Marking the 30th anniversary of the AMP Foundation, non-profit organisations First Australians Capital and Global Sisters were acknowledged for their work in supporting Indigenous businesses and female financial independence respectively.
Awarded the first grant of a million dollars, First Australians Capital is an Indigenous-led organisation that invests in Indigenous businesses to help scale and growth.
The foundation’s relationship with FAC started in 2014 when Order of Australia winner Adrian Appo was selected as an AMP Foundation ‘Tomorrow Maker’.
The group has since supported over 201 Indigenous businesses across the arts, construction, recreation, retail, and professional services sectors.
FAC chair Leah Armstrong accepted the award on behalf of the company at a black-tie event hosted by the philanthropic arm of AMP at the Art Gallery of NSW on Thursday evening. She said the grant is an important milestone for First Nations equity and self-determination.
“The grant enables First Australians Capital to hold equity in the first Indigenous-led and managed impact investment platform, addressing financial exclusion and racial justice,” she said in a media release on Friday morning.
“First Australians Capital’s impact-first investing backs the creative, cultural and economic strengths of First Australians businesses to become powerful contributors to a new economy.”
Global Sisters, recipient of the second million dollar grant, aims to help women achieve financial independence through running micro-businesses and end structural roadblocks affecting financial security for women.
The foundation’s partnership with Global Sisters started in 2016, which helped create a scalable model that improves accessibility for women experiencing barriers to economic participation.
Global Sisters’ founder Mandy Richards said the support will make a “profound” difference to 300 single mothers and their children by providing a pathway to financial independence through self-employment.
“It will also help us create the evidence base for lasting systemic change to the welfare system – so that all single mothers who find themselves trapped by their circumstance and on Government benefits, have an alternate and viable future available,” Richards said.
The foundation has invested over $110 million into community organisations to help drive social change and financial independence.
AMP Foundation general manager Nicola Stokes said both organisations have long ties with the foundation through the ‘Tomorrow Makers’ program which seeks to support future leaders driving social change.
“We’re confident these new grants will help them further expand the important work they do in the Australian community,” Stokes said.
