year, the event was held in support of the Bridge Builders Youth Charity’s UR Retreat, an annual event that has been running for 15 years to help young women to build self-esteem and life skills.

The keynote speaker was the remarkable Bec Mitchell, who was once a client of Bridge Builders and went on to become their Executive Officer and the driving force behind the UR Retreat.

Bec also represented Australia in endurance athletics running 7 marathons on 7 days on 7 continents and was a recent contestant on the SAS TV program.

Bec told an amazing personal story about living with struggle but flourishing with the benefit of people believing in her and her own determination to be the best that she can be. It was really inspiring.

Karralyka (as always) put on a fantastic event with quality food and great service. Our own Natalie Hallett stepped in to MC the event at short notice and did a fabulous job and Jeremy Tyrrell from Ray White Croydon was back once again in an entertaining performance as Auctioneer that really delivered results.

Thanks to those outstanding results (more than $14,000 was raised), we have been able to fund 50% of the available places on the UR-Retreat this year providing 35 young women with the opportunity to participate. That is having an impact on community.

We have also contributed to Anchor’s Kinship Care Appeal

Thank you to Pinchapoo who again provided giftbags for all guests and Eastland who provided major auction items and helped us in a number of other ways.

Thank you also to everyone who attended and for everyone who chipped in with auction items or raffle prizes and to those of you who put your hand up in the auctions.

2021 AGM and election of officebearers

by admin | Nov 11, 2021 | News

On 5 October 2021, the Foothills Foundation and Charitable Trust had our Annual General Meeting and election of Board members and office bearers for the year ahead.

In line with the times, the meeting was on Zoom as has been the case with most Board meetings over the past couple of years.

The elections resulted in Peter Maguire (President), Martin Lane (Treasurer), Bruce Stewart (Secretary) and Tegan Rose, Tamara Lloyd, Natalie Hallett, Lauren Gordon and Paul McPherson (Board Members) all being returned unopposed.

Tony Wright after many years’ service decided not to nominate as he is transitioning towards retirement but will still be helping out with legal and governance matters where needed and will remain a Director for the Charitable Trust.

We were delighted to have another new Board member in Colleen Sinclair, a local businessperson with valuable skills and networks and a passion for helping the community.

The President thanked Tony for his outstanding contribution over the years and welcomed Colleen to the Foundation team.

He also made note of:

The continued evolution of the Board and the need to continue with that renewal
The difficult circumstances that the Foundation like everyone has had to weather, especially in not being able to run the major fundraising events over the past two year
The way that the Foundation was able to step in and provide grants to local community services needing support to service community demand for help during COVID
His gratitude for the work done by previous Boards in building a sustainable funds base which made that possible and which has seen the Foundation through COVID much better than many other charities
The generosity of the donors who supported the Foundation in these challenging times
The fantastic effort of Tamara Lloyd, Natalie Hallett and Lauren Gordon to raise $10,000 through the High Tea event which they collectively transformed into a signature event for the Foundation going forward
The great work done by the Grants Committee of Bruce Stewart, Tegan Rose and Mandy Maguire

Here is the full President’s report FOOTHILLS FOUNDATION – PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2021

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