UK Expert Appointed to Community Foundation Top Job
29 March 2012 at 9:39 am
Leading international philanthropy expert, Clare Brooks has been appointed as CEO of the Australian Communities Foundation (formerly Melbourne Community Foundation).
Brooks has worked for more than 20 years in the philanthropy and foundation sectors, and joins the Australian Community Foundation from the Community Foundation Network in London, where she has worked with a network of 58 UK community foundations and held a range of senior roles since 1999, including the director of philanthropy and deputy CEO.
The ACF Board says Brooks played a leading role in transforming community foundations to become significant players in the emerging UK philanthropy industry and oversaw a doubling of the community foundation network across the UK.
Brooks has also worked for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation of the United States and in Central and Eastern Europe, for the Civic Forum Foundation in the Czech Republic and for Community Foundation Network in the UK.
“I feel luckiest when I’m in a room with community leaders, hearing about the great work they do and hearing directly from some of the people who have been affected by their work and who teach us so much about life. That’s why you get up in the morning,” Brookes says.
The Australian Communities Foundation, which was renamed from the Melbourne Communities Foundation in July 2011 to reflect its national role, offers individuals, families, groups, corporations and Not for Profit organisations an easy way of giving back to their communities.
Donors establish philanthropic funds under Australian Communities Foundation’s legal structure and the donations are pooled and invested. The income generated from this investment is used over time to support charitable projects and organisations .
The Board says the Foundation uses its grantmaking expertise and knowledge of community issues to assist donors in developing strategic giving plans.
“I have been a long-time admirer of Australian Communities Foundation and the Melbourne Communities Foundation, as it was previously known, and indeed the whole movement in Australia,” Brooks says.
“It is the people connected to community foundations who have been a real inspiration for my move.”
Clare Brooks replaces outgoing CEO Sarah Davies who has become the CEO of the Reach Foundation which only last week saw the passing of its co-founder, philanthropist and football legend Jim Stynes.
