Download 2022 Shaw and Partners Foundation Newsletter here

What a year 2022 was! As you will see inside this mammoth 2022 annual newsletter it was another amazing year of giving for the Shaw and Partners Foundation. Again, this year, the Shaw and Partners Foundation continued its core approach of empowering our advisers and staff to fundraise for charity. This was helped by loosening Covid restrictions allowing events to be re-invigorated after over two years of the pandemic curtailment.

The Shaw and Partners Foundation donated over $938,024 to charities around Australia in 2022. This brings the total of giving since inception to over $8 million!

2022 kicked off in style – half-way round the world in Antigua Barbuda!, as the Shaw and Partners Atlantic Crew (Rob Wells, James Samuels, Sam Horsley and Louis Hugh-Jones) completed the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge rowing the Atlantic Ocean from La Gomera (Canary Islands) in 37 days, 4 hours and 37 minutes! Their efforts, helped along by the Shaw and Partners Foundation, raised over $180,000 for Gotcha4Life, one of our key charity partners.

It was an amazing achievement by these four rowing mates and underscores our motto here at Shaw and Partners – Have fun. Live life. Give back. And talking of rowing… the incredible Bonnie Hancock paddled around Australia also raising over $100K for Gotcha4Life – you can read more about her extraordinary circumnavigation of our continent inside!
This year we also partnered with the What Ability Foundation. Founded in 2019, What Ability puts fun first and supports all abilities and ages through community access. The paramount focus; to raise awareness, break down existing stigmas and ultimately build an inclusive Australia. As part of the partnership, Shaw and Partners will play a pivotal role in supporting What Ability’s plan to expand across Australia and New Zealand.

In February, serial blood donor and Sydney Adviser, John Wardman, joined the 200 blood donation club (a mighty effort!) and in celebration, the Foundation gave John $5,000 to donate to a charity of his choice, the Sir David Martin Foundation (SDMF). SDMF does a great job helping young Australians in crisis and is a very worthy charity
From blood to flood. In March, as parts of Queensland and New South Wales were inundated following heavy rains, we challenged the Shaw network to help charities providing support, food, shelter and comfort to those that had suffered and lost, in some cases their entire home and belongings. The Foundation matched all their donations dollar for dollar, doubling the $6,040 donated to $12,080. Charities included St Vincent de Paul Society, Australian Red Cross, Rural Aid, Food Bank, Lifeline and the Salvation Army (to name but a few).

I must say, the highlight for me for 2022 was participating in the Gotcha4Life Mateship Miles in conjunction with Today Show host Karl Stefanovic and Gotcha4Life CEO, Gus Worland. I was joined by ACT State Manager, Stephen Johnston and crew from the Today Show, Gotcha4Life and other sponsors including Woolworths and ISUZU. The crew travelled from Victoria to New South Wales via Shepparton, Wagga Wagga, Canberra, Nowra and Wollongong to meet local communities, while Karl hosted the popular breakfast show from the road. The Shaw and Partners Foundation donated $60k to Gotcha4Life as part of this great cause.

However, the marquee event for your Foundation this year was undoubtedly the 2022 Gold Dinner with Shaw and Partners as presenting partner in support of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

Shaw and Partners committed almost $750,000 to the SCHF, but much more was given by those in attendance on the night resulting in over $9 million donated, a record!
In May, we kicked off Season One of a podcast series entitled, Not an Overnight Success. The podcast was hosted by Gotcha4Life CEO Gus Worland and became an instant hit with some of the most accomplished people in business, entertainment, politics and sport talking about their journey of becoming all that they are today.
Most importantly, for every guest that joined the podcast, the Shaw and Partners Foundation donated $10,000 to the charity of their choice. A huge thank you to all our wonderful guests for their time and nominating a charity close to their hearts including household names like Hugh Jackman, Kirk Pengilly, Layne Beachley and Karl Stefanovic.
Season two and three followed shortly thereafter and by the time all was said and done over $300,000 had been donated to a variety of worthy Australian charities. You can see all of the guests we interviewed for this series inside.

Another unique event this year was the inaugural Gotcha4Life Cup between NRL Clubs the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the Sydney Roosters. $100k was donated to this cause which tied in with the firm’s ongoing sponsorship of the Sea Eagles.

In Sydney, after a two-year absence due to Covid, we managed to get a crew together to run the City2Surf in support of the RUOK? Day Foundation. The team raised over $25K which was matched by your Foundation bringing the total to over $52k. A great effort from all involved.
Our Brisbane office didn’t let us down this year either, raising over $106k again for Multiple Sclerosis Queensland in the Brissie to the Bay bike ride. Another great year of donating to this cause lead by Brisbane-based Adviser, Rick Terpstra.

The Melbourne team got behind Connor’s run again and in Adelaide our team took a Bloody Long Walk raising $43K for the Mito Foundation a charity very close to the heart of our Adelaide Adviser Assistant, Susie Georgiou.
In Perth, the team got behind Ronald McDonald House, What Ability and the RSPCA to name a few! And in the nation’s capital, the team raised over $30k in support of Ricky Stuart Foundation, Kulture Break and Roundabout.

As a very nice bookend to the year, a good friend of Shaw, Justin Ryan, donated $20K to the Foundation which the firm matched dollar for dollar making it $40K – a huge thank you to Justin!

To close, I would like to thank all the Foundation Committee members this year - Earl Evans, Amanda Graham, Cameron Duncan, Fraser MacLeod and Andrew Hines and welcome a few new faces to the Committee - Brittany Hughes, Anastasia Hanna and Angela Holstein.

I am sure that once you’ve flicked through the pages here you will agree that the Shaw and Partners Foundation has had another year of incredible giving, underscoring the enormous generosity from all of our Foundation contributors, THANK YOU!

Have fun. Live life. Give back.

Russell Karlson
Shaw and Partners Foundation Chair

Download 2022 Shaw and Partners Foundation Newsletter here