Westpac charity affiliations
Westpac supports women and their communities, both in Australia and around the world, through a range of sponsorships. These sponsorships are a great way for your business to connect with the community, simply and with a trusted partner. Learn more below about our sponsorships or read about the bank's community involvement in our annual report.
Catherine Freeman Foundation
The Catherine Freeman Foundation works with community organisations, businesses, schools and other philanthropists to provide opportunities and environments that encourage disadvantaged individuals and communities to achieve positive change.
This year sees the Catherine Freeman Foundation as Westpac Women's Markets Charity of focus, with the Women's Markets team committed to raising $50,000 towards a scholarship for an indigenous child.
The Women's Markets team will attend and organise a series of events and seminars throughout the year to help the Catherine Freeman Foundation realise its goal to provide education to young indigenous women from disadvantaged communities.
International Women's Day
International Women's Day, held on the 8th of March every year, is about focusing the world on the needs and achievements of women.
Each year Westpac joins UNIFEM (the United Nations Development Fund for Women) in celebrating International Women's Day, by hosting a series of breakfasts and luncheons that attract thousands of attendees across the country.
National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF)
The ultimate goal of the NBCF is to raise enough money to fund a cure for breast cancer.
Westpac supports the NBCF in a range of ways, from holding networking and fundraising events to organising pink ribbon morning teas.
Find out more at http://www.nbcf.org.au/
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies that promote women's human rights, political participation and economic security in more than 100 countries.
Westpac's main involvement with UNIFEM is through its support of International Women's Day.
Find out more at http://www.unifem.org.au/
Australian Businesswomen's Network (ABN)
The network's mission is to provide women with business education through programs, publications and other exclusive initiatives. Westpac has been a long term supporter and partner of the ABN, delivering educational seminars that help improve the financial knowledge of businesswomen.
Find out more at http://www.abn.org.au/cgi-bin/WebObjects/abnweb.woa/
The Executive Connection (TEC)
The TEC is an international membership organisation which provides ongoing learning and development opportunites for chief executives, managing directors and business owners.
Westpac has joined forces with the Brisbane arm of TEC to support the ERplus program for leading women in business. This involves a series of exclusive roundtable lunchtime events, open to a maximum of 27 guests. The program features an exciting selection of Australia's premier businesswomen, including 2006 Telstra Business Women of the Year, Margot Spalding.
For more information on these lunches please contact Tami Harriott, our Women's Markets Manager for Queensland.
This program will be extended to NSW, Victoria and South Australia by the end of 2008. To get more details on what is going on in your state contact your local Westpac Women's Markets Manager.
Find out more at http://www.tec.com.au/
Chief Executive Women (CEW)
The CEW is an organisation of women in leadership positions across Australia. Members come from the corporate sector, various professions, academia, and the public and not-for-profit sectors.
Its aim is to help ensure that talented women achieve important leadership roles in Australia. Westpac sponsors CEW and partners them in a variety of networking events.
Find out more at http://www.cew.org.au/
Plan Australia
Plan Australia dedicates itself to helping all children realise their potential. Its special concern is for the millions of children currently living in poverty in developing countries.
A percentage of the ticket price to every Westpac Women's Markets event is donated to charity, and Plan Australia is one of the charities supported by this fundraising initiative.
Find out more at http://www.plan.org.au/
Opportunity International
Opportunity International is a global leader of microfinance and enterprise development. Strictly a not-for-profit organisation, it essentially provides collateral-free loans and basic financial services to the poor in developing nations.
Since the early 1970s, Opportunity International's unwavering commitment to empower the world's working poor has culminated in a loan portfolio (to the end of 2006) of almost $600 million, with approximately one million active clients.
To support this noble initiative, Westpac donated $400,000 to Opportunity International Australia. The investment is effectively the second stage of the bank's original $1 million pledge to support victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Find out more at http://www.opportunity.org.au/home.asp
Aurora Community TV
Aurora provides a platform for community organizations to communicate with viewers. Eighty per cent of the content screened covers community issues and interests and a further twenty per cent is made up of short films, documentaries and music videos that have yet to make their way into the mainstream media. One hundred per cent of the content is Australian. The station is wholly independent.
Foxtel provides a means of getting the programmes to your screen and helps to promote them. Aurora does not receive any government funding. Nor does it have any production budget. Instead it looks at the issues that carry the most weight with the community then approaches the relevant community groups for the content. For example, Landcare Australia, working with Westpac, was one of the content providers during a month focussing on climate change as was Mission Australia around the issue of homelessness.
Find out more at http://www.aurora.tv/