Corinna Dieters
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) will officially launch a new charitable foundation called Future2 in November, combining existing initiatives and new projects undertaken by FPA members under a single structure.
Speaking at a Sydney chapter event marking the start of Financial Planning Week 2007, FPA chair Corinna Dieters pointed to an association study that showed 70 per cent of Australians had experienced financial hardship at some time in their lives.
“A small number — but too many — are among society’s most marginalised or under-privileged. These are the people that Future2 will support,” she said.
The initiative was driven by a taskforce of FPA members headed by Ray Griffin, a former FPA chair who first introduced the concept in 2000.
After a lengthy period of planning and refining ideas, the Future2 foundation received FPA board approval in November 2006, and in April 2007 the taskforce established the foundation’s board of trustee’s led by FPA-nominated trustee David Haintz.
The next step is the official granting of charitable status under New South Wales law, which is expected to be finalised and announced at the FPA National Conference in late November 2007.
In anticipation of this, funds are now being raised for the foundation through the financial planning industry, including licensees and funds management groups, and also through clients who may donate funds or in some cases bequeath them as part of their estate.
According to Griffin, pro-bono work by FPA members will form part of the community support the charity will provide, which he said is already quite prevalent but often goes unrecognised.
“We are hoping to harness some of that in order to help those [in financial hardship] organise their financial resources.
“There’s already a lot happening but it’s uncoordinated. We are looking to co-ordinate this through the foundation,” he said.
Between now and November, the board will set the criteria for individuals and groups to make applications for assistance to Future2.
“We are tremendously excited by the potential of this initiative, and convinced of its capacity to enlarge the pool of philanthropic giving for the good of Australians who are in need,” Dieters said.
