Charity Program to Donate to ‘Big Business’

A new fundraising initiative with a ‘twist’, which will see charities donate money to ‘big business’, has been launched by national mentoring peak body, Australian Youth Mentoring Network.

The Million Dollar Challenge will task teams, ranging from graduates to senior employees from companies, to work together to turn $1,500 seed funding, provided by the Australian Youth Mentoring Network, into a profit of at least $5,000 over the course of 6 months by implementing a ‘mini enterprise’.

According to the mentoring network, organisations from across Australia will pitch their business plans to an investment panel in order to secure the initial investment.

Teams will then implement and promote their own mini enterprise competing against each other to run the most profitable mini enterprise.

Australian Youth Mentoring Network executive officer Bradley Grieve said that the program will help the network raise $1 million to support more mentoring programs and young people across Australia.

“At the Australian Youth Mentoring Network we know times are tough for business,” Grieve said with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

“We’ve seen via the Mining Tax that commodity prices just aren’t what they used to be. We understand that money wholesale costs are high so banks need to make staff redundant.

“Therefore, to show that we care, we have started a program to assist big business by providing them with funding. It’s the least our small charity can do in these austere times.”

The Australian Youth Mentoring Network is a national hub for youth mentoring research, tools and resources. Businesses interested in being involved in the Million Dollar Challenge can visit http://www.youthmentoring.org.au/milliondollarchallenge.html

“Last year the Australian Youth Mentoring Network supported 270 organisations, which mentored over 10,000 young people, with volunteers who gave over one million hours of their time which equates to $16 million dollars of support annually,” Grieve said.