Diabetes Research Foundation Wins 2014 Charity of the Year

Diabetes research foundation, JDRF, has been recognised as the 2014 Charity of the Year in The Australian Charity Awards – an initiative of the Australian Business Awards.

The Award recognises a charitable organisation that has achieved outstanding results through initiatives that have significantly benefited charitable causes.

The Australian Charity Award for Outstanding Achievement is an initiative of the Australian Business Awards and culminates in an overall winner for The Australian Charity of the Year.

This is the second year of this category of the Awards, last year’s inaugural winner was the Fred Hollows Foundation.

This award recognises JDRF’s campaign to secure $35 million of funding for the Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network (T1DCRN) over five years.The funding for clinical research is described as the largest ever single commitment to T1D in Australia and JDRF says its young advocates were the central force in securing it.

“The young JDRF advocates met with more than 135 politicians from electorates across the country as part of the Promise to Remember Me campaign,” JDRF Australia CEO Mike Wilson says.

“This culminated in JDRF’s Kids in the House event at Parliament House Canberra in 2012, where the Coalition (then in opposition) confirmed their election commitment to support the T1DCRN with $35 million to be delivered over five years.

“This is a proud moment for JDRF and a tribute to our staff, Board, partners, supporters and advocates, whose passion and dedication was essential to the securing of the T1DCRN funding, and therefore the 2014 Charity of the Year Award, in The Australian Charity Awards.

“We also recognise the important role that the Australian research community has played, delivering research that places them in the top echelons of global T1D research.”

The Australian Charity Awards were introduced in recognition of the dedication and achievements of  Not for Profit organisations, charitable funds and charitable institutions. As a partner program of The Australian Business Awards (ABA100), The Australian Charity Awards highlight organisations for their commitment to those in need and the measurable impact of their campaigns and initiatives.

Program Director Tara Johnston says the efforts of charitable organisations and their Not for Profit initiatives are paramount to transforming the lives of individuals, inciting social change and creating a positive impact on the broader community.

“Some of the initiatives have the ability to create a ripple effect that can lead to sustainable social and economic improvements worldwide,” she says.

The Australian Charity Awards 2014 included five organisations recognised for Outstanding Achievement (OAA) culminating in an overall winner for The Australian Charity of the Year (CHY).

The other four charities named for outstanding achievement were :

• The FSHD Global Research Foundation which is an Australian Not for Profit organisation established in 2007 by Bill Moss AM in response to the slow pace of global research into the condition and the negative effect this was having on people living the most common forms of muscular dystrophy and genetically inherited disease affecting skeletal muscle. Over the past six years, FSHD Global has funded and committed over $3.5 million towards 22 medical research grants worldwide.

• The Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation which educates and raise awareness about the benefits of being an organ and tissue donor uses iconic rainbow shoelaces to raise awareness and ultimately increase the donation rate in Australia. ZRF is the official charity partner to the AFL Auskick Program, which over the past five years has given 495,000 pairs of Zaidee’s Rainbow Shoelaces to participants.

• The Sarah-Grace Sarcoma Foundation which is a registered Not for Profit organisation advocating for increased research to find newer and better therapies for treating sarcoma and education to create community awareness in order to reduce the impact of sarcoma. The Foundation is staffed entirely by volunteers, from the board of directors to the committees who run the events and create awareness. The Sarah-Grace Sarcoma Foundation launched the Kick Sarcoma – the forgotten cancer initiative – to raise $200,000 annually to support ground-breaking research in the field of sarcoma study for research fellows with grants.

• The newly established SMEC Foundation which provides small-scale grant support to deliver social and development outcomes for people in need. Operating with financial support from The SMEC Group and donations from employees, the SMEC Foundation focuses on projects in the community development, education, emergency relief, health and environment sectors. To date, the SMEC Foundation has donated approximately $800,000 to more than 200 projects in more than 30 countries. The SMEC Foundation Board created ‘Guidelines for Prospective Applicants’ to provide individuals and organisations with general information on the types of projects that are likely to receive funding, the requirements of grant recipients and how to submit applications.

Award organisers say participants are required to demonstrate their initiatives across the key areas of Planning, Research & Development, Execution & Implementation, Impact & Outcomes and Performance Management.