The giving guide · Australia
How to give well
Free, plain-English guidance on giving in Australia — how to choose a giving vehicle, how to get more impact for every dollar, and how to see where your money actually goes. No advisers to sell you anything, no jargon.
Find your fit
Not sure how you want to give? Start here. Go as deep as you like — two minutes or ten.
The Giving Navigator
A guided walk through how you want to give — from a one-off gift to giving that recycles and gives again. Lands on your giving archetype, a personalised cheat sheet, and who's doing the work you care about.
Ready to act
Your giving profile
Your archetype, your causes and your people — plus your next step. Save yours.
Understand your giving
Not sure where to start? A few reflective questions about what's driving you.
Which giving vehicle?
Give directly, a giving circle, a sub-fund or your own fund? Find the fit.
Foundation vs sub-fund calculator
Run the numbers on your own Private Giving Fund versus a shared sub-fund.
Giving together
Giving circles, community funds and community-bank grants — the collective field.
Giving circles directory
Find an Australian giving circle to join — or claim yours.
Find a charity
Browse every registered Australian charity by cause, who they help, or state.
Go deeper
Giving well isn't about the vehicle. It's about impact.
Most giving advice starts with tax and structures. That's backwards. The questions that matter are simpler: how much good does each dollar actually do, and can you see where it went?
Two ideas do most of the work. Efficiency — the same dollar can fund far more than one outcome if it's structured to come back and be given again (a recoverable grant), instead of being spent once and gone. And transparency — you should be able to follow your gift to a real outcome, not watch it disappear into a fund that pays out slowly.
There's good independent research on why so much philanthropic capital gets warehoused rather than deployed. The Institute for Regenerative Systems Architecture calls the underlying problem the perpetuity trap — where preserving the fund quietly overtakes the mission it was meant to serve.
Want to talk to a real person?
We're not financial advisers, and we don't take a cut — but we know the people who do this well. Tell us a little about what you're weighing and we'll personally make the right introduction: a family-giving specialist for giving while you live, or a community foundation if a sub-fund is the fit. Leave your details and we'll be in touch.
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Plain-English guidance on giving well — new guides as we publish them. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
This guide is written for Australia (Private & Public Giving Funds, sub-funds, DGR). In the United States? Use the US giving guide (donor-advised funds and more).