Our Funding Model

Ensuring long-term success

Previously, g-oz primarily sought financial support through grants. In recent years we have sought to develop revenue streams that will provide reliable and sustainable sources of income that will ensure our long-term success.

Girls from Oz is committed to building a sustainable business model that supports the ongoing provision of the program in each community.
We ensure that existing programs are reliably funded before establishing relationships in new communities and growing the reach of g-oz.

Building a reliable and sustainable donor base

Since launching we have grown our donor base from 25 Founding Donors to over 700 individual donors in 2021, donating from $5 to $10,000.

In fourteen years we’ve managed to establish wonderful ongoing relationships with donors whose commitment and financial support have enabled the organisation to grow.

In order to become less reliant on grant income, we set out to substantially grow our donor base. We achieved this by creating our Giving Circles campaign in 2015, which we have successfully coordinated ever since. Based on the collective giving concept, giving circles are a group of like-minded people who pool their donations together so that their money effectively has more impact.

This campaign was launched in 2015 and supported by a Creative Partnerships Australia Plus1 grant in its inaugural year.

Through these campaigns we:

  • Aimed to raise $25,000 in three months in 2015. We raised in excess of $36,000 and received $35,000 in matched funding from Plus1 and Creative Partnerships Australia.
  • Worked to raise #30grandin3months in 2016. We were pleased to raise a total of $60,000 through $47,000 in donations and $13,000 of corporate funding.
  • Aimed to #find40 in 2017. We were thrilled to receive over $51,000 in donations and $20,000 in matched funding from the Sahathevan family and directors of the Australian School of Performing Arts.
  • Worked on #finding48 in 2018 and we were thrilled to raise over $59,000 in donations and $30,000 in matched funding from the Sahathevan family and directors of the Australian School of Performing Arts.
  • Aimed to raise #60foroursisters in 2019. We raised in excess if $61,000 in donations and received $35,000 in matched funding from the Sahathevan family and directors of the Australian School of Performing Arts.
  • In 2020 we aimed for #20kfortoday and #20ktopavetheway, due to the impact of both COVID-19 and the January bushfires. We raised over $110,000!
  • 2021 saw us aim to raise #50fortheirfuture. We raised nearly double that, over $99,000.

We have also harnessed the giving potential of our sister organisation, the Australian Girls Choir (AGC). With over 5,000 AGC choristers across Australia, we now actively seek donations from these families. This yielded nearly $25,000 in 2017 and is growing each financial year.

Supported by a strong partnership

The Australian School of Performing Arts (ASPA) is our Principal Partner and they support us in a number of tangible ways. ASPA directors have provided substantial in-kind support since our inception and are committed to continuing to do so. This includes:

  • Infrastructure – office space, insurance (kinds of insurance)
  • Administration
  • Accounting and management support
  • Intellectual property – g-oz Instructors are able to select and modify g-oz program content from ASPA’s music and dance routine library, which has been developed over more than 30 years
  • Copyright
  • Development and training of g-oz Instructors
  • Allowing ASPA staff members to take leave without pay to deliver g-oz programs
  • Ren AbreuProgram Assistant - Shooting Stars
    “I like g-oz because it helped me build my confidence and helped me express myself as a young woman and now I use those skills that I developed with g-oz in my job for Shooting Stars”
  • Duncan Ord OAMDirector General - Department of Culture and the Arts
    "The girls sang with great accomplishment and obvious joy that would have made their families so proud of them. Having met them after the show I was very impressed with their professional approach, warmth and comradeship. These are girls with bright futures and my congratulations go to all involved in the program.”
  • Kathleen NoonanJournalist
    “In a world where we tend to park the ambulances at the bottom of the cliff and pour money into pick-up-the-pieces services, donating to Girls from Oz is like putting safety rails at the top of the cliff. It’s intelligent philanthropy.”
  • Darren FoynesParent of Halls Creek student
    “I am 100% behind g-oz. It gives them opportunity to develop not just in sport, not just in art, but it helps them develop holistically as young women and gives them another avenue to develop their own life.”
  • Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVOg-oz Patron
    “Girls from Oz is utterly inspiring – it builds talent, confidence and self discipline in the girls who thrive through involvement in the program.”
  • Darryl DedmanFormer Principal - Halls Creek District High School
    “The self-assurance and poise that result from the g-oz experience are revealed in students’ increasing willingness to speak and perform at our assemblies and, I believe, deliver enhanced prospects for employment, education and community involvement in the future.”

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