2 NEWSBOYS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2017 It is with much pleasure that we present our 124th Annual Report, for the year end 30 June 2017. It has been another very successful year as can be seen from the excellent summaries, set out in this Report, of the projects and programs we have funded. We are very much looking forward to celebrating our 125th year in the year to come. In 2013, our 120th year, we inaugurated the Newsboys Foundation Awards. In 2015 we determined to run these awards in conjunction with the Victorian Student Representative Council (VicSRC), the peak body representing secondary students in Victoria. The winner of the award last year was Kelly Phan, from Bendigo Secondary College. The winner of this year’s award will be announced at the 2017 Victorian SRC Recognition Awards on 11 October 2017. We again joined with the Melbourne Recital Centre to present the Newsboys Foundation Regional Music Award. It is very pleasing that this award, now in its third year, appears to be generating much real interest in regional and rural Victoria in the Bach competition for Victorian music students aged up to 18: this year there were 12 entrants from regional and rural Victoria compared to five in the previous year. This year’s winner was Emma Avery, who plays the violin. In the past 12 months we have made grants totalling just over $800,000 to 34 organisations. Since its establishment in 1974, the Newsboys Foundation has now allocated total grants of more than $16 million to help young people in Victoria. For many years we have supported Hands On Learning (HOL), most recently by a grant to assist HOL to expand its work and financing with pro-bono support provided by Social Venture Partners. This has now resulted in HOL merging with Save the Children. It is most pleasing to know that HOL will now be able to expand its excellent work Australia-wide and we wish it every success in the future. As in other years, the Annual Report includes the financial position of the Newsboys Foundation Trust. As at 30 June 2017, the corpus was just over $273,000. As I noted last year, we have finally passed that magic quarter of a million dollars, which is very much the minimum corpus needed to ensure the Trust will continue to survive long into the future. However, our task must continue and all donations to the Newsboys Foundation Trust will be gratefully received so we can further expand our work. It is pleasing that this year the Newsboys Foundation Trust made its second allocation, this was to Kids Like Us for bursary support, and the Trust will continue to make allocations annually. Donations to the Newsboys Foundation Trust are tax deductible. Our wonderful CEO, Sandy Shaw, is the person who is really responsible for the fantastic work that the Newsboys Foundation does in funding the effective programs carried out by our grantees. Our sincere thanks to Sandy for that work and her role as ambassador for the organisation. Thank you Sandy, for another very successful year. Our thanks also to her part-time assistant, Lata Phoenix. Our sincere thanks also to our accountant Jennifer Edwards. Sandy and her outstanding team ensure the Board can fulfil its duties. Our very sincere thanks, as always, to John Warner for his continued excellent investment advice. The strong financial position of the Newsboys Foundation and its ability to fund so many great organisations in Victoria is very much thanks to John. Also, our sincere thanks to Grant Thornton for again conducting our audit on a reduced fee basis. Finally, thanks to David Coombes and his firm, Gadens Lawyers, for legal assistance received during the year. W Brind (Zich) Zichy-Woinarski QC, Chairman For and on behalf of the Board of Directors 10th October 2017 CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW