Foundation
The TPG Telecom Foundation is our company’s charitable arm.
The Foundation's purpose is to create opportunities to improve the health, wellbeing and education of Australian communities in need.
It supports TPG Telecom's commitment to our purpose, to build meaningful relationships and support vibrant, connected communities.
Community investment through the Foundation plays an important role in our overall approach to operating a sustainable business.
The Foundation partners with DGR1 charitable organisations to fund specific projects with clearly defined objectives. We look for charity partners operating primarily within Australian who wish to incorporate technology in their projects to achieve scalable outcomes for communities in need.
Foundation Board
The Foundation's Trustee Board is comprised of senior TPG Telecom employees and one independent director. The Board is responsible for the governance and financial management of the Foundation and ensures that the Foundation delivers on its purpose and goals.
Foundation in review – FY24
Keeping you up to date with the achievements of our charity partners and the goals of the TPG Telecom Foundation.
The TPG Telecom Foundation publishes an annual retrospective to update the community on the progress of our charity projects and strategic objectives.
The Foundation and our People
The Foundation also exists to empower TPG Telecom employees to support charities they are personally passionate about, through volunteering, matching staff fundraising and workplace giving.
Through our TPG Telecom Giving platform, our employees can participate annually in annual volunteering for a variety of charities across the country.
Current partners
Guide Dogs
In conjunction with Guide Dogs and University of Technology Sydney, TPG Telecom Foundation is funding the Robotic Guide Project, which aims to develop innovative technology that assists people who are blind or have low vision with mobility. Researchers will create a system that captures environmental information, navigates through the environment, and communicates relevant details to the user. Trials will be conducted at the Guide Dogs facility, and the resulting prototypes will be tested with people living with low vision and blindness.
Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA) provides family-centred therapies, programs, equipment, research, advocacy and medical, technological and wellbeing support for people with cerebral palsy and their families. The TPG Telecom Foundation supports Launcher, an early-stage disability tech start-up accelerator, providing the tools and guidance needed to progress start-ups that improve the wellbeing, independence and inclusion of people living with disability.
Starlight Children’s Foundation
Since 2022, the TPG Telecom Foundation has supported the inception and development of Planet Starlight Children’s Foundation’s virtual Starlight Express Room. This enables sick kids to access its Captain Starlight program virtually. Planet Starlight is a purpose built digital platform that provides young people in hospital with live, interactive engagement and connection. The platform is accessible 24/7 from any mobile device and in any hospital across Australia, including to children admitted in regional and remote hospitals.
Infoxchange
Infoxchange, a not-for-profit social enterprise that aims to tackle the biggest social challenges through technology, continues to refine, extend and scale its Ask Izzy platform, which the Foundation first funded in 2019. This free and anonymous web-platform provides access to over 350,000 services that support people experiencing disadvantage across a range of needs, including services for victims/survivors of family and domestic violence, First Nations Peoples, mental health and wellbeing, housing, addiction, and people living with disability.
MissingSchool
MissingSchool is a not-for-profit dedicated to addressing the educational and social isolation faced by children who miss school because of serious medical conditions. The TPG Telecom Foundation continues to support the scaling of its ‘Seen&Heard’ platform. Seen&Heard will drive school inclusion on a national scale for critically ill and injured children through telepresence technology and support their parents, peers and teachers to enable continued learning and social connection in their school community.
Schools Plus
Schools Plus is an innovative and agile charity that supports schools nationally co-funded philanthropic projects to help students facing disadvantage to succeed.
The TPG Telecom Foundation is funding two projects based in First Nations communities in NSW and QLD to support school attendance, cultural immersion and social enterprise for young people.
A third project is also funding the charity’s indirect costs to establish a Reconciliation Action plan and First Nations Engagement Strategy within the organisation.
Good Things Foundation
Good Things Foundation partners and collaborates with other social impact organisations, industry and government to provide sustainable and impactful digital inclusion programs to close the digital divide.
The TPG Telecom Foundation has granted funds to Good Things Foundation to support
a pilot project within Digital Sisters. This digital inclusion program supports female refugees and asylum seekers in community settings and provides free local support and online learning opportunities to run community-based programs for women on topics like AI, online safety for young people and other essential digital skills.
Previous partnerships
