Funding What It Takes in a Polarised Australia
Description
Ideas once considered fringe are rapidly entering the mainstream. With social polarisation on the rise, hard-won progress can no longer be taken for granted.
In the past 12 months, growing climate disinformation has helped fuel the rise of the far-right. At the same time, a renewed wave of gender-based attacks has underscored the urgent need to advance the safety, representation and equality of women.
Join Vida Fund Executive Director Brittany Higgins, Climate 200 Executive Director Byron Fay, and entrepreneur and philanthropist Jenna Tregarthen for a candid conversation about what this rapidly changing landscape means for philanthropy and how funders can respond with greater speed, courage and impact.
Philanthropy Australia award winner Climate 200 and Vida Fund both fund campaigns which help get community independents elected to parliament. Vida Fund focusing on gender equity and Climate 200 prioritising climate action and integrity in politics. Jenna brings the perspective of a philanthropist who has grappled with where her giving can have the greatest impact.
Together, they will explore what it means to fund what it takes, including where capital has the greatest potential for impact, and whether our existing structures for giving can provide communities the resources they need to build power, respond to rapidly changing conditions, and create new pathways for progress.
Speakers
Brittany Higgins
Brittany Higgins (she/her) is an Australian advocate for gendered violence. After speaking publicly about her alleged assault in Parliament House, she helped expose widespread cultural and structural failures, prompting multiple national reviews and driving major reforms. Her advocacy accelerated the adoption of stronger workplace-safety standards, independent reporting mechanisms for government employees, and survivor-centred policies across government and corporate sectors.
Byron Fay
Byron Fay is a public policy specialist with over a decades’ experience working in international and domestic climate policy, climate aid, development finance, and federal politics. He represented Australia in the UNFCCC negotiations on the Paris Agreement and Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol. He then served as an adviser to the Co-Chair of the Green Climate Fund Board, managing the approval of USD 1.2 billion worth of funding for private sector focussed climate projects in developing countries. He served as an adviser to Independent Senator Tim Storer, negotiating the establishment of the 2018 Senate inquiry into electric vehicles and the passage of the 2019 refugee medivac bill. He went on to work as a Net Zero researcher at the University of Oxford and research fellow at Main Street One, a US-based digital campaign firm, in the lead up to the 2020 US presidential election. Byron is a proud descendant of the Dharug Nation and holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Oxford, and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Bachelor of Arts (Politics/Theatre), and Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the Australian National University.
Jenna Tregarthen
Jenna Tregarthen is a health-tech entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, and a donor to Climate 200; having built and scaled technology that now reaches millions of people, she brings a founder’s perspective to the role of philanthropy and strategic capital in creating systemic change.
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