Maximising your support
Donations to the Mater Foundation support patient care and research at the Mater. To ensure your support, and that of many others, has as big an impact as possible; a proportion of each donation is typically used to help:
- distribute funds to Mater projects
- build more support through fundraising campaigns
- develop an endowment fund to ensure support for healthcare and research in the future.
- meet necessary expenses including prudential and statutory compliance expenses for charities
Support we receive enables Mater Foundation to make consistent and long term commitments to funding medical research and health care projects at Mater. This is so important to our research and clinical teams, who are working to understand, develop and implement better ways to treat and prevent disease. There are no overnight successes in health care and medical research and sustained base of support is often the difference between projects continuing to a result.
There is sometimes confusion around what is a reasonable cost of fundraising. In reality it is impossible to give a definitive answer to this question as there are so many variables around causes, organisations, and fundraising programs. There is also currently no uniform accounting standard across the not-for-profit sector so any comparisons made between charities can be misguided.
It is difficult for Mater Foundation or any charity to provide a single cost of fundraising percentage figure. This is because the actual administration costs can depend on the type of support—such as a donation, lottery ticket, event ticket or bequest—the type, size and life-stage of the organisation and the current economic climate.
When considering supporting a charity we would urge donors to consider the organisation’s effectiveness in meeting its mission and the organisation’s efficiencies over the medium to long term. You can find this information about Mater Foundation on this website, in our annual review and through our email newsletter .
If you would like to discuss your support with Mater Foundation:
Please contact the Executive Director on 07 3163 8000 or email foundation@mater.org.au
Management of Funds
The Mater Foundation takes its fiduciary responsibility and its commitment to supporting Mater Health Services and the Mater Medical Research Institute very seriously.
The Mater Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors who provide overall strategic direction and monitor the financial performance and distribution of funds. The Mater Foundation is subject to an annual, independently audited review to ensure standard accounting procedures and accountability to all financial supporters.
The Mater Foundation board ensures that the distribution of the funds is equitable and all funding allocation is carried out in a transparent fashion.
Fundraising Institute of Australia
The Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) is the national peak body representing professional fundraising in Australia. Since 1968, FIA has helped its members achieve best practice in fundraising through the promotion of standards, professional development pathways and measurable credentials.
As an organisational member of FIA, the Mater Foundation is committed to transparency and accountability through adopting the highest standards of fundraising practice.
All Mater Foundation fundraising staff are members of FIA, and the Executive Director and Fundraising Director hold the international fundraising credential CFRE.