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Swinburne Philanthropy Alumni Inc. (SPA Inc.) is basically an alumni group that was established in Melbourne in 2005 by students of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy (APCSIP) at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
The friendships and respect that developed during the course lead to the formation of an alumni group with huge potential to benefit not just its members but also to complement the work of the APCSIP and to make a real contribution to the broader community for many years to come.
Our members have already proven that they are committed, keen and visionary by freely contributing personal time, energy, money and expertise to ensure that SPA is solidly established for the long-term but with flexibility so that it can grow and develop under the direction of many future generations of students of philanthropy.
Our current members have an incredible array of talents and life experience and have invested significant personal time, money and energy in pursuing their philanthropic education. Many have expressed a desire to be more fully utilised and to broaden their experience in a wide variety of ways for example through continuing dialogue and debate, by gaining more hands-on experience in actual grant-making and by becoming a respected ‘brains trust’ resource.
Our main purposes are:
- to further develop philanthropic proficiency, awareness and professionalism by providing practical opportunities for members to apply their talents and knowledge.
- to provide opportunities to socialize and network with people interested in philanthropy.
Our motto “Change through Knowledge” succinctly expresses our commitment to using the inherent power of knowledge to make a long-term difference.
Our Structure
Swinburne Philanthropy Alumni Inc. (SPA Inc.) is an incorporated association (No. A0048010M) estalished in Melbourne on 11th November 2005.
We decided to become an incorporated association after investigating a number of different options and considering the ideas and desires expressed by our initial group. We found a lot of valuable information on the internet and would especially recommend the following avenues as good starting points to anyone considering setting up a similar organisation:
- Google searches using the term ‘giving circles’.
Giving Circles is a term that is now gaining more popularity and is widely used in America. We found several excellent documents that provided useful information, ideas and advice on setting up and running groups such as ours.We haven’t included specific links here as we feel that this is an area that will constantly change over the coming years.
Right from the start we could see SPA’s long-term potential.
- Becoming an incorporate association gave us the best fit in terms of setting us up as an independent legal identity that matched our diverse, special interest group. It could cover our longevity requirement and provide sufficient flexibility to evolve under the leadership of many generations of ‘students’ of philanthropy. It could also be operated with relatively little cost and red-tape.
- When we became an incorporated association we adopted the model rules that are outlined in Schedule 5 of the Associations Incorporations Regulations 1998.A copy of the model rules and a lot of other information about being an incorporated association (fact sheets, forms etc) are available from the Consumer Affairs Victoria website (http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au).
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About Us 
