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