Bendigo Bank community foundation umbrella linking donors & projects

A new charitable foundation that lets donors specifically target community initiatives was announced by Bendigo Bank’s Managing Director, Rob Hunt, last month.

He believes many donors would happily contribute more if they knew funds would be applied to benefit their own communities but the cost of setting up and running a separate foundation in every community would be crippling.

Bendigo Bank has devised a model which uses one trustee and one administration, but effectively provides every community with the capacity to prioritise allocations from their own separate funds. Communities will be able to establish a named management account of the Foundation and make recommendations to the trustee on projects worthy of support.

By leveraging the resources of the Bendigo Bank Group the Foundation will ensure that at least 95 per cent of monies raised through the Foundation reaches eligible recipients. Other community foundations typically retain 10 per cent of donations to cover administration.

The Foundation is open to all communities and not limited to those served by Bendigo Bank. Bendigo is also in discussions with other banks about accepting Foundation donations through their branch networks, according to the announcement.