We have a reasonable proportion of contact centres in Australia that are devoted to not-for-profit organisations. We really don't talk enough about them and their contribution to society and the important role that contact centres play in fund raising and awareness generation of worthy causes. At Fifth Quadrant we actively support a Philanthropic program we founded which funds literacy programs for children, especially indigenous children, with a focus on girls (www.indigoexpress.org.au)

Indeed, last week I spent time with Abigail Disney, who is Walt Disney's grandniece and heiress to the Disney dynasty. I facilitated a Masterclass with Abigail as she presented her thinking on philanthropy to Sydney's leading philanthropists and business people.

Abigail's background is:

• Born in 1960 and was raised in North Hollywood, California
• Daughter of Roy E. Disney and granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company with his brother Walt Disney
• Abigail has a Ph.D
• She turned to the family business of filmmaking after she met Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee in 2006. Since the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell Leymah has become a Nobel Peace Prize Winner
• Abigail describes her purpose as "There are 875 million arms in circulation and 8 million more made every year. I want to change the attitude of countries towards weapons that kill. I want to stop the romance of violence"
• Abigail has a gender lens when she talks about Philanthropy, with a strong focus on women and girls

Abby had some marvellous quotes, some of which I have captured below:

"Since becoming a philanthropist, I now see life in technicolour"

"Philanthropy was an invitation to join the Human Race"

"I have found my Tribe. You will know it when you do"

"I was scared of the hairy-arm-pitted feminists"

"If you move the lens to look at things as a woman sees, everything changes"

"If you want to lift up a country then look to a woman"

Borrowed from Jennifer Buffett..."We are half the population and gave birth to the other half"

"Where are the men?"

"For the men – When you stand with us we find you hopelessly attractive"

"The well of philanthropy is in everyone. You just have to find the key to unlock it"

"If you look at war though a woman’s eyes it doesn’t seem worth doing"

"We need to have less of an MBA approach to philanthropy. It is not a business. You don't put money into it to get a return"

Last week I also met with Cathy Freeman and the Cathy Freeman Foundation whose work is focused on improving conditions for indigenous people on Palm Island. Cathy's mother's family is originally from Palm Island. At the event were some very high powered people, including Andrew Cannon, Ann Sherry, Christine Manfield, amongst many other silver haired business leaders. The Freeman Foundation is focused on working with one community, Palm Island, in a holistic way to improve conditions overall. Cathy and I however talked less about philanthropy and more about Cathy being a mother of her new baby Ruby ... so divine. She is such a gorgeous woman.

There is much to do, social responsibility wise, even in a seemingly well to do city such as Sydney. UNICEF estimates that as many as one in ten children in Australia live in poverty (defined as living in a household where the annual income ($33,000p.a) is less than 50% of the mean average income ($65,000)). And the Fund describes poverty amongst our indigenous Australians as being comparable to countries such as Bangladesh.

Bad huh.

I have dug around to see if we have some useful stats on not-for-profit contact centres, but we have not segmented these in our studies thus far. We must change that.

Finally in partnership with the Australian Business School we have published the following article on Customer Service Types. You may find it interesting...