The Qantas Foundation
The Qantas Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 2008. It forms part of the Qantas Group's commitment to operating in a sustainable and socially responsible manner. The vision of the Qantas Foundation is to 'bring together Australia's spirit of sharing' by making a positive impact at a grassroots level where our beneficiaries live and work. The Foundation also aims to consolidate and expand on some of the Qantas Group's existing charitable and community endeavours. Since its inception, the Qantas Foundation has committed over A$1 million worth of support to important charitable causes.
Highlights from 2008/09
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Qantas pays for all the operating costs of the Foundation - every dollar raised will go to its intended purpose.
Help The Qantas Foundation achieve its charitable purpose by making a donation.
Donations above A$2.00 are tax deductible.
Areas of Support
Since its establishment, the Foundation has been providing charitable support in a number of areas. The Foundation support extends beyond financial assistance, to the time and expertise of our dedicated Qantas staff.
Health
Royal Flying Doctor Services of Australia
The Qantas Foundation recently donated A$100,000 worth of support to the Royal Flying Doctor Services (RFDS). The donation will help the RFDS in their valuable work of bringing an extensive healthcare network to those who live, work and travel throughout regional Australia and the vast Australian Outback. The RFDS uses the latest in aviation, communication and medical technology to provide their comprehensive health service without which much of the Outback would be virtually uninhabitable.
Qantas has a positive historical connection with RFDS - Qantas operated Australia's first flying doctor service in 1928.
Education
Australian Business and Community Network
The Qantas Foundation is a member of the Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN). ABCN is a charitable organisation that participates in and funds programs and partnerships in the area of education, specifically to improve opportunities for disadvantaged students and schools. Established in early 2005, ABCN works with schools in areas of high need to broaden the horizons of students, support educators and engage business to build stronger communities.
As a member of the ABCN, The Qantas Foundation participates in programs that mentor students, provide support and mentoring for school principals, and support reading and literacy for primary school students.
Transition Program
The program involves 15 staff mentoring a group of Year seven or eight students at Alexandria Park Community School since March 2009. These staff are part of Qantas' Emerging Leader Talent pool. Each month, the students spend time with their Qantas mentors and learn to work as part of a group, practice problem solving, talk about current issues facing teenagers today, and perhaps most importantly, learn to build relationships with positive adult role models. For many children in the group, home life is not a nurturing environment, and school provides a safe, encouraging place where these social skills can be learnt.
As part of the program, around thirty students from the Alexandria Park Community School visited Qantas in June 2009. The aim of the mentoring program is to provide the students with positive role models outside of the school environment, expand their knowledge of what working life entails and broaden their horizons about career possibilities. The visit to Qantas sought to not only give the students a new experience, but to give them an opportunity to hear from employees across the business - from cabin crew, engineering, airports, professional services and catering - about careers at Qantas, and what it's really like here at the airline.
The afternoon's activities were held at the Qantas Heritage Collection, and judging by the number of boys who had their noses pressed up to the glass watching the planes on the tarmac, the choice of venue was a success. For the girls, the old-style cabin-crew uniforms proved a great point of interest, particularly when they met crew member Carla Steere, and were able to compare the 'olden days' uniform to the new 2008 released crew-uniform she was wearing.
The students listened to various speakers before enjoying a lunch catered for by Qantas Meeting Rooms, before rotating in groups to learn about each part of the airline business.
For the boys, being told by the engineering representatives that there were around 4000 jobs available at Qantas to help maintain aircraft, was met with great enthusiasm. Catering was another area of the business that both the boys and the girls were impressed with. Qantas apprentice chef Melissa Boscoe and Qantas Catering Food Production Manager Colin Hart were asked the A-Z of catering - from how the food is made on planes, to how you become a chef, and were even asked to talk about the menus in both economy and first class!
ABCN National Program Manager Jacqui Jones joined Alexandria Park School on their visit to Qantas and said that the mentoring program and the opportunity to learn about different careers was really important. "Many students find it very difficult to make the transition from junior school to high school, and helping them through that, by providing the tools to make that possible, such as mentoring and careers education, helps them to see that people who make positive life choices have positive outcomes - really helps them through this difficult period."
"Our main aim is to show the students that it is all possible - that they can be a part of something like Qantas if they make some positive life choices both now and in the next few years."
Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce joined the students at the Heritage Collection and said he was really proud that Qantas was able to demonstrate a positive image to the students at Alexandria Park School. "I am very pleased that Qantas was invited to join the ABCN network and be a part of the Transitions program. Alexandria Park School is a fantastic local school that is really committed to the success of its students and I am proud that we may be able to contribute to that success by being a part of this program." Alan also added that there were some students who surprised him with a broad knowledge of aircraft types.
For many of the students, it was the first visit to the airport and this in itself involved a great many new experiences, including undergoing security screening and seeing passengers check-in at gates and board planes. All the new experiences led to some very positive feedback from the students about their visit to Qantas, with many requests to their teachers to let them stay and watch the planes take-off. According to Eliza, in year 8, the best part was learning about the history of Qantas "because I love history and I like Qantas, and I have seen things today that I wouldn't normally get to see."
At the end of the afternoon it was difficult to see who was more excited - the students for experiencing something completely new and learning about careers they never knew existed - or the mentors for having the opportunity to represent the airline as part of something that is really making a difference in the local community.
Spark Reading Program
The Qantas Foundation's Reading Mentoring Program was launched on 22 October 2008. The Reading Program was the Foundation's first initiative with the ABCN to provide support for disadvantaged students and schools. This program involved Qantas' staff reading with 7 and 8 year old students from Chifley Primary School - a disadvantaged school in the Mascot area with a high indigenous population.
In 2009, Qantas Graduates continue to mentor Year two students from Chifley Public School. The graduates assist the children with reading and comprehension and offer one-on-one learning and development time that the children may not be fortunate enough to receive from home.
Helps Alexandria Park School Students Visit Taronga Zoo
The Qantas Foundation recently donated Taronga Zoo tickets to Alexandria Park School as a gesture of goodwill from the airline to the school. Alexandria Park is Qantas' partner school in an ABCN program which teams disadvantaged schools with some of Australia's well known companies.
Around fifty children travelled from the Botany Road school to the North Shore suburb of Mosman, which was, for most of the children, their very first outing to Sydney's famous zoo.
Alexandria Park Assistant Principal Jann Hanekroot accompanied the children, from the school's kinder to year three classes, on the excursion and said the outing opened up a whole new world for the children.
"For many of the children, this was a first time experience and due to that, the whole day was very exciting - not just the visit to the zoo, but the bus journey and seeing Darling Harbour and the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the first time. We are really pleased with the donation of the tickets, because it is really important for us here at the school that the kids have positive memories to draw on from their time here, and this excursion was certainly an experience that will become a great memory."
Ms Hanekroot said that the children had been studying animals and life cycles and the opportunity to see the animals up close was an invaluable one. She added that the experience of leaving their local area and travelling to somewhere new, with new sights and sounds, meant the children added to their language and visual skills.
"When we returned we spoke about the excursion during many lessons throughout the following weeks, talking about what we had seen, and using new words and pictures and the children wrote a story about their day out at the zoo."
Ms Hanekroot passed the story that the class wrote onto Qantas, and according to the children their favourite parts of the day included "the bus getting stuck at the car park," the "spectacular bird show," seeing giraffe feeding time, visiting the reptile house, and of course "seeing the many animals belonging to the cat family."
And, it wouldn't be a proper day out if you couldn't at least have a little nap in the afternoon on the bus trip back to school - and according to the children's story, that's exactly how the day ended.
Community
The Qantas Foundation Social Impact Lecture
The Qantas Foundation and the Centre for Social Impact co-hosted the inaugural Qantas Foundation Social Impact Lecture on 14 October 2008.
The annual lecture is a joint initiative with the Centre for Social Impact to support a sustainable not-for-profit sector and corporate social responsibility. This annual event is designed to promote greater understanding of the way in which the not-for-profit sector and business can work together for a more engaged and inclusive society.
Around 100 corporate and not-for-profit leaders attended the event, where they heard Lord Michael Hastings CBE speak about the relationship between the corporate and not-for-profit sectors and outline the importance of maintaining strong family values in western societies.
Lord Michael Hastings CBE is the Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity with KPMG International. Lord Hastings is recognised as an expert on corporate social responsibility. He serves on a number of trusts, foundations and boards including charitable and sustainability arms of British Telecom, Vodafone and the World Economic Forum, and was BBC's first Head of Corporate Social Responsibility. He has founded, chairs or patrons numerous charitable children organisations in Latin America, Africa, the United Kingdom and North America. In 2005, Lord Hastings received the UNICEF award for "his outstanding contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa's children".
Art Encouragement
The Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Australian Contemporary Art Award (otherwise known as the Qantas Art Prize) was established by The Qantas Foundation, funded by a A$3.4 million donation from Qantas. This donation is used to generate income to fund the annual art award.
The overall aim of the award is to increase awareness of Australian contemporary art by encouraging promising emerging artists to produce further work. It is a unique art prize in that it recognises an artist's body of work rather than awarding artists for individual pieces.
In 2009, The Qantas Foundation awarded eight emerging contemporary artists (one from each state and territory) A$13,000 cash and A$10,000 worth of Qantas air travel to support their future work and expose their work to a wider community. The 2009 Award is one of the richest art prizes in Australia with a total value of $184,000.
Environmental Sustainability
The initial environment donation of A$2 million will be used to support important environment initiatives across Australia.
Fauna and Flora International Australia
The Qantas Foundation recently donated A$100,000 to Fauna and Flora International Australia, as part of the Foundation's ongoing commitment to partner with the world's leading environmental organisations.
Qantas Foundation Chief Executive Shirley Davies said the Foundation was very proud to be working with the Australian arm of the internationally renowned Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and said that the donation would assist FFI Australia to undertake conservation activities in the Great Sandy Biosphere.
"The Great Sandy was declared a biosphere by UNESCO in May this year, joining Fraser Island as a UNESCO listed site in the South East Queensland area - with the area also a major tourist destination. We are very pleased that this A$100,000 donation from the Qantas Foundation will help develop a resource management strategy to ensure the ongoing conservation of this incredible natural environment."
The Great Sandy area is a major migration route for humpback whales and is recognised as an internationally significant feeding and roosting location for migratory birds. It is also a known breeding site of oceanic turtles in the Pacific Ocean. The majority of the world's rainforests growing on sand are also found in the region.
FFI Australia are working on this project with the Burnett Mary Regional Group for Natural Resource Management. In line with FFI's vision to involve the community in conservation processes, the project will incorporate the ecological practices of the local indigenous community in the resource management strategy.
The Great Sandy Biosphere conservation project is the first Australian-based effort for Fauna and Flora International.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation
The Qantas Foundation has donated A$100,000 to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) to help fund research that will assist scientists in implementing an action plan to protect and preserve the future of the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest, most pristine, continuous coral reef archipelago on earth. The Reef is an iconic part of the Australian natural landscape. It is the largest of the listed World Heritage Areas and one of the most important storehouses of biodiversity on earth, and of major environmental, cultural and scientific value.
Much of GBRF's work is now driven by the imminence and scale of the threat that climate change presents to coral reefs, and in particular, the Reef. GBRF has established the ZooX
Landcare Australia
Thanks to funding from The Qantas Foundation, Landcare Australia is supporting three new water quality projects across Australia, which will have a hugely positive impact on the local environment and community.
In 2009 The Qantas Foundation has provided A$100,000 in cash to fund major Landcare and Coastcare projects in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Water sustainability is a priority environmental issue for Australia because Australia's river systems and estuaries are central to agriculture, biodiversity, urban and rural water supply, human health, culture and community, coastal resources and tourism.
In the Murray-Darling Basin in Mildura, Victoria, Landcare groups will be involved in a massive revegetation operation aimed at lowering the water table and reducing salinity in the soil and water. When vegetation, especially deep rooted trees, is removed on a large scale, the salty ground water rises to the surface. This causes many problems for farmers and the environment. This project will also involve the protection of the iconic River Red Gums which help to regulate the water table and are threatened due to poor environmental flows.
The Southern Coastcare Network of Tasmania (SCAT) is an umbrella group that brings over 30 Coastcare groups together to tackle environmental issues in Southern Tasmania. Funding from the Qantas Foundation is enabling them to undertake weed removal and revegetation in the riparian zones of degraded waterways and salt marshes. These areas beside waterways are crucial to water quality. By removing weeds, native vegetation has a better chance of survival which improves habitat for native animal species, and revegetation ensures bank stability, reduced erosion of soil and also filters excessive quantities of nutrients and other pollutants.
Urbanisation is having a significant impact on waterways in Darwin, so with the support of the Northern Territory Government, the Larrakia people (traditional custodians of the land) will lead a monitoring study of key water bodies in the region. Funding from the Qantas Foundation will help the Larrakia people protect and preserve the diversity of vulnerable aquatic systems, as well as helping Indigenous Rangers learn non-indigenous water quality monitoring techniques.
Humanitarian
The Humanitarian Fund will provide support to eligible charitable organisations to assist individuals and communities in need of relief as a result of humanitarian crises within or outside of Australia.
2009 Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund
In February 2009, the Victorian Government and Australian Red Cross launched the 2009 Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund to support individuals and communities affected by the recent bushfires.
To support this appeal, the Qantas Foundation Humanitarian Fund has donated a total of A$431 000 to the Australian Red Cross to help individuals and communities affected by the bushfires.
Qantas employees donated an inspiring A$190,500 to the Qantas Foundation Humanitarian Fund and a further A$50,000 direct to the Australian Red Cross. Qantas matched dollar for dollar the total employee donations of A$240,500 to the Qantas Foundation Humanitarian Fund.
The Qantas Group has also provided further financial and in-kind assistance in the recovery and relief effort.
Governance
The Foundation is governed by an independent Board of Directors who oversees funds of more than A$5 million. The Foundation was launched with donations from the Qantas Group - A$3.4 million raised from the sale of selected works from the Qantas art collection in 2007, and a A$2 million initial donation to support environmental initiatives.
The Qantas Foundation Trustee Board is responsible for managing and distributing grants from four funds:
- the Art Encouragement Fund;
- the Environmental Sustainability Fund;
- the Humanitarian Fund and
- the General Fund for other charitable purposes
News
Read the latest news from The Qantas Foundation at the news page.
Donation
Help The Qantas Foundation achieve its charitable purpose by making a donation.
All donations over A$2 are tax deductible.
Media Release
View The Qantas Foundation media release.
Contact Us
Email The Qantas Foundation or telephone +61 (2) 9691 4284.
The Qantas Foundation proactively researches and seeks partnerships. The Foundation does not encourage unsolicited submissions for funding.
