We had a great time catching up with Jade, Director of Partnerships at UnLtd, a social purpose organisation connecting the media, marketing, and creative industries with charities helping children and young people at risk, to uncover what UnLtd does and understand the scope of their impact.
Could you tell us about your role, what UnLtd does and its origins?
My role is the Director of Partnerships and my team is responsible for facilitating deep and impactful partnerships between companies within the media, marketing, tech and creative industries and our 29 charity partners across Australia and New Zealand.
We leverage the financial and cultural influence of the advertising industry to support our charity partners in creating meaningful social change. Through collaborative efforts, we aspire to enact the transformative societal shifts necessary to uplift and empower vulnerable youth, fostering a future where every young person thrives.
The charities we select all support children and young people – aged 0-24. They are focused on breaking the cycle of disadvantage or addressing barriers and inequalities that exist at a systemic level. The focus is on early intervention and prevention.
The causes and issues they cover are wide and varied and often are wholistic in nature with multiple factors involved. Youth mental health and suicide prevention, Indigenous inequity, LGBTQIA+, physical health, education, homelessness, trauma recovery, sexual abuse and bullying are all issues that our charities are tackling in different ways.
Can you give us an overall perspective on how you work with your charity partners and the goals you want to achieve with them?
We act as trusted advisors to our charity partners, helping them navigate what can be a complex eco-system. Our goal is to meet them where they are, establish where we and our industry can help them the most and then support them with realising their ambitions, whatever they may be. We are not the experts, our charities are. They know their business; they know who they serve in the community and what the needs are. Our goal is to supercharge their efforts by creating partnerships that deliver funds, time and media value – in the form of strategic projects, creative asset production and media/advertising campaigns. In addition, we endeavour to bring our charities together with the industry (via events or face to face interactions) for deep learning to help the partners understand the core issues and challenges children and young people face and what needs to change at a societal level for them to flourish.
What’s the biggest challenge for your organisation?
The biggest challenge is in ensuring that our efforts and resources are laser focused on delivering the most impact possible. Positive impact for the charities that we support and ultimately, impact out in society that benefits the most vulnerable members of society – children and young people.
Can you share any success stories of UnLtd achievements?
Since we launched 17 years ago, we have delivered over $300 million in impact, comprising of media value, financial contributions, and skilled volunteer hours. We have helped our charity partners in numerous ways over the years; including funding a Pinnacle Foundation scholarship in perpetuity for LGBTIQA+ youth, launching MOOD Tea to fund youth mental health programs and combat youth suicide rates, helped MMAD secure their ‘forever home’ with support from partners like Yahoo and challenged harmful stereotypes in the Boys Do Cry campaign.
You can view our FY23 Impact report here for more stories.
