The Trawalla Foundation works with exceptional individuals and organisations that have a vision for the future of Australia, focused on strengthening gender equality, creativity, the climate transition and social justice within our society.
A belief in the value of more diverse female leaders, especially in politics, media, policymaking and capital 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 diverse female leaders;
Creativity: embracing imagination and possibility;
Climate transition: accelerating the transition to a sustainable future; 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 ‘philanthropic 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. Women’s Leadership Institute Australia is focused on growing the critical mass of diverse women leaders – because we’re firm believers that shared power and decision-making between men and women leads to better outcomes for all Australians. We see politics, media, policymaking and capital as pivotal engines for propelling gender equality forward. So, we focus on high-impact investments, strategic partnerships and groundbreaking research in these four influential spheres. Key initiatives include Pathways to Politics for Women, WLIA Fellows and Women for Media research series.
Philanthropic investments
Examples include:
Pathways to Politics for Women Visit the website (Partnerships with eight universities – The University of MelbourneQUTUNSW SydneyCharles Darwin UniversityUniversity of CanberraThe University of AdelaideThe University of Western AustraliaThe University of Tasmania)
WLIA Fellows Read about the Fellows
The Stella Prize Visit the website
Stars Foundation Visit the website
Climateworks Centre Visit the website
Environmental Leadership Australia Visit the website
Corpus investments
Our Foundation corpus investments are managed with a responsible investing lens, and we have invested a proportion of our corpus in social and environmental impact investments. Current examples include:
Giant Leap Fund II Visit the website
Artesian Female Leaders Fund Visit the website
Bridges Israel Visit the website
Synergis Fund Visit the website
Credit Suisse Climate Innovation Fund
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.
