This year we were proud to launch our inaugural grantmaking program supporting sports-focused organisations delivering initiatives for young people facing barriers to opportunity. Sport is a powerful vehicle to create opportunity and initiate change, and we’re pleased to be able to support our grantees’ work.”
Antony Green, Chair, Macquarie Sports
Macquarie Sports works with peak sporting bodies to provide free sporting clinics that break down barriers to participation. In 2022, together with our partners, Macquarie Sports held 22 community sporting events across 10 sports, reaching 2,500 children, many of whom are located in rural and remote communities across Australia1.
The clinics allow children access to some of the country’s best sporting role models and provide participants with brand new sporting equipment. In 2022, sports included Australian rules football, hockey, surf sports, netball, rugby union, rugby league, soccer, surfing, water polo and wheelchair sports.
14 March 2022
Macquarie Sports held a netball clinic at Sydney Olympic Park in March which saw over 160 students from surrounding primary schools coached by some of netball's best current and former stars, including Catherine Cox, Paige Hadley and Maddy Turner.
Every participant was provided with a netball to take home and several prize winners were given Andre Agassi signed caps for their efforts during the clinic.
In 2021, Macquarie Sports announced a new grantmaking program aimed at sporting organisations providing education, training or employment opportunities for young Australians aged between 12 and20. After receiving over 50 applications, two grants were allocated to Surfing Australia and Clontarf Foundation.
Clontarf Foundation aims to improve the education, discipline, self-esteem, life skills and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men. Our grant funds the placement of 40 boys at the new Clontarf Academy at Tweed River High School with an encouraged participation in the Academy’s sporting program.
Surfing Australia guides and promotes the development of surfing in Australia. Our grant supports an employment pathways program for 20 young people between 16 and 20 in the Gold Coast region.
Nutri-Grain Ironwoman and 2020 Macquarie Sports Scholarship recipient, Naomi Scott
Macquarie Sports Scholarships enable the transition from the sporting arena to the workplace for elite athletes with an interest in finance and banking. For the second year in a row, Macquarie Sports Scholarships aligned with Macquarie’s broader Summer Internship Program. Scholarship recipients benefited from this alignment with an 11‑week work placement and greater networking and program opportunities alongside the group-wide summer internship cohort.
Macquarie Sports was recognised at the 2023 Australian Surfing Awards for its contribution to the Indigenous surfing community and awarded the Indigenous Surfing Community Celebration Award.
Macquarie Sports has partnered with Surfing Australia since 2015, providing introductory surfing clinics to hundreds of children from charities and community groups around Australia. More recently we have provided these opportunities to children from Macquarie grant partners including the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School, Clontarf Foundation and PCYC NSW.
Pictured: Chris McKenzie, Macquarie Sports with Adam Bray (Woolworths Group, First Nations Advisory Board member), Surfing Australia
We would like to thank the Macquarie Sports Committee and the Scholarships Sub-Committee for their guidance and support over the past year.
The Macquarie Sports Committee comprises Antony Green (Chair), Carlos Barrios, Justin Crawford, Stephen Cook, Anna Le Masurier, Craig Ross, Mura Ryan and Bruce Phipson.
