Macquarie Group Foundation
Each of our four regions face distinct challenges and priorities, which is why each region concentrates on issues with local relevance and aims to create the greatest social impact.
At the Macquarie Group Foundation, we want to achieve the most significant social impact possible, using not only our financial resources but also the skills and networks of Macquarie employees. Through both the giving of grants and by creating opportunities for staff engagement, including mentoring, training, knowledge sharing and employability programs, we are helping to support people through education and employment.
In Australia, we support organisations helping young people to participate in jobs that prepare them for a better future. Our grantmaking focuses on:
Find out more about the Australian focus area by reading our grantmaking framework and the evidence compiled by Social Ventures Australia (2021).
In the Americas, we support organisations promoting college access, success and career attainment for underrepresented youth. Our grantmaking focuses on:
Find out more about our current grant partners in the Americas below.
In Asia, we support non-profit organisations that empower young people (15-24 years), women and underserved minorities into employment by bridging the gaps between job seekers’ current skills and education levels and the job market’s expectations and needs. We prioritise organisations and initiatives that work to address one or more of the following challenges:
Find out more about the Asia focus area by reading our grantmaking framework and the research compiled by Research for Impact (2024).
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), we support people (16-80yrs+) to achieve their social mobility aspirations through employment, with an emphasis on enduring jobs and meaningful work. Our grantmaking focuses on:
Find out more about our current grant partners in EMEA below.
Generation
Generation is a non-profit with a mission to transform education-to-employment systems to support adults achieve economic opportunity and mobility through a career. Our funding will support over 2,000 people into jobs in the green, technology and health sectors that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. It will also support Generation develop a digital mentorship platform to improve learner outcomes across their programs.
World YMCA
World YMCA's mission is to empower young people and communities worldwide to build a just, sustainable, equitable and inclusive world, where every person can thrive in body, mind and spirit. Our funding will support the World YMCA to prepare for pilot interventions that use digital solutions and innovative financing to move historically underserved young people beyond skilling and into meaningful work.
Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL)
BSL is a social justice organisation working to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia. Our funding helps drive more effective and community-led solutions to youth unemployment by expanding the Compass tool developed by BSL, putting place-specific data into the hands of local stakeholders and decision-makers.
Concern Australia
Concern Australia works with young people experiencing disadvantage across metro Melbourne. Their programs build on young people's talents and resilience to create new opportunities and positive futures. Our funding supports Concern Australia's vocational pathways, partnering with local employers to support entry level jobs primarily in the automotive sector.
Generation Australia
Generation's short, skills-based programs are co-designed with employers for individuals facing barriers to work. Our funding supports Generation's operating expenses, enabling it to deliver targeted employment programs, enhance partnerships, and invest in capacity building.
Greater Melbourne Foundation (GMF)
GMF helps create positive social change by addressing societal inequality. Our funding supports GMF to manage a pooled fund to more effectively support work integrated social enterprises employing young people who face barriers to mainstream jobs.
Karrkad Kanjdji Trust
Established by Traditional Owners of the Warddeken and Djelk Indigenous Protected Areas, KKT supports caring for Country, culture and community in West and Central Arnhem Land. Our funding strengthens and scales youth ranger programs in these locations.
Social Ventures Australia
SVA identifies and accelerates solutions to entrenched social problems, focusing on strengthening systems where disadvantage is most deeply felt. Our funding supports SVA with its Rebuilding the Career Ladder program, working with employers to recruit and retain young people facing workforce exclusion into decent jobs.
White Box Enterprises
White Box builds, supports and advocates for jobs-focused social enterprises. Our funding supports White Box's focus on improving job opportunities for young people within social enterprise models.
Youth Projects
Youth Projects works with young people experiencing disadvantage in Melbourne. Our funding scales Youth Projects' work supporting entry level jobs in the healthcare sector.
Out of focus
DeadlyScience
DeadlyScience provides science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and resources to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners across Australia. Our grant supports the professional development of DeadlyScience staff and helps strengthen capacity to deliver impactful programs.
First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation
First Hand Solutions improve the lives of Aboriginal people by providing training & employment and economic development opportunities through art, craft, tourism, bushfood and native plants. Our grant provides operational support for First Hand's management of its National Indigenous Art Fair (NIAF) annual event, including supporting Indigenous people to be employed and perform at NIAF.
In focus: supporting organisations promoting college access, success and career attainment for underrepresented youth.
America Needs You (ANY)
America Needs You supports economic mobility for ambitious, low-income college students by providing intensive career development, mentorship, networking and holistic support. Our funding supports and sustains the Chicago Fellows program, support the launch of a Los Angeles based Fellows Program, and a new digital curriculum that will support ANY students nationally.
Breakthrough NY
BTNY is a tuition-free, ten-year college success program committed to getting high-potential, low-income middle school students to and through four-year colleges. Our grant supports the college and career coaching and program support for students.
Bullard Center for Environmental & Climate Justice
The Robert D. Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University was launched to address longstanding issues of systemic inequality. Our funding will be used to run a six-week training program for rising seniors in college to expose and educate them to climate related career opportunities and the underlying impacts of climate change on their communities.
College Advising Corps
College Advising Corps works to increase the number of low-income, first-generation college, and underrepresented high school students who enter and complete higher education. Our funding will support a new pilot program focused on professional development opportunities for College Advising Corps advisers – recent college graduates with lived experiences similar to the high school students they support.
Heights Philadelphia
Heights Philadelphia is committed to breaking the cycle of generational poverty in Philadelphia by creating pathways to educational and workforce success for low-income, Black and Latino, and first-generation-to-college students. Our grant will be used to fund the Early Careers program, supporting high school graduates directly into employment, and the build out of data systems to better track and scale employment outcomes.
Instituto Four
Instituto Four seeks to select, train, and develop young people who think about ways to solve Brazil's biggest problems and aim to be in the main decision-making spaces in the country. Our funding will create scholarships for two students to complete the ProLider program, fund an award (in honour of the late Mr. Hitoshi Castro) and contribute to Instituto Four’s seed funding deposit for an endowment.
OneGoal Houston
OneGoal’s mission is to close the degree divide in America. Its vision is that every young person will have an equitable opportunity to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations. Our funding supports a college persistence program pilot that involves peer mentoring and online support.
Pursuit
Pursuit is an innovative social impact organisation whose mission is to create economic transformation in America. Our funding will enable Pursuit’s training program, designed to train high-potential individuals to launch new careers in tech, be updated and enhanced with additional job-readiness and pre-employment training modules.
The Opportunity Network
The Opportunity Network (OppNet) works to equal the playing field for students from low-income and historically under-resourced communities by facilitating access to colleges, career opportunities, and professional networks. Our grant will support OppNet’s Fellows program and advance OppNet’s borough-based program model to meet their students where they live.
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund empowers students to get to and through college each year. Our funding will support historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) ‘Transformation Offices’, designed to catalyse student engagement and their voices within HBCUs, preparing the next generation of leaders of colour in the education system.
Year Up United
Year Up United is a national workforce organization seeking to support untapped talent with access to livable-wage careers and help companies become more inclusive employers. Our grant funding will support Year Up United to train and support young people as they launch careers whilst supporting systemic changes in corporate hiring practices.
The Macquarie Group Foundation Opportunity Fund supports non-profit organisations providing direct relief programs, research and policy, education and economic initiatives for our most under-resourced communities in the US.
Learn more about The Opportunity Fund and our partners.
In focus: supporting organisations that empower young people (15-24 years), women and underserved minorities into employment.
Agrasar
Agrasar implements high-impact skill programs that help disadvantaged, migrant youth lead more meaningful and dignified lives. Our grant supports one centre in Kapersera, Gurgaon, as well as a community radio program that connects to youth in hamlets within 10 kms around Gurgaon City.
Aidha
Aidha helps migrant domestic workers and low-income women achieve economic independence through financial education. Our funding will support Aidha to significantly scale, from directly benefiting 850 beneficiaries in FY2022 to close to 10,500 beneficiaries annually by the end of the grant period in FY2026.
Asha India Foundation
ASHA is dedicated to improving the lives of Delhi’s urban poor through programs covering health, education, empowerment, financial inclusion and environmental improvements. Our grant is supporting a program to increase the number of young people attending college, by assisting young people in slums to reach higher education and in turn break out of the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
APMM is committed to supporting the migrant movement through advocacy, organising and building linkages for the advancement of migrants’ rights. Our grant supports the Women’s Encounters program, which aims to build and enhance the grassroots community movement of women migrants across Asia, to advance rights, promote collective wellbeing and enable mutual support and learning.
Ayala Foundation
Ayala Foundation (AFI) aims to develop thriving Filipino communities, uplifting families above the poverty level by identifying compelling developmental needs and providing suitable solutions. Our grant funding will support two signature AFI programs focused on community social entrepreneurship and youth leadership development in El Nido, a municipality located within the Palawan province in the Philippines.
Bright Future
Bright Future works with youth in urban slums of Mumbai to provide life skills and improve employability through their livelihood training centres. Our grant funds two livelihood centres in Mumbai and supports capacity-building within the organisation.
Bosconet
Bosconet works to improve lives of marginalised and migrant youth. Our grant is helping build a unique platform which integrates various support services available to migrants.
EMpower
EMpower partners with local organisations in emerging markets to enable marginalised young people to transform their lives and communities. Our funding will support EMpower and a diversified portfolio of local, community-based organisations across Manila and Hong Kong by providing job readiness skills and links to formal job opportunities to reduce unemployment, working to improve the economic wellbeing of marginalised young people. |
Generation Hong Kong
Generation's global mission is to transform education-to-employment systems to prepare, place, and support people of different underserved groups into life-changing careers that would otherwise be inaccessible. Our funding will support Generation Hong Kong to scale its impact, strengthen infrastructure, and further transform Hong Kong’s talent ecosystem.
Jan Sahas
Jan Sahas has been working with migrant workers and vulnerable communities in India for the past two decades. Our funding will support district migration resource centres in Gurugram.
The Majurity Trust
The Majurity Trust (TMT) seeks to build a thriving and sustainable community for all in Singapore, while also guiding and mentoring grantee partners on their journey to meet needs in the community. Our renewal of funding will support TMT to expand capacity building for their grant partners and innovate on collaborative philanthropy amongst funders, on top of allocating funding flexibly to one of the funds that support employment for the underserved.
NavGurukul
NavGurukul offers free higher education and software programming training for girls from diverse, marginalised and low-income backgrounds. Our funding is preparing students with education, job-ready skills and building the capability of the NavGurukul team.
People's Courage International
People's Courage International (PCI) is a non-profit with a mission to ensure safe migration and labor security for the most marginalised social groups, and to end violence against women and children in South and Southeast Asia. Our funding will support in building resilience to climate and economic shocks for informal workers and migrants in rural and urban geographies in the Philippines by enabling access to climate adaptation tools.
Uplifters
Uplifters’ mission is to uplift migrant domestic workers (MDWs) lives, by providing them with access to digital education and community support. Our grant will support Uplifters’ work in enabling MDWs to access education at scale and achieve behavioural change in money management.
Voice of the Free
Voice of the Free (VF) works to build the resilience of young women and girls to end slavery and other forms of exploitation and abuse. Our funding will provide operational support to strengthen VF’s work in the Philippines, which empowers vulnerable women and children so that they can explore education and work opportunities without the risk of trafficking and exploitation, as well as enhancing their prospects for economic participation.
Out of focus
Special Olympics (Asia Pacific and Bharat)
Special Olympics is a global movement driving inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities through the transformative power of sports. Through Special Olympics Asia Pacific and Bharat, our funding supports country programs in the Philippines, Singapore and India by increasing quality sports training opportunities, unified sport competitions, inclusive youth engagement and the development and training of coaches. Our funding will train youth with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities in leadership roles and contribute to their personal development.
Mother's Choice
Mother’s Choice serves children without families and pregnant teenagers in Hong Kong. Our grant is funding the creation of a holistic L&D Framework, incorporating both core and job competencies, skills and attributes required for both staff and volunteers, so they can provide best in class care.
In focus: supporting people (16-80yrs+) to achieve their social mobility aspirations through employment, with an emphasis on enduring jobs and meaningful work.
An Cosan
An Cosán aims to empower through education by providing people of all ages with pathways to learning, leadership and enterprise. They offer a variety of programmes in early years education and care, parenting, community, further and higher education. Our funding will support the Workability Programme which will provide education, career coaching, and connection to employment for 30 people (over 75% women) aged between 18-35 years from areas of high deprivation across Ireland.
Breaking Barriers
Breaking Barriers is a specialist refugee employment charity. Our grant will support 105 refugees per year in the UK to overcome their individual barriers to employment. We’re also providing funding to help Breaking Barriers scale operations, to reach the growing demand for their services.
Fundacion Tomillo
Fundacion Tomillo focuses on generating opportunities for young people aged 12 – 35 years in vulnerable situations, with the aim of enabling them to develop their full personal and professional potential. Our grant will maintain the successful foundations established during the Accelerator job placement Programme pilot, and further develop and enhance pre-employment support, and post-employment evaluation. Additional activities will enhance the programme's primary goal: to support young people in vulnerable situations to promote their growth and employability, with 50% of those supported securing employment.
Generation UK and Ireland
Generation UK’s strategy sets out plans to establish the charity as an impact leader - delivering sector-leading outcomes in the UK’s education-to-employment space, driving significant and durable social and economic mobility, underpinned by a robust and transparent impact framework. Our funding supports Generation UK’s goal for this grant, to scale pathways for those facing barriers to employment into in-demand roles in the green sector such as solar installation and sustainability advice.
Generation France
Generation is a non-profit with a mission to transform education-to-employment systems by preparing, placing, and supporing people into jobs that would otherwise be inaccessible. Our funding will support Generation France to scale the impact of their green jobs program by launching a Solar Panel Installer bootcamp, expanding partnerships, and reaching new regions to ultimately target 200 learners by 2028.
Islington Giving
Islington Giving is an independent group of funders, businesses, residents and voluntary organisations working together to tackle poverty and inequality in Islington. Macquarie is the founding funder of the BIG Alliance (Businesses for Islington Giving).
Socialbee
Socialbee was founded in 2016 with a mission of facilitating sustainable integration for refugees, migrants, and their families building a life in Germany. Our grant funding will help socialbee build scalable products and processes, increase the usage of digital and automated solutions, and explore and integrate strategic partnerships. During the three-year funding period, socialbee will engage approximately 1,300 people in their programs, with around 870 of these individuals moving into the labour market.
Social Mobility Foundation (SMF)
Social Mobility Foundations supports high-achieving young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into top universities and professions. Our grant funding will support the Youth Voice Project, which enables young people to build and practice their leadership, communication and decision-making skills, along with allowing them to fully participate in issues affecting social mobility.
Street League
Street League is a UK-based charity dedicated to fighting poverty and assisting young people in finding employment through sports and education. Our grant funding will help Street League support young people to find work and secure a brighter future through employment, education, further training and apprenticeships across Scotland.
Telemaque
Telemaque aims to support social mobility in France by supporting underprivileged motivated and involved young people to reveal their full potential. Our funding will support the Telemaque Pro programme, providing mentoring, collective workshops, and financial support to over 500 young people. It will also fund the employment of a full-time mentoring officer.
Out of focus
Baobab Foundation
The Baobab Foundation supports, grows and strengthens Black and Ethnic Minority communities in the UK. Our grant directly contributes to building solidarity, sustainability, and impact by creating an unprecedented ‘by and for’ led funding organisation with communities at the heart of decision making.
The Macquarie Group Foundation’s grantmaking is primarily focused on supporting non-profit organisations that align to our grantmaking framework in the relevant region. We do not accept requests for funding outside of our expressions of interest grant rounds. These opportunities will be communicated as they are made available.
Our social impact investments are focused on breaking down barriers to employment. If your organisation is seeking an impact investment visit our dedicated page to find out more.
