Giving’s in
She Gives members with Governor-General Sam Mostyn
If you were asked to describe a philanthropist, you could picture someone such as Bill Gates — an older man at the top of his game, with billions of dollars to spare. However, a new generation of givers is revolutionising global philanthropy and rewriting the rules around how charity gets done and who is included in the practice of giving.
Arielle Gamble is CEO of Groundswell Giving, a Paddington-based platform for giving that allows people to pool their money to fund climate action. At a time when the world’s problems feel insurmountable, she believes that collective action can empower more individuals to become part of the solution.
“A lot of people feel really overwhelmed by systems challenges and it can be hard to know where to start,” Gamble says. “We created Groundswell to give them a way to meaningfully contribute.”
Gamble co-founded the organisation in 2020 alongside two friends, Clare Herschell and environmental activist Anna Rose. Today, the community has grown to 450 and distributed more than $4.6 million for climate solutions, including Caring for Country grants and a world-first pilot program for home electrification in a coastal community south of Sydney.
“We’re at this incredible moment where we have all the knowledge and solutions that we need to address climate change, but we have limited time to implement them at pace and scale,” explains Gamble.
The group is tackling the climate crisis from different angles by investing in grassroots organisations that are driving change across the country. Their collective approach is not limited to fundraising, it’s also used to decide which projects the money goes to.
“We pool the money to create the grants and then we’re guided by climate experts to identify the most strategic projects in any given political moment,” Gamble says. “Throughout the year our members vote on what projects we shortlist.”
This is the democratisation of philanthropy in action. Members choose how much they pitch in, whether its $20 a week or $50,000 a year, and they come together to learn about the different initiatives and are actively involved in the decision-making process.
According to Gamble, they’re not trying to match multi-million dollar government grants but to give grassroots solutions, that otherwise may not be eligible for that level of funding, enough of a boost to develop the idea to the next stage.
“By investing in strategic interventions that can be scaled, we’re modelling the changes that we want to see,” she says. “We call it ‘impatient capital’ because it’s funding the gap between the world we have and the world we want.”
Across all ages and demographics, this new breed of givers is not waiting to hit peak earnings in their career to fund social change. And it’s a trend that’s gaining traction around the world — in America, collective giving circles were the fastest-growing form of philanthropy last year. However, people power is not the only thing shaking up global giving — there’s another factor at play.
During the next two decades, we will experience the greatest generational wealth transfer in global history as trillions of dollars pass from baby boomers to Gen X and millennials. According to various reports, women stand to inherit twice on average — once from their family and again from their spouse.
This means that Australian women could inherit 65 percent of the $4.9 trillion that will be handed down during the next 10 years. Melissa Smith, CEO of fundraising consultancy Noble Ambition, believes it’s an opportunity to expand how we give as a nation.
“Women are coming into greater levels of education, equality and money than ever before, which are the three predictors to philanthropy,” she says. “When you put it all together, women are the future of giving.”
Last year, Smith launched the She Gives campaign to celebrate the collective contributions of women across Australia and to shine a light on the untold stories of our women philanthropists.
Loredana Fyffe
“I spent all of my career raising a lot of money for extraordinary causes but there was often a disconnect between what was celebrated publicly and a dominant male-led narrative within the sector, versus what we actually saw — which was the influence and advocacy of women, often behind-the-scenes, getting things done,” she says.
The campaign aims to increase women’s confidence and influence in giving and to use that momentum to help double the amount of our national giving by 2030.
“She Gives is about giving to any cause, at any scale that accelerates positive social change. It’s not just about mobilising funds but also building community. There’s a real hunger for people to feel a part of something,” Smith says.
The power of women to drive change is something that Loredana Fyffe, CEO of the Sydney Community Foundation, knows all too well. During the past two decades, the foundation has raised more than $25 million for community-based projects around Sydney, with a key focus on improving the wellbeing of women and girls.
“There’s a well-quoted statistic that when women earn an income, they reinvest 90 percent of their earnings back into their community versus the 30 percent to 40 percent that men typically do,” Fyffe says. “When women are supported, entire communities are uplifted.”
The foundation has various sub-funds that target different social issues aimed at reducing inequities across our city. Most prominent is the Sydney Women’s Fund which was co-founded by Wendy McCarthy and Lucy Brogden in 2008. Based in Paddington and powered by women, the group utilises their combined profiles, skills and resources to help more women and girls in Sydney thrive in the face of rising living costs and domestic violence.
Fyffe says there are lots of different ways for people to get involved in these initiatives, from supporting an existing fund to starting their own. “We have around 50 sub-funds established by people like you and me who want to create a better structure for their giving.”
The foundation’s goal is to build a $60 million permanent fund for the city by 2030 to help respond to problems, especially when local need is urgent.
“Sydneysiders traditionally haven’t seen place as a cause, but local giving is everything,” Fyffe says. “Change happens in communities and when it’s studied and measured, we can use that to impact broader systems change.”
One of the benefits of giving closer to home is that you can track the impact. Fyffe says the foundation has regular site visits to different projects around western Sydney, where a lot of the work is being done.
“I love the idea of a well-resourced community foundation that is unaffected by election cycles,” she explains. “It stays with the community and trusts them to really lead in the decision-making."
She Gives
Like Groundswell Giving, the Sydney Community Foundation directs its funds and resources to community organisations because “those closest to the issues are closest to the solutions”.
This trust-based approach has been one of the biggest disruptors to traditional top-down charity models. Rather than dictating the terms, funders give organisations the freedom to decide where the money will have the most impact and to pivot to meet changing needs. By shifting the focus to collaboration rather than control, philanthropy can better reflect the needs and dreams of the people that it’s there to support.
Gamble believes that this mutual respect is also key to tackling climate change. “If you're paying a doctor for a consult, you’re not going to tell them how to treat you. It’s the same thing with the people working on these really complex challenges.”
In 2025, giving to causes that you believe in is all about partnership, not charity. As Gamble says, “They can’t do their work without the funds, and we can't affect change without their skills.”
And this may just be the win-win that the world needs right now.