And the One Million Dollars Goes To? eftpos Decides

Vision Australia is the recipient of the eftpos $1Mill grant

In what it described as a ‘tough’ decision, electronic funds transfer company, eftpos has chosen Vision Australia to be the recipient of its $1million Giveback campaign to help build a new national Seeing Eye Dog centre.

eftpos Managing Director, Bruce Mansfield, said eftpos had selected Vision Australia based on the quality of its proposal and the lasting impact that the new centre, based in Melbourne, would have on the Australian community, with the provision of much-needed Seeing Eye Dogs.

Mansfield said selecting this year’s Giveback charity partner was a tough decision and involved assessing more than 30 worthy formal proposals from Australian charities.

He said another key consideration was the outcome of an online poll which showed overwhelming community support for eftpos to direct this year’s eftpos Giveback donation towards a charity that assists people with disabilities. Of the 40,000 Australians who voted in the poll, 30 per cent indicated their support for disability charities.

“We are very pleased to be supporting Vision Australia to help build a new national Seeing Eye Dog training centre,” Mansfield said.

“The project will change many people’s lives for the better and, over time, it will significantly increase the number of Seeing Eye Dogs, orientation and mobility aids available to vision-impaired and blind people in our community.”

He said that due to the high quality of this year’s eftpos Giveback proposals, eftpos has also decided to make additional, smaller donations to three other Australian charities.

The additional money will go to NSW charity Youngcare that was set up in 2005 to help young people get out of aged care and nursing homes. It will received $30,000. UCan Cafe – a social enterprise providing employment and professional development for young people with disability run by Yooralla and MS Australia, which assists people with Multiple Sclerosis, will each receive $10,000.

Eftpos has urged corporate Australia to get behind the many good works carried out by Australian charities.

“Australian business can make a real difference by backing these sorts of proposals from our great charities, and I urge more businesses to think about how they can get involved,” Mansfield said.

Seeing Eye Dogs Australia, a division of Vision Australia says it is thrilled to have been selected as the 2012 eftpos Giveback campaign partner.

Vision Australia’s acting CEO David Speyer said he was delighted to be working with eftpos on the Giveback campaign, and the donation would enable construction of the new Seeing Eye Dog training centre to begin around Christmas.

There is still some effort required to receive to the full $1million donation from eftpos.

The eftpos Giveback campaign runs for four weeks in the lead up to Christmas, during which time Australians will be asked to help build the new National Seeing Eye Dog facility by pressing CHQ or SAV at the checkout.

The donation amount will depend on eftpos transaction volume achieved during the eftpos Giveback period, up to $1,000,000. In 2011, $1million was raised for the Salvos.

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