The Trawalla Foundation works with exceptional individuals and organisations that have a vision for the future of Australia, focused on strengthening gender equality, creativity, sustainability and social justice within our society.
A belief in the value of more female leaders, especially in business, media and politics underpins our work.
We adopt a range of levers including grants, investments, skills, networks and advocacy, to deepen the impact of the individuals and organisations that we collaborate with.
Our investment values include:
Gender equality: fundamentally believing in the value of more female leaders;
Creativity: embracing imagination and possibility;
Sustainability: creating financial, social and environmental value; and
Social justice: upholding principles of equity, inclusiveness and fairness.
Our investment approach is: to work with an entrepreneurial mindset, demonstrating the progressive attitudes and ideas of multiple generations. We aim to be bold, curious and action oriented, and are willing to take intelligent risks alongside our partners. We focus on catalysing and growing new initiatives, business models and organisations.
In order to:
Unlock the potential of exceptional people to realise their vision;
Demonstrate the value of ‘social venture’ capital, and encourage bolder philanthropy by others; and
Ultimately, create positive social, environmental and financial outcomes, and to strive for systems change.
The Women’s Leadership Institute Australia (WLIA) is a not-for-profit organisation, founded by Carol Schwartz AO. WLIA is the research and advocacy arm of the Trawalla Foundation, focused on finding the best levers for change to achieve equal voice, equal representation and equal recognition for women in Australia.
We catalyse practical initiatives for change, often in collaboration with strategic partners locally and internationally. Example initiatives include Pathways to Politics Program for Women, Women for Media Database, the Panel Pledge and WLIA Fellowships.
Philanthropic investments
Examples include:
Pathways to Politics Program for Women, founded with The University of Melbourne Visit the website In partnership with QUT Visit the website UNSW Visit the website Charles Darwin University Visit the website
The Stella Prize Visit the website
Human Rights Law Centre: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Rights Impact Area Visit the website
Deadly Fringe Visit the website
Stars Foundation Visit the website
Women’s Art Prize, Tasmania Visit the website
Philanthropy Australia Champions Visit the website
Grattan Institute Visit the website
The Goshen Project Visit the website
Corpus investments
All of our Foundation corpus investments are managed with a responsible investing lens, including negative screenings (such as fossil fuels, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, animal welfare, firearms), and positive screenings (such as minimum 25 per cent of board directors must be women).
We also invest a proportion of our corpus in social and environmental impact investments, including funds, social impact bonds and venture capital. Examples include:
Social Ventures Australia Diversified Impact Fund Visit the website
Murray-Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund Visit the website
Applied Visit the website
Bridges Israel Visit the website
Synergis Fund Visit the website
Please note: The Trawalla Foundation is a Private Ancillary Fund, which does not solicit funding requests from the public or have grant rounds.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
