GIVING begins in the home, according to Kevin MacDonald, the chief executive of Giving West, a recently formed organisation that aims to facilitate the growth of corporate and generational philanthropy in Western Australia.
GIVING begins in the home, according to Kevin MacDonald, the chief executive of Giving West, a recently formed organisation that aims to facilitate the growth of corporate and generational philanthropy in Western Australia.
Mr MacDonald and his wife moved home to WA late last year after 15 years in Sydney to look after their ageing parents.
“We wanted to look after that generation,” he said.
“We bought a home and moved our parents in with us. Charity really did start at home with me because dealing with aged care, dementia, diabetes and heart disease in one household was a pretty good experience. It was a wake up to what I am passionate about.”
In part, Mr MacDonald credits his upbringing for the drive to develop Giving West and the Community Council of Australia, the latter a lobbying group for not for profits he helped to establish in Sydney.
“It’s something I am passionate about, giving back. Having come from a poor country, born in India, I spent my first 10 years there, lived in very simple, close-knit family and community environments,” Mr MacDonald said.
“They (my parents) primarily came here to seek a better future for their children.
“Having come here to the lucky country and experienced what I have been able to experience through education and sport ... I would like to think I can give back.”
Mr MacDonald’s career didn’t start in the fourth sector, however, with much of his time in Sydney characterised by hard work in the corporate sector.
He spent 15 years with Zurich and helped to facilitate the business’ transition from insurance to fund management, going from state manager in WA to national market development manager based in New South Wales.
Mr MacDonald recalls the thrill of developing a new strategic direction for the company and its profile – with a presentation he gave at the Opera House one of the highlights.
“It was a good time to move, the company was going through a change program, it was rebranding, repositioning ... it was an exciting time,” he said.
From Zurich he moved to what is now known as the NSW Business Chamber – the equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA – eventually taking on the lead role there.
For a man who believes small business is the engine room of Australia’s economy, it was a fitting position.
“It’s Aussie battlers that have made it good, some of them have made it big but most of them just do good things for business and the community,” he said.
As chief executive of the NSW Business Chamber, Mr MacDonald employed the skills he acquired at Zurich to rebrand the chamber from what it was known as previously – Australian Business Limited.
“We put a similar change program in at the chamber, called Future Fit. It was all about being fit for the future, financially fit and having the right financial services,” he said.
The business lessons Mr MacDonald learned along his corporate path funnelled into his new line of work in the less competitive world of not for profits.
He said the collaborative nature of the fourth sector was an appealing trait, one that he was revelling in during his five months at Giving West.
“Rather that compete, we can connect,” he said.
Mr MacDonald’s move to the sector was triggered by a traumatic experience.
“I turned 50 in 2008, and I also had a heart attack in 2008. When I turned 50 I thought ‘what next?’” he said.
“As a result of the wake up call of my heart attack I thought I should get involved in more charitable work or a not for profit.”
He was motivated to contribute to the sector through all three avenues – what Giving West chairman and Azure Capital founder John Poynton describes as ‘time, treasure or talent’.
“I had always given treasure, we had always given to charities like World Vision, (but) I had never given time and talent. I decided it was time to give all three,” Mr MacDonald said.
He is now heavily involved in Giving West’s start-up phase; the organisation’s website will go live on the last day of the financial year, a date that will signal the launch of Giving West’s events to promote the growth of philanthropy in WA.
“I was surprised as a Western Australian coming home after 15 years that the economic growth in WA, the growth in prosperity and affluence, had not been matched by the growth in philanthropic donations or charitable dollars,” Mr MacDonald said.
Giving West aims to raise awareness, not dollars, and facilitate the growth and understanding of philanthropy in WA through connecting philanthropists with the wider community.