Our Impact 2023
Year after year, Kilfinan delivers critical support to social purpose leaders so that they can be at their best.
When social purpose leaders thrive, their organisations and communities thrive, tooThrough my Kilfinan mentor, I was able to take a step back and develop our organisation’s capability and capacity.
By the end of my first year with Kilfinan, I was able to double the funding and number of staff of the organisation, which of course meant we were able to support double the amount of people who reached out to our service. This would not have been possible without the help and support of my mentor and the outstanding Kilfinan team.
Elisa Buggy
CEO, WestCASA
Our Impact 2023
Year after year, Kilfinan delivers critical support to social purpose leaders so that they can be at their best.
When social purpose leaders thrive, their organisations and communities thrive, tooThrough my Kilfinan mentor, I was able to take a step back and develop our organisation’s capability and capacity.
By the end of my first year with Kilfinan, I was able to double the funding and number of staff of the organisation, which of course meant we were able to support double the amount of people who reached out to our service. This would not have been possible without the help and support of my mentor and the outstanding Kilfinan team.
Elisa Buggy
CEO, WestCASA
The Ripple Effect
Our annual evaluation demonstrates how the benefits of mentoring ripples out to charities and communities. Read more to see how it works.
The connection
Accelerated learning and increased proficiency
The Ripple Effect
Our annual evaluation demonstrates how the benefits of mentoring ripples out to charities and communities. Read more to see how it works.
The connection
Accelerated learning and increased proficiency
1. The Ripple Begins
Transforming a ripple into a swell begins with the right connection.
My mentor is clear and kind. She doesn’t shy away from giving feedback in an honest but respectful way. She challenged me to be uncomfortable and step into challenge. She helped me become a more structured leader, navigate a lot of very tricky situations, become more assertive, and have better boundaries than I did in the past. She helped me find my voice and believe in myself and my intuition.
It’s an amazing program and I am so privileged to have been a part of it. My mentor was an excellent and considered match for me. She went over and above to make herself available and I learnt so much from her experience and expertise.
Annabelle Chauncy
CEO, School for Life Foundation
Insight:
Great matches matter
Central to a great connection is trust. Mentees overwhelmingly report that their mentors are available, trusted, understanding, insightful, and challenge them.
Building on trust is expertise. Nearly all mentees state that their mentor not only understands their issues and goals but critically engages with them.
Kim's Story
Kim Larochelle was the leader of The Helmsman Project, an organisation that provided a respected coaching and experiential learning program to Year 9 students in communities experiencing disadvantage.
When she requested a mentor, she was eager to grow and consolidate her leadership skills as a first time CEO. When the COVID pandemic hit, the impact on the organisation was significant. They saw multiple program cancellations, loss of key funding, and a consequent budget shortfall.
The focus of the mentoring sessions shifted to the organisation’s financial sustainability. Kim and her mentor reviewed the organisation’s business model and explored options. Kim developed a scalable fee-for- service program that was well received by schools, but there were still hurdles posed by intermittent lockdowns.
From the organisation’s beginnings, Kim firmly believed that “If this program can be delivered with greater impact and/or at lower cost, we have to explore that as an option – from sharing ideas and resources, all the way up to merging.” Kim wanted to be proactive about the future of the organisation and started considering a possible merger with a like-minded organisation.
Kim’s mentor advised her to do the groundwork necessary for the Board to consider such a merger. She helped Kim understand the steps involved and supported her in taking those steps.A year of intensive work culminated in a successful outcome. Kim’s organisation merged with another which will continue to deliver The Helmsman Project’s programs.
Kim’s mentorship was very timely for both Kim and the organisation she led. Her mentor provided support and learning for Kim in untrodden territory. She offered pragmatic and practical advice on operational issues, generated options to address the organisation’s financial challenges and then helped her deliver an excellent outcome for its beneficiaries by guiding her through the merger process.
Kim leaves her CEO role with a platform of new capabilities and leadership experience that will stand her in good stead in whatever opportunities she pursues.
94% of mentees tell us their mentor prioritises their mentorship.
100% of mentees report having developed rapport and trust with their mentor.
99% of mentees and mentors communicate with each other well.
97% of mentees say their mentor understands and critically engages with their issues, challenges and goals..
1. The Ripple Begins
Transforming a ripple into a swell begins with the right connection.
My mentor is clear and kind. She doesn’t shy away from giving feedback in an honest but respectful way. She challenged me to be uncomfortable and step into challenge. She helped me become a more structured leader, navigate a lot of very tricky situations, become more assertive, and have better boundaries than I did in the past. She helped me find my voice and believe in myself and my intuition.
It’s an amazing program and I am so privileged to have been a part of it. My mentor was an excellent and considered match for me. She went over and above to make herself available and I learnt so much from her experience and expertise.
Annabelle Chauncy
CEO, School for Life Foundation
Insight:
Great matches matter
Central to a great connection is trust. Mentees overwhelmingly report that their mentors are available, trusted, understanding, insightful, and challenge them.
Building on trust is expertise. Nearly all mentees state that their mentor not only understands their issues and goals but critically engages with them.
Kim's Story
Kim Larochelle was the leader of The Helmsman Project, an organisation that provided a respected coaching and experiential learning program to Year 9 students in communities experiencing disadvantage.
When she requested a mentor, she was eager to grow and consolidate her leadership skills as a first time CEO. When the COVID pandemic hit, the impact on the organisation was significant. They saw multiple program cancellations, loss of key funding, and a consequent budget shortfall.
The focus of the mentoring sessions shifted to the organisation’s financial sustainability. Kim and her mentor reviewed the organisation’s business model and explored options. Kim developed a scalable fee-for- service program that was well received by schools, but there were still hurdles posed by intermittent lockdowns.
From the organisation’s beginnings, Kim firmly believed that “If this program can be delivered with greater impact and/or at lower cost, we have to explore that as an option – from sharing ideas and resources, all the way up to merging.” Kim wanted to be proactive about the future of the organisation and started considering a possible merger with a like-minded organisation.
Kim’s mentor advised her to do the groundwork necessary for the Board to consider such a merger. She helped Kim understand the steps involved and supported her in taking those steps.A year of intensive work culminated in a successful outcome. Kim’s organisation merged with another which will continue to deliver The Helmsman Project’s programs.
Kim’s mentorship was very timely for both Kim and the organisation she led. Her mentor provided support and learning for Kim in untrodden territory. She offered pragmatic and practical advice on operational issues, generated options to address the organisation’s financial challenges and then helped her deliver an excellent outcome for its beneficiaries by guiding her through the merger process.
Kim leaves her CEO role with a platform of new capabilities and leadership experience that will stand her in good stead in whatever opportunities she pursues.
94% of mentees tell us their mentor prioritises their mentorship.
100% of mentees report having developed rapport and trust with their mentor.
99% of mentees and mentors communicate with each other well.
97% of mentees say their mentor understands and critically engages with their issues, challenges and goals..
2. Gaining Momentum
With the help of a trusted advisor, leaders are shaping their future by focusing on what matters most.
My mentor didn’t come from my world. He had completely fresh eyes and ears to what I was thinking and saying, and he was invested in my success. It gave me a whole other lens I could put across my thinking and challenge a whole range of assumptions that I held. This ultimately gave me more confidence that I had actually interrogated my way of thinking.
It’s a huge privilege having somebody outside your world who is interested in helping you. You always need to learn. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you always need someone who can bring a sharpness and freshness to your thinking
Sarah Davies
CEO, Alannah and Madeline Foundation
Insight:
Each leader is unique and working on what matters
Ally's Story
Ally Kelly is the founder and CEO of Mind Blank, an award-winning mental health charity that advocates for suicide prevention and early intervention strategies. Since founding the organisation, Ally has successfully grown it from a grassroots community organisation to a well-established and respected resource.
Ally was in her early 20s and had limited business experience when she founded her charity. As a young leader, Ally’s mentoring needs and focus evolved over time. In the last few years she has been matched with two different Kilfinan mentors. The first helped her bridge some of her capability gaps as she was growing the organisation.
Ally says, “It was great to have the support from a mentor who had experience in the real world – that top tier perspective as well as operational knowledge. My mentor was able to break it down for me and translate things into action. Being a young person in business, you don’t always have the back-end knowledge that this happens to a lot of businesses. Sometimes the pain points were just really simple things.”
With her second Kilfinan mentor, Ally’s goal was to improve her communications to the Board. With her mentor, she worked on developing her skills in writing CEO reports and making presentations that met the directors’ expectations. Together, they thought through issues of Board succession and dynamics.
With her mentor’s support, Ally found the ‘A Team’ of directors who had the right skills and personalities. She says, “With the right team on the Board, we developed a solid strategy with a tight organisational focus. The clarity of the strategy enabled full team buy-in, and an understanding of what we were all focused on.”
With a great Board in place, Ally’s mentorship shifted focus to operational issues and achieving a better work-life balance. This was especially important during the pandemic. With her mentor’s counsel, she established healthy boundaries for her own individual wellness.
Ally’s assessment of her involvement with Kilfinan is glowing: “I’ve found the Kilfinan mentoring program to be invaluable. It’s such an asset to have a mentor who can provide professional insight and who follows your journey with you.”
Proficiency levels across nominated focus areas prior to commencing mentoring.
No Data Found
Proficiency levels across nominated focus areas after at least one year of mentoring.
No Data Found
2. Gaining Momentum
With the help of a trusted advisor, leaders are shaping their future by focusing on what matters most.
Insight:
Each leader is unique and working on what matters
Ally's Story
Ally Kelly is the founder and CEO of Mind Blank, an award-winning mental health charity that advocates for suicide prevention and early intervention strategies. Since founding the organisation, Ally has successfully grown it from a grassroots community organisation to a well-established and respected resource.
Ally was in her early 20s and had limited business experience when she founded her charity. As a young leader, Ally’s mentoring needs and focus evolved over time. In the last few years she has been matched with two different Kilfinan mentors. The first helped her bridge some of her capability gaps as she was growing the organisation.
Ally says, “It was great to have the support from a mentor who had experience in the real world – that top tier perspective as well as operational knowledge. My mentor was able to break it down for me and translate things into action. Being a young person in business, you don’t always have the back-end knowledge that this happens to a lot of businesses. Sometimes the pain points were just really simple things.”
With her second Kilfinan mentor, Ally’s goal was to improve her communications to the Board. With her mentor, she worked on developing her skills in writing CEO reports and making presentations that met the directors’ expectations. Together, they thought through issues of Board succession and dynamics.
With her mentor’s support, Ally found the ‘A Team’ of directors who had the right skills and personalities. She says, “With the right team on the Board, we developed a solid strategy with a tight organisational focus. The clarity of the strategy enabled full team buy-in, and an understanding of what we were all focused on.”
With a great Board in place, Ally’s mentorship shifted focus to operational issues and achieving a better work-life balance. This was especially important during the pandemic. With her mentor’s counsel, she established healthy boundaries for her own individual wellness.
Ally’s assessment of her involvement with Kilfinan is glowing: “I’ve found the Kilfinan mentoring program to be invaluable. It’s such an asset to have a mentor who can provide professional insight and who follows your journey with you.”
My mentor didn’t come from my world. He had completely fresh eyes and ears to what I was thinking and saying, and he was invested in my success. It gave me a whole other lens I could put across my thinking and challenge a whole range of assumptions that I held. This ultimately gave me more confidence that I had actually interrogated my way of thinking.
It’s a huge privilege having somebody outside your world who is interested in helping you. You always need to learn. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you always need someone who can bring a sharpness and freshness to your thinking
Sarah Davies
CEO, Alannah and Madeline Foundation
Proficiency levels across nominated focus areas prior to commencing mentoring.
No Data Found
Proficiency levels across nominated focus areas after at least one year of mentoring.
No Data Found
3. Furthering Success
With their mentor’s encouragement, mentees’ belief in themselves is changing. They are confident, displaying the openness, humility, and capability to guide their organisations through waves of change.
I worked closely with my mentor to unpack leadership challenges that I was facing as our organisation went through a very fast growth period. The opportunity to turn to my mentor with complex problems was essential to getting through that period.
I have worked more recently with my mentor on establishing a Board of directors that has greatly strengthened the governance structure of our organisation. This has led me being able to get the most out of the skills and experience of our Board members, and ensure that we are all guiding For Change Co to being its most effective in addressing our mission.
Tenille Gilbert
CEO, For Change Co
Insight:
Each leader is growing
The outcomes were undeniable when mentees were asked to rate their leadership capacity across our unique indicators. Accelerated learning and skill development ripple out to enhance capacity and confidence.
97% of mentees feel more confident making decisions, trusting their intuition, and backing themselves.
90% of mentees report having increased capacity for strategic thinking and vision.
91% of mentees are more capable of managing stakeholder and Board relationships.
83% of mentees feel more confident and capable leading their team and influencing culture.
93% of mentees have increased knowledge of their direction and values as a leader.
Role confidence
Prior to commencing their mentorship, only three out of ten mentees rate their role confidence as “considerable” or higher. After at least one year of mentoring, that number grows to eight out of ten.
No Data Found
* values displayed as percentages
3. Furthering Success
With their mentor’s encouragement, mentees’ belief in themselves is changing. They are confident, displaying the openness, humility, and capability to guide their organisations through waves of change.
I worked closely with my mentor to unpack leadership challenges that I was facing as our organisation went through a very fast growth period. The opportunity to turn to my mentor with complex problems was essential to getting through that period.
I have worked more recently with my mentor on establishing a Board of directors that has greatly strengthened the governance structure of our organisation. This has led me being able to get the most out of the skills and experience of our Board members, and ensure that we are all guiding For Change Co to being its most effective in addressing our mission.
Tenille Gilbert
CEO, For Change Co
Insight:
Each leader is growing
The outcomes were undeniable when mentees were asked to rate their leadership capacity across our unique indicators. Accelerated learning and skill development ripple out to enhance capacity and confidence.
97% of mentees feel more confident making decisions, trusting their intuition, and backing themselves.
90% of mentees report having increased capacity for strategic thinking and vision.
91% of mentees are more capable of managing stakeholder and Board relationships.
83% of mentees feel more confident and capable leading their team and influencing culture.
93% of mentees have increased knowledge of their direction and values as a leader.
Role confidence
Prior to commencing their mentorship, only three out of ten mentees rate their role confidence as “considerable” or higher. After at least one year of mentoring, that number grows to eight out of ten.
No Data Found
* values displayed as percentages
4. Sustained Energy
Building leaders’ capacity and capability through mentoring improves productivity and outcomes. Their organisations better navigate risk, are more financially sustainable, and operate to a higher standard.
My mentor is providing me with knowledge and coaching in an area I know little about – Australian politics. His advice has been instrumental in aiding me to lead twenty charities to advocate and lobby the NSW government to extend state care from 18 years old to 21 years for youth in foster and residential care. When we secure this reform, it will have a profound impact with 300 fewer youth becoming homeless each year in NSW and a further 300 avoiding teenage pregnancies, unemployment and incarcerations.
Jason Juretic
CEO, Stepping Stone House
Insight:
Mentoring works
As the head of their organisations, leaders are learning quickly, growing their capacity, and deepening their confidence.
By engaging with trusted advisors, they tap into seasoned counsel and have their thinking usefully challenged for the good of their organisations.
Their collective efforts amplify and ripple outward.
Adam's Story
Adam Hegedus is the Co-Founder and Managing Director (MD) of Educating the Future, an international, youth-run, social purpose organisation building pre-schools in Timor-Leste. In its first six years, the organisation constructed five schools, educated 500 children and has ambitious plans for growth.
Adam describes himself as a young leader with many ideas who firmly believes young people are the greatest underutilised asset in creating social change. In seeking a mentor with Kilfinan, Adam wanted someone outside his existing network who could give him support and help him develop a new raft of skills.
Working with a Board was new territory for Adam. He and his Kilfinan mentor concentrated on how to develop the Board, improve engagement, and build an effective relationship. Adam successfully recruited directors to the Board using a Board skills matrix and information pack for new directors he developed with his mentor’s very practical input.
Adam also credits his mentorship for helping him achieve some excellent outcomes in risk management. Together, they identified key risks, developed mitigation plans, and his mentor provided helpful templates for Adam to customise. This foundational work helped resolve a critical risk: Adam’s organisation relies solely on volunteers. His mentor helped him unpack this challenge and build a sustainable volunteer pipeline.
Adam says, “My mentorship came at a time when we first received Australian government funding, and I worked with my mentor to build our risk management, policies, governance, and Board skills, along with the effectiveness of our committees. The flow-on effect from this meant that our organisation became more accountable and resilient, and ultimately delivered our program on-time and on- budget with complete adherence to our organisational policies and Australian regulation.”
After working together for two years, Adam and his mentor wrapped up their formal relationship but have maintained a dialogue about issues they worked on together. Adam is now working with another Kilfinan mentor to focus on growing the organisation.
97% of mentees are more proficient in leading their organisation.
97% of mentees have a deepened confidence in their abilities and skills.
93% of mentees believe they are better positioned to achieve their professional goals.
100% of mentees report that their organisation has benefited as a result of their mentorship.
93% of mentees report that their organisation's community has benefited as a result of their mentorship.
She’s worked on the things that matter, that make her successful. She has created change in the organisation without creating disruption, and her strategic thinking is coming to the fore now. I think the organisation has changed and is in a better place because she’s in a better place and she’s the leader.
Watching people do fabulous things and knowing you were some small part of it. This is all why I’m doing this. It’s been incredibly rewarding for me – far more than I anticipated.
Dr. Vanessa Guthrie AO
Kilfinan Mentor
Insight:
Mentors are judicious and inquiring advisors
Mentors delve deep, understand the interplay of challenges, and become a sounding board that gives perspective.
Tapping into years of experience, the issues discussed in mentorships are substantive. Mentors add unique value to the thinking and practice of their mentees while appreciating their talent, skill, and resourcefulness.
What's more, almost all mentors grow and learn from mentoring. And, they tell us that they genuinely enjoy it. Perhaps it is for these reasons that 91% of mentors continue to volunteer with Kilfinan, year after year.
Joan's Story
Joan Fitzpatrick is a seasoned non- executive director with broad commercial experience as a CEO, senior leader and consultant. As a Kilfinan mentor, she has mentored multiple social purpose leaders. One of those mentorships lasted four years, during which time her mentee was the CEO of two different organisations.
Initially, her mentee was working for a very small charity which was plagued with challenges which, from Joan’s perspective, were insurmountable. There was infighting on the Board and, whilst directors were largely absent, they would intervene in previously agreed decisions making it well-nigh impossible for the CEO to deliver expected results. She supported her mentee’s decision to leave the organisation as “the role was not going to live up to her standards or ethics”. She acted as a sounding board and provided wise counsel as her mentee considered other opportunities.
Joan’s mentee pursued one of those opportunities and was appointed the inaugural CEO of an advocacy and research organisation.To get started on the right foot, Joan and her mentee spent considerable time discussing governance challenges and ways to improve Board performance. Joan encouraged her mentee to tackle the governance issues early in her tenure and advised that unless she had the right Board structure in place, she would continually run into trouble. With Joan’s support, her mentee prompted change in the Board’s composition and any challenges have largely been resolved. The mentee and her Chair now enjoy an open and collaborative working relationship.
Joan is full of accolades for her mentee, saying, “I take my hat off to her. What she has achieved as the CEO of her current organisation has been amazing. She’s been open and thoughtful, all in all, a great mentee. I didn’t feel like I was advising into a black hole, but that I was value adding. My mentee didn’t follow everything I advised, but we’ve had great discussions on what was possible, and explored that on an intellectual basis. It’s important, as a mentor, that you’re doing something positive and that you feel you are adding value.”
97% of mentors have supported their mentee to solve problems and address challenges.
94% of mentors tell us they enjoy mentoring and a further 78% say it improves their quality of life.
94% of mentors report having grown and learned from the experience of mentoring.
84% of mentors have increased their knowledge and appreciation of not-for-profit strengths and challenges.
98% of mentors believe they are adding value to their mentee’s thinking and practice.
4. Sustained Energy
Building leaders’ capacity and capability through mentoring improves productivity and outcomes. Their organisations better navigate risk, are more financially sustainable, and operate to a higher standard.
Insight:
Mentoring works
As the head of their organisations, leaders are learning quickly, growing their capacity, and deepening their confidence.
By engaging with trusted advisors, they tap into seasoned counsel and have their thinking usefully challenged for the good of their organisations.
Their collective efforts amplify and ripple outward.
Adam's Story
Adam Hegedus is the Co-Founder and Managing Director (MD) of Educating the Future, an international, youth-run, social purpose organisation building pre-schools in Timor-Leste. In its first six years, the organisation constructed five schools, educated 500 children and has ambitious plans for growth.
Adam describes himself as a young leader with many ideas who firmly believes young people are the greatest underutilised asset in creating social change. In seeking a mentor with Kilfinan, Adam wanted someone outside his existing network who could give him support and help him develop a new raft of skills.
Working with a Board was new territory for Adam. He and his Kilfinan mentor concentrated on how to develop the Board, improve engagement, and build an effective relationship. Adam successfully recruited directors to the Board using a Board skills matrix and information pack for new directors he developed with his mentor’s very practical input.
Adam also credits his mentorship for helping him achieve some excellent outcomes in risk management. Together, they identified key risks, developed mitigation plans, and his mentor provided helpful templates for Adam to customise. This foundational work helped resolve a critical risk: Adam’s organisation relies solely on volunteers. His mentor helped him unpack this challenge and build a sustainable volunteer pipeline.
Adam says, “My mentorship came at a time when we first received Australian government funding, and I worked with my mentor to build our risk management, policies, governance, and Board skills, along with the effectiveness of our committees. The flow-on effect from this meant that our organisation became more accountable and resilient, and ultimately delivered our program on-time and on- budget with complete adherence to our organisational policies and Australian regulation.”
After working together for two years, Adam and his mentor wrapped up their formal relationship but have maintained a dialogue about issues they worked on together. Adam is now working with another Kilfinan mentor to focus on growing the organisation.
My mentor is providing me with knowledge and coaching in an area I know little about – Australian politics. His advice has been instrumental in aiding me to lead twenty charities to advocate and lobby the NSW government to extend state care from 18 years old to 21 years for youth in foster and residential care. When we secure this reform, it will have a profound impact with 300 fewer youth becoming homeless each year in NSW and a further 300 avoiding teenage pregnancies, unemployment and incarcerations.
Jason Juretic
CEO, Stepping Stone House
97% of mentees are more proficient in leading their organisation.
97% of mentees have a deepened confidence in their abilities and skills.
93% of mentees believe they are better positioned to achieve their professional goals.
100% of mentees report that their organisation has benefited as a result of their mentorship.
93% of mentees report that their organisation's community has benefited as a result of their mentorship.
Insight:
Mentors are judicious and inquiring advisors
Mentors delve deep, understand the interplay of challenges, and become a sounding board that gives perspective.
Tapping into years of experience, the issues discussed in mentorships are substantive. Mentors add unique value to the thinking and practice of their mentees while appreciating their talent, skill, and resourcefulness.
What's more, almost all mentors grow and learn from mentoring. And, they tell us that they genuinely enjoy it. Perhaps it is for these reasons that 91% of mentors continue to volunteer with Kilfinan, year after year.
Joan's Story
Joan Fitzpatrick is a seasoned non- executive director with broad commercial experience as a CEO, senior leader and consultant. As a Kilfinan mentor, she has mentored multiple social purpose leaders. One of those mentorships lasted four years, during which time her mentee was the CEO of two different organisations.
Initially, her mentee was working for a very small charity which was plagued with challenges which, from Joan’s perspective, were insurmountable. There was infighting on the Board and, whilst directors were largely absent, they would intervene in previously agreed decisions making it well-nigh impossible for the CEO to deliver expected results. She supported her mentee’s decision to leave the organisation as “the role was not going to live up to her standards or ethics”. She acted as a sounding board and provided wise counsel as her mentee considered other opportunities.
Joan’s mentee pursued one of those opportunities and was appointed the inaugural CEO of an advocacy and research organisation.To get started on the right foot, Joan and her mentee spent considerable time discussing governance challenges and ways to improve Board performance. Joan encouraged her mentee to tackle the governance issues early in her tenure and advised that unless she had the right Board structure in place, she would continually run into trouble. With Joan’s support, her mentee prompted change in the Board’s composition and any challenges have largely been resolved. The mentee and her Chair now enjoy an open and collaborative working relationship.
Joan is full of accolades for her mentee, saying, “I take my hat off to her. What she has achieved as the CEO of her current organisation has been amazing. She’s been open and thoughtful, all in all, a great mentee. I didn’t feel like I was advising into a black hole, but that I was value adding. My mentee didn’t follow everything I advised, but we’ve had great discussions on what was possible, and explored that on an intellectual basis. It’s important, as a mentor, that you’re doing something positive and that you feel you are adding value.”
She’s worked on the things that matter, that make her successful. She has created change in the organisation without creating disruption, and her strategic thinking is coming to the fore now. I think the organisation has changed and is in a better place because she’s in a better place and she’s the leader.
Watching people do fabulous things and knowing you were some small part of it. This is all why I’m doing this. It’s been incredibly rewarding for me – far more than I anticipated.
Dr. Vanessa Guthrie AO
Kilfinan Mentor
97% of mentors have supported their mentee to solve problems and address challenges.
94% of mentors tell us they enjoy mentoring and a further 78% say it improves their quality of life.
94% of mentors report having grown and learned from the experience of mentoring.
84% of mentors have increased their knowledge and appreciation of not-for-profit strengths and challenges.
98% of mentors believe they are adding value to their mentee’s thinking and practice.
5. The Swell
The ripple effect of each mentorship works as one to create a swell.
My mentorship helped me to enhance my skills in Board engagement, governance, leadership, and change management during a time of monumental change and existential risk for our organisation.
Through support from my mentor, my team and I were able to develop a strategic plan that doubled the size and income of our organisation to help more than 450 people with disability live their good life.
Justin O’Meara Smith
CEO, Interchange WA
Insight:
As leaders grow, so do their organisations
Each mentorship is unique and valuable. Mentees and mentors create their own energy, and the ripple effect of each connection works as one to create a swell. Swells are often slower to develop, but they have the energy to travel vast distances when they do.
The collective, self-sustaining energy of this force creates positive change for the sector. We are proud to play a role in driving this change.
Anthony's Story
Anthony Chesler is the CEO of Thread Together, an organisation that saves brand new clothing from going to landfill and provides these clothes to people in need. Prior to his appointment, the organisation had been growing organically. He described it as being "stuck in first gear".
He knew what he wanted to achieve but also knew he had to address the key challenges of improving efficiency, growing the beneficiaries, and moving closer to sustainability.
Kilfinan matched Anthony with a mentor who has broad finance and operating experience primarily in global consumer goods companies. Anthony enjoys that he and his mentor are both action and outcome oriented: he brings a very clear problem or issue to their monthly mentoring sessions and then they work through it together.
He says, “What I’ve really liked about the engagement is that everything we’ve discussed has moved forward. Nothing we’ve touched on has sat still. To get independent, non-judgemental insight and feedback, based on her knowledge and experience, has been invaluable.”
With his mentor’s support and input, Anthony increased operational efficiencies within the organisation. He and his mentor tested the assumptions underlying the organisation’s structure, looked at how to reduce the burden of administration, discussed what new roles would be beneficial, and considered when best to hire and bring on new staff.
In the end, Anthony improved efficiency by growing the staff while investing in technology to reduce the administrative load on the team. As a result, the organisation has been able to increase the number of beneficiaries it serves.
The next area of focus for Anthony and his mentor will be developing a more sustainable funding model through strategic partnerships. Anthony says that “My mentor is really invested in our success, and really cares about the community which we support. She has even brought her own team as well as her family to volunteer at the organisation. Ultimately, if you care about something, you will ensure it is successful.”
5. The Swell
The ripple effect of each mentorship works as one to create a swell.
My mentorship helped me to enhance my skills in Board engagement, governance, leadership, and change management during a time of monumental change and existential risk for our organisation.
Through support from my mentor, my team and I were able to develop a strategic plan that doubled the size and income of our organisation to help more than 450 people with disability live their good life.
Justin O’Meara Smith
CEO, Interchange WA
Insight:
As leaders grow, so do their organisations
Each mentorship is unique and valuable. Mentees and mentors create their own energy, and the ripple effect of each connection works as one to create a swell. Swells are often slower to develop, but they have the energy to travel vast distances when they do.
The collective, self-sustaining energy of this force creates positive change for the sector. We are proud to play a role in driving this change.
Anthony's Story
Anthony Chesler is the CEO of Thread Together, an organisation that saves brand new clothing from going to landfill and provides these clothes to people in need. Prior to his appointment, the organisation had been growing organically. He described it as being "stuck in first gear".
He knew what he wanted to achieve but also knew he had to address the key challenges of improving efficiency, growing the beneficiaries, and moving closer to sustainability.
Kilfinan matched Anthony with a mentor who has broad finance and operating experience primarily in global consumer goods companies. Anthony enjoys that he and his mentor are both action and outcome oriented: he brings a very clear problem or issue to their monthly mentoring sessions and then they work through it together.
He says, “What I’ve really liked about the engagement is that everything we’ve discussed has moved forward. Nothing we’ve touched on has sat still. To get independent, non-judgemental insight and feedback, based on her knowledge and experience, has been invaluable.”
With his mentor’s support and input, Anthony increased operational efficiencies within the organisation. He and his mentor tested the assumptions underlying the organisation’s structure, looked at how to reduce the burden of administration, discussed what new roles would be beneficial, and considered when best to hire and bring on new staff.
In the end, Anthony improved efficiency by growing the staff while investing in technology to reduce the administrative load on the team. As a result, the organisation has been able to increase the number of beneficiaries it serves.
The next area of focus for Anthony and his mentor will be developing a more sustainable funding model through strategic partnerships. Anthony says that “My mentor is really invested in our success, and really cares about the community which we support. She has even brought her own team as well as her family to volunteer at the organisation. Ultimately, if you care about something, you will ensure it is successful.”
Reports
All of our annual reports are available for download below.
- All
- Impact Reports
- Strategic Direction
- Annual Reviews
- Financial Statements
Impact report 2022
Impact report 2021
Strategic direction 2022-25
Annual review 2022
Annual review 2021
