Australian not-for-profit Global Sisters founded by Mandy Richards in 2016, helps women with disabilities and their carers to start and grow their own businesses .
They have raised a US$500,000 ($736,579) grant from Google’s charitable arm, Google.org.
The Pain
According to the Australian Institute’s Health and Wellness report in 2022, one in six Australians have a disability. Half of these are women - many of them need more assistance.
These women have been shutout from mainstream employment - and these barriers are external and often systemic… says Mandy
Entrepreneurship can be quite elitist, and really hard … Global Sisters goal is to help them develop the right networks and resources through connection, collaboration , learning and growth
The painkiller
The Global Sisters program work with women in small businesses who typically aren’t given adequate attention, including indigenous women, migrants and refugees, women over 50, and women with disabilities.
Ik thought (Collaboration with Dress for Success?)
The goal is to enable women living with a disability or a disadvantage to participate in the lifecycle of business support, so they can access all they need to start and grow their micro business, and embark on the path to financial independence.
Ik thought (10x material)
Global Sisters provide recipients with confidence and skill boosting, networking and coaching.
To date, Global Sisters has supported over 5,500 women and offered more than $7.6 million in free business support for women-led micro businesses.
(Collaboration with BSI Learning? )
Networking Connection and collaboration with Corporates
One of the aims is to engage corporations and individuals to get involved through either pro bono coaching and business services, financial investment, collaboration, corporate engagement
Maybe even purchasing from the Global Sisters’ Marketplace for gifting or catering purposes
Afterpay Opportunity
Afterpay has created a campaign giving consumers the option to donate $1 at the checkout with a goal to raise a minimum of $50,000 annually.
Afterpay can be a major contributor to this programme with 13 million active users around the world.
“Asking someone to donate a dollar — who’s going to say no to that?” Asks Mandy
Ik thought (speak to Zip ; speak to online retail; speak to Canva?
Corporate Partners include Unilever, Visa and AMP , each bringing specific expertise that can be valuable to various types of small businesses.
Ik thought (collaborate with RAP programme)
Ik thought (sister company to Babana - Mark Spinks? )
For their part, the corporates get opportunities for staff engagement and meaningful collaborations.
“It makes for this amazing two-way value transfer,” Richards says.
Ik thought (Collaboration with #bbgforum yarning circle)
(Martin Stark , Ivan Schwartz , Kala Philip , Mark Champley, Sounya Zaiter - transport nsw -opal? )
This type of philanthropy is a win win win
How do you make giving charity frictionless and tech-enabled?
It’s about targeting people where they already spend money, and going for small amounts in high volume.
“The goal is to support women who are not contributing to the economy as much as they would want to become active participants in it. That’s good for everyone.”
Mandy Richards - Global Sisters