Press Release
Sydney, 07 May 2019
Macquarie Group today announced the 12 finalists for the Macquarie 50th Anniversary Award (“the Award”), a $A50 million philanthropic commitment that seeks to initiate or support projects that address an area of unmet social need.
The finalists, selected from close to 1,000 applications, have entered the final stage of a selection process that is expected to identify five non-profit organisations to receive approximately $A10 million each and mark Macquarie Group’s 50th anniversary of operations.
The finalists address issues across the education, healthcare, accessibility, human rights and social justice, impact investing and environment sectors. As part of the Award selection criteria, the successful projects have the potential for lasting community benefit and a defined approach to measuring social impact. The projects will be delivered over the next five years, with funding to be released according to an agreed project timeline and demonstrate a strong sustainability model post the funding period.
The five Award recipients will be selected from the finalists by the Macquarie Group Foundation Committee and are expected to be announced in August 2019. The Award supplements the on-going activity of the Foundation which, in the year ended 31 March 2019, contributed a record $A31.7 million alongside Macquarie staff to over 1,600 non-profits globally. The Foundation also recorded approximately 53,000 hours of voluntary community service by Macquarie employees.
“The Macquarie 50th Anniversary Award extends the longstanding approach of our Foundation to give back to the communities in which our staff live and work,” said Macquarie Group Chief Executive Officer Shemara Wikramanayake. “We are delighted with the calibre and diversity of applicants for the Award, having selected finalists with bold projects that promise meaningful, lasting community benefit.”
The finalists and their nominated projects are:
Benetech (US) |
Empowering people who are unable to read standard print by scaling the global accessible library from a current reach of 650,000 people in over 85 countries reading 700,000 book titles in accessible formats, including braille, audio, highlighted text and large-font text totalling millions of reading choices. |
Cerebral Palsy Alliance (Aus) |
To support inclusion through global expansion of Remarkable™; a disability tech accelerator program that supports early stage start-ups working on products that promote inclusion and help them to become investment-ready social enterprises. |
FREO2 University of Melbourne (Aus) |
Saving the lives of children with pneumonia in remote areas of Africa through the deployment of technology that affordably produces, stores and distributes medical grade oxygen without the need of electricity. |
Girl Effect (UK) |
Educating, inspiring and mobilising vulnerable adolescent girls in India to transform their future prospects through a mobile technology platform featuring informative and engaging content, conversation and services. |
Human Rights Watch (US) |
Powering human rights through the 20/20 incubator laboratory, that deploys advanced technology to uncover human rights violations and protect women, children, and others in volatile locations such as Syria and Myanmar. |
Last Mile Health (US) |
Community-based primary healthcare for vulnerable and remote populations in sub-Saharan Africa. |
LV Prasad (India) |
Eye care services to hundreds of thousands of children in India and other developing countries through enhancement of the Child Sight Institute, including new centres and paediatric team training. |
Monash University (Aus) |
A self-sustaining, cost-effective, biological control solution to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne tropical diseases. The World Mosquito Program’s aim is to protect 100 million people by 2023. |
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Aus) |
The World Scabies Elimination Program’s objective is to eliminate scabies and to alleviate suffering and disability caused by the disease, affecting 200 million people worldwide. |
Royal Far West (Aus) |
Providing children, families and teachers living in rural and remote Australian communities with health, education and disability services through a combination of residential, remote (via technology) and in-community programs |
Social Finance (US) |
Dedicated to mobilising capital to drive social progress, Social Finance aims to unlock $US1 billion of impact investment capital, building the first-ever evergreen investment fund focused on workforce development and helping underskilled and underemployed individuals achieve economic mobility. |
The Ocean Cleanup (Netherlands) |
Developing advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup plans to remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years after reaching full deployment and a long-term goal of ridding all oceans of 90 per cent of its plastic by 2040. |
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