The charitable arm of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, the RAS Foundation, provided almost $600,000 worth in scholarships and community grants this past year, but it's not keeping up with the growing need for support in rural areas.
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See subscription optionsThis is why the foundation's chair and RAS councillor, Robyn Clubb, announced a new initiative to raise $5 million this financial year to grow its corpus fund.
Media proprietor John B. Fairfax, who previously founded another program within the RAS Foundation, the JB Fairfax Award for Rural Journalism and Communications, has kicked in $2 million to get the fund-raising venture started.
The foundation's programs include scholarships to support students in their studies and grants to help communities with on-the-ground projects, but the number of applications is growing along with increased need for support across rural communities.
"We have a reasonable level of reserves, but the board decided that if we want to do a lot more and contribute to more scholarships, more programs, leverage our DGR (deductible gift recipient) status ... we just need a bigger base fund," Mrs Clubb said.
"So, we said let's set ourselves a target of $5m and that will be the start and then we'll hopefully grow beyond that."
She said this money would be invested, the income from which would be used to support an expanded suite of programs and the required staff. The foundation currently is run with three full-time staff and volunteer support.
"We have a number of existing donors, we have RAS members, we have people who love the RAS, and the RAS and its donors also have an extensive network. So the 'family' is reaching out to ask people for a once-off commitment to get us to $5m," Mrs Clubb said.
The option existed to donate a total sum up front, or to commit to ongoing contributions over a period of, say, three or five years, and was tax deductible.
"We're kicking this off in May and we realise we have an end of financial year approaching, so the energy and momentum will build towards the end of financial year," she said.
"It's an ambitious program, but we've had a great start with John's donation and we believe that there are enough people who are passionate about what we do, which is providing support to rural and regional communities, that we will be able to raise those funds."
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Barrister and husband to the Governor of NSW, Dennis Wilson, who also spoke at the announcement, touched on the importance of the role of the recipients in promoting rural communities in NSW and beyond.
"The governor and I made a trip to western NSW and in Wilcannia we visited a small school of 17 children from kindergarten to year 6," he said.
"I asked a little eight-year-old girl who was working on an ipad what she was up to and she said 'I'm digitising my data for my 3D printer project'."
He asked the audience to hold that thought while going on to the role of the recipients of the RAS Foundation scholarships and grants.
"You are the tip of the iceberg. These awards assist in tapping into talent in rural NSW and you have succeeded, but you are the tip of the iceberg," he said.
"The example of the young girl in Wilcannia would suggest that. And as a consequence, as recipients of this award, you have both personal and wider responsibilities, may I suggest.
"The personal responsibilities for each of you, you well know. The wider responsibility is one of mentoring and encouraging, recognising, pushing the people who you, individually, recognise as having talent."
He said the responsibility also extended beyond rural NSW.
"Food security within Australia and elsewhere in the world is extremely important. In my travels with the Governor, we speak with people from the Middle East, from Asia, from North and South America, and food security is a crucial aspect of their consideration of the importance of Australia.
"So as a part of rural NSW, whether you are on the land or whether you are in the towns, whether you are studying psychology, whether you are studying agriculture, you are all immensely important to the advancement of Australia and its recognition to the rest of the world for what Australia is and what it stands for."
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