By Andrew Rosetta

One of the things I love about working at Elston is the way we support great causes. That’s not a corporate thing. It’s on a personal level where we can roll up our sleeves and really get involved through volunteer work, fundraisers and contributing ideas for big donations to small charities that might not get all the publicity, or the cash, they need to do their work.

Our donations are guided by our Giving Committee, a group of people (including me) that sits down regularly to assess charities and decide where money should be directed to do the most good.

This year we decided to once again support the “Hands Up 4 CBR” Giving Day. In 2021 the 48-hour fundraising event raised $640,000 for local charities and community organisations. It’s a fantastic event that supports over 60 local charities in Canberra, and it just keeps getting bigger.

At Elston we have a simple vision. A better future3. We say it’s to the power of three, because there are three ways we strive to achieve this. We believe in a better future for our people, for our clients, and for the communities where we work.

By supporting Hands Up For Canberra, we’re definitely giving where I live. But of course, we’re giving to communities in other parts of Australia too.

In our first year we gave to the rural fire service in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. The Elston Giving Committee has supported Men of Business, a Gold Coast organisation helping young men to prepare for new careers and better lives.

In Brisbane we’re giving BestLife a helping hand. Bestlife provides a place where young people with a disability can practice independent living skills and develop the emotional resilience needed to gradually transition from the family home to a life of their choice with people they know.

One of the local organisations we support that is making an impact nationally and overseas, is NV Access. They don’t just create the software that makes it possible for vision impaired people to use a computer, they provide that software for free. With an estimated 285 million blind and vision impaired people in the world, their ‘screen reader’ is truly life changing.

The power of giving is something we also share with our clients. Our Head of Philanthropic Services, Susan Chenoweth helps charities to explore investment solutions for the long term. She also gives people guidance on how they can structure their giving and create a last legacy. Susan also sees the benefit in bringing philanthropists and charities together and creating connections that can make a real difference.

It’s the same kind of connection that we’ll be seeing happen at the Hands Up For Canberra Giving Day. It’s wonderful to see not just awareness and money being raised, but also friendships being formed. I look forward to the day and the chance to reconnect with some of the terrific people I met last year. I’ll see you there.