About the Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation

The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation is a Prescribed Private Fund, funded annually by donations from Goldman Sachs JBWere and internally generated income.

The Foundation's history

Formerly the J. B. Were & Son Charitable Fund, which was established in 1973, the Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation today continues the firm's philanthropic philosophy of giving to Australian charities.

The Foundation's mission

The Foundation’s key mission is to develop meaningful partnerships with organisations that demonstrate excellence and innovation in their projects for disadvantaged youth. The Foundation also provides broader based community grants using the resources and skills of our people to facilitate and support initiatives with significant benefit for our community.

About the Foundation's grants program

The major focus of the Foundation’s grants is in the area of disadvantaged youth. The Foundation does not actively solicit applications, rather it identifies a range of organisations working with disadvantaged youth that meets the Foundation's selection criteria and from there, through a detailed evaluation process, selects the groups it supports.

In addition to its disadvantaged youth focus, the Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation supports a wider range of other charities through an annual grants program. The Foundation acknowledges the experience of partners and team members in the not for profit sector. As such, partners and team members involved in charitable organisations may facilitate those organisations to make an application to the Foundation.

Our youth grants — a commitment to the future

• The Clontarf Foundation
• Social Ventures Australia
• Education Foundation Australia

The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation has identified three organisations supporting disadvantaged youth in Australia that it will support with significant multi-year grants. These organisations have displayed innovation in their approach and achieved significant success in their programs to date.

The Foundation invited grant applications from a number of organisations and undertook a detailed review process from which these organisations were selected. The Foundation will work closely with all three to add value to the donations through the involvement of staff members of Goldman Sachs JBWere.

The Clontarf Foundation

The Clontarf Foundation aims to improve the educational, employment, health and life outcomes of teenaged Aboriginal males and, in so doing, impact positively on Aboriginal families, communities and Australian society as a whole.

This has been achieved through the establishment of football academies in Perth and regional areas of Western Australia. These academies have proved to be a successful way to attract indigenous males to mainstream education and keep them there. To remain in the program participants must continue to work at school and embrace the objectives of the Clontarf Foundation. Academy staff act as mentors and trainers in many of the additional issues affecting indigenous youth.

The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation has committed to support Clontarf for three years to support the establishment and expansion of football academies.

An academy was established in Broome in January 2006 and the expansion to Kununurra and Alice Springs in January 2007 will extend the catchment to more remote communities and increase number of attendees.

The success of the Clontarf model is evident by the number of requests Clontarf has had to establish football academies in other areas of regional Australia. The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation support will assist to make expansion into regional Australia a reality.

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Social Ventures Australia

Social Ventures Australia (SVA) creates and fosters social change by supporting outstanding social entrepreneurs through the Social Ventures Boost Fund.

The Boost Fund was established in 2002 and through rigorous analysis identifies credible social entrepreneurs with a successful track record, the potential to have a real social impact and a capacity to grow and to develop a sustainable funding base.

The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation and SVA have identified the following three organisations working in the area of disadvantaged youth which will benefit from a grant from the Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation and the support of SVA.

Beyond Empathy

Established in November 2004, Beyond Empathy (BE) provides a pathway outward for young people whose lives are riddled with disadvantage, reversing destructive cycles through arts intervention.

BE's mission is to develop and deliver programs utilising arts and community cultural development processes that provide the tools for innovative and sustainable change and capacity at a local, state and national level for all people experiencing multiple layers of disadvantage.

The Chutzpah Factory

The Chutzpah Factory (TCF) provides an educational program that develops enterprise skills in young people who have been excluded from mainstream education systems as a result of family abuse, homelessness or juvenile criminal behaviours. The TCF founder conducted extensive research within Australia and overseas on the appropriate program methodology and model.

In 2003, she conducted enterprise education pilot programs in Kalgoorlie, WA, with young indigenous students and in 2004 in Brisbane with young mothers.

TCF will be the first not-for-profit, registered, training organisation delivering accredited courses in enterprise education and entrepreneurship to young people aged 14–18 years, and to adults intending to teach enterprise education to young people.

Hands On Learning

The 'Hands on Learning' program (HOLP) was introduced at Frankston High School, Victoria, to meet the needs of highly disengaged students who are not performing in standard, academically-based subjects, and who are at threat of leaving the school.

It is an early intervention model that tackles the root causes of students not engaging successfully with normal curriculum through providing supportive and real learning experiences. Around 50 students spend one day a week working on projects around the school and local community. These include constructing an octagonal mud brick building in the school grounds, designing and building a new outdoor seating area including a mosaic of the school motto, and rendering the local scout hall.

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Education Foundation Australia

Education Foundation Australia provides resources, role models and real life learning opportunities to engage and inspire young people in public schools in Australia.

One of its key programs is The City Centre in the Melbourne CBD which offers a week long program for Year 9 and 10 students with the vision of providing students with an innovative educational experience that will raise learning expectations and aspirations for these students. Many of the students who attend the program have never visited the CBD, and the majority are from disadvantaged backgrounds. While the cost per student of $110 may seem small to many of us, for many students it makes attending The City Centre impossible.

The Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation has committed to support a scholarship program for 3300 students to attend The City Centre course over three years.

Goldman Sachs JBWere team members have been involved with The City Centre program in recent years with students visiting as part of the program. It is our hope that this will continue and expand to further support the scholarships being offered.

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