The Academy hosts first voluntary organisation workshop

The 16th of November saw the first of a series of workshops for voluntary organisations organised by the Academy of Givers. Having teamed up with JA Malta Foundation and HSBC Malta Foundation, the workshop tackled the topic of financial literacy for voluntary organisations, covering the positive impact of financial literacy on NGOs within the current financial landscape and the role of NGOs in financial literacy. Petra Ellul from JA Malta Foundation gave a great workshop on this topic.

It was mentioned how there tends to be a lack of understanding about and around the topic of money, with many facing a number of challenges due to this;although, people tend not to talk about this. We firstly don’t understand our relationship with money, which then reflects the way we manage organisations and businesses.

One way of bridging the gap between voluntary organisations, businesses and philanthropists is inviting the different entities to attend events for VOs and businesses, so we can learn from each other. For this VO workshop, Glen Bugeja from HSBC Foundation joined the session and shared the work HSBC Foundation are doing,how they support voluntary organisations and the opportunities out there for VOs. It created an open and honest space for both sides to discuss how companies can support more and how the relationships could be strengthened.HSBC Foundation is open to hear from VOs and their needs and looks forward to continuing supporting VOs.

The room consisted of a number of voluntary organisations all having a different focus area, from human rights to environment, domestic violence, mental health and animal rights, amongst others. An open discussion was held to understand how they feel companies see them and what more can be done to empower VOs and support them. Read more about this here.

The Academy will continue to have monthly meetings for its members - businesses and philanthropists around topics of philanthropy,sustainability and CSR and bimonthly meetings for VOs. Watch this space to read about them.

‍