In this interview, Hireup co-CEO Laura O'Reilly explains what ‘impact grants’ are, who they’re for, and how they’re breaking with tradition.
Hireup Impact Grants is a program designed to bring people with disability closer to their good life. Why is this something that Hireup had decided to do - and why now?
In the early days of our work in the disability sector, when Hireup was little more than an idea in the minds of a few of us and we were struggling to get started, we saw over and over again how small amounts of support, of even just a few thousand dollars, could really move the dial and allow us to do good things for the community. I saw the impact that a relatively small amount of money, given at the right time, can have on people and organisations. And it’s powerful.
At around the same time, Jo Berry, who is now a Complex Support Administrator at Hireup, was fundraising to pay for modifications for her car. I remember thinking how amazing it would be if we had the resources to help Jo make her goals a reality. At the time we were struggling ourselves to stay afloat as an organisation, so doing something more wasn’t an option at that moment. Luckily enough, generous people in our community supported Jo with a fundraiser and she was able to secure the money she needed to modify her van. I had the pleasure of watching Jo hit the road in her new vehicle, and hearing from her on many occasions about how much it had positively impacted her life. Again, it showed me how carefully targeted financial support, to the right people at the right times, can lead to enormous outcomes in terms of inclusion and quality of life.
We always knew that if, one day, Hireup got bigger and had the ability to do so, part of the business’ impact would be to do what we could to help individual people and groups to live a good life for them. And we're here now. We have also reached the point that we have a bit of power to do good and impact people's lives. And so we’re going to do it.
Who is this grants program open to?
The program is for individuals, project groups and organisations looking to enable the pursuit of a good life for people with disability. We are open to all ideas and, critically, not just from people using the Hireup platform. It’s open to the whole disability community.
The theme for the first round of Hireup Impact Grants focuses on helping people with disability better connect with their communities. What’s an example of something that helped your brother, Shane, in this way?
Shane was a social butterfly. He was the president of his day program and had lots of amazing relationships. Having said that, there was a lot that he wasn’t able to access - things that required resources in a resource-poor family. A big goal for him was to travel to Queensland, which he sadly never got to do. At the time I was in my early 20s and travelling a great deal, and the injustice of that was really clear to me.
One experience Shane did get to have, which I’m so pleased I got to experience with him, was to go skiing. This experience was facilitated by a local non-profit, engaging a group of volunteers who had set up a skiing service that helped people with disability participate in a part of life that would otherwise be out of reach. Shane had the best time on that trip and one of the highlights of my whole life was skiing down a mountain with him, with him seated on a modified ski and guided by a trained assistant, at Thredbo.
It's life experiences like this that you look back on and think, that was the good stuff. These are the beautiful moments that matter, and together add up to the good life. And for my family, this moment was facilitated by a group of community-based volunteers who had an idea to make the world a more inclusive space. I hope that this grant program will help to support more of these kinds of ideas and make more of these moments - and give all people the opportunity to connect more meaningfully in their communities.
Grantmaking is a traditional form of philanthropy. Hireup is an innovative company. How is Hireup’s way of grantmaking breaking with the status quo?
I think philanthropy is important for all organisations to do, whether they be traditional and well established, or new and more innovative. But certainly at Hireup we’re trying to run this grants program in a different way to the norm.
Traditionally speaking, grant applications require hours of time and thousands of written words. Grant givers aren’t usually open to receiving an audio application, or a video one, or taking an application over the phone. They take a one-size-fits-all, largely inaccessible approach.
Additionally, most grants have very technically written guidelines. There’s a real art to interpreting and answering questions in a way that gets results. You have to be able to answer written questions in a way that takes a lot of training and education. Not everyone has those resources available to them.
The Hireup Impact Grants application process is quick and easy. Step one involves answering four simple questions.
- How would you use a grant from Hireup to better connect you (or people with disability) with your community?
- How does your grant idea enable you to pursue your good life (or enable the good life of people with disability)?
- How much money do you need to make your grant idea a reality?
- What else will you need to bring your idea to life?
If shortlisted, step two involves giving a little more detail - which can be delivered in any form.
The second way we’re trying to do things a little differently relates to the outcome we hope the grants will achieve. Very often philanthropic organisations want to invest in something that is going to have broad social benefit - ‘if I give you a dollar, you're going to make $5 worth of value in the community’. There aren’t a lot of what I call ‘capacity building’ grants, which are all about supporting an individual to invest into themselves, into their skills or to have a good experience. I’d describe our approach as investing in our community and supporting our community to live their best life, which is what we're all here to do. It's a very Hireup approach - and I'm proud of that.
What are your hopes for the future of Hireup’s philanthropy?
While we are running this current grant program as a pilot, my hope is that this is just the start for Hireup in this space. We also have plans around awards and more ways of acknowledging and supporting our community. I would love for Hireup to reach a point where we can really scale up this kind of work, to make sure we take every opportunity we can to do good.
