Pro-Bono work for sustainable communities

Over the last three years the main focus of that work has been on:

Water Aid Australia

Water Aid helps promote the provision of water and sanitation to the poorest communities across the globe. In our region it is working in East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

RMCG drove a strategic planning exercise with the Board of Water Aid Australia to confirm priorities for future programs.  RMCG hopes to build on this project to extend our working relations to include some opportunities to contribute to projects in East Timor.  This matches our commitment to rural communities.

Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation

The Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation Limited is a charity that pursues a vision of a thriving confident rural Victoria driven by inspiring leaders. The Foundation was established by a grant from the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust more than fifty years ago.

RMCG works with the Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation to foster leadership development and provide mentoring to emerging young rural leaders. The mentoring program was developed to support young rural Victorians in their transition to university and in their career development. It is anticipated that participants in the mentoring program will return to rural communities and become future rural contributors and leaders.

The Big Issue

The Big Issue provides disadvantaged and homeless people with the opportunity to re-establish a role in society through the regular sale of the Big Issue Magazine.  It supports 350 street vendors across the major capital cities in Australia. They earn $1.5 million each year from these sales.

The Big Issue prides itself on the small size of its administration to maximise the percentage of its funds that can go direct to homeless people. As a result, it has few resources to apply to program development and evaluation.

RMCG has been working with the Big Issue since 2006 helping support a number of projects (some of which have been supported by external funding):

• Strategic planning to generate an annual work program and monitoring schedule
• Assessment of alternative products and approaches for the Street Vendors
• Support for the development of the Homeless World Cup program
• Analysis of the economic value of the street vendor program
• Assessment of the potential market for a subscriptions service
• Assessment of the needs of homeless and disadvantaged women and development of a Big Issue service that would provide appropriate support.