Supporting social change makers
SOME of Australia's top business and entrepreneurial minds will headline the judging panel at this year's third JCA Jumpstart annual pitch event on Wednesday, December 5.
SOME of Australia’s top business and entrepreneurial minds will headline the judging panel at this year’s third JCA Jumpstart annual pitch event on Wednesday, December 5.
Communal stalwart Peter Ivany will join Channel 10’s Shark Tank celebrities Naomi Simson and Andrew Banks, the Iconic co-founder Adam Jacobs and venture capitalist David Shein in listening to pitches from five social entrepreneurs.
Last year’s winners have already gone on to make a significant impact on our local community.
Winner JeneScreen, which offers free BRCA genetic testing to people of Jewish ancestry, launched this year with $30,000 in funding secured at the event.
“I am extremely grateful to JCA Jumpstart,” Jenescreen’s Dr Nicole Cousens told The AJN.
“It also assisted us in raising awareness of the high rate of BRCA1/2 fault carriers within our community, and the importance of the program.
“Over 200 people have consented for the test and 135 people have received their results. The people who have been identified as BRCA1/2 fault carriers have taken steps to reduce their risk of developing cancer.”
Runner-up Laurie Marshbaum, founder of 10×10 Philanthropy, said last year’s event was “formative” for the social venture.
“The event provided valuable exposure to communal donors and participants who provided valuable mentorship and follow on funding. This has allowed 10×10 to scale even further,” he said.
“In the last 12 months we ran 20 10×10 events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hong Kong and London. It also enabled us to launch in the US, engaging 2500 donors and distributing over $500,000 to grassroots causes at work in and outside of the community.
“The communal support we have received in this journey from volunteers, committee members and constituent organisations has shown us that it really does take a village to raise a child.”
Humanitix, which recently won a $1 million grant from Google, was a beneficiary at the first pitch night. They have since gone on to grow the venture tenfold.
The prize money for this year’s event has been generously funded by The Giving Forum – established in December 2015 by a group of major donors and their families as a strategic partnership with JCA.
Its mission is to inspire philanthropy on a large scale and provide an enduring funding platform to guarantee the local Jewish community’s financial security and growth over the next century.
Jumpstart is the under 40 division of JCA.
Bookings and info: bit.ly/JSpitchnight
GARETH NARUNSKY
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