In conversation with Louise Kuramoto, Jack Brockhoff Foundation
The Jack Brockhoff Foundation was established in 1979 by the late Sir Jack Brockhoff. Sir Jack was Chairman and Managing Director of Brockhoff Biscuits Pty Ltd, a business established by his grandfather in 1880. The foundation exists to support the health and wellbeing of all Victorians.
The Queen’s Fund spoke to Louise Kuramoto, Executive Officer for the Jack Brockhoff Foundation.
Private organisations such as the Jack Brockhoff Foundation are vital in providing community support and funding in addition to state and federal government programs. Why was the Jack Brockhoff Foundation created?
Sir Jack Brockhoff’s career was in the family business, Brockhoff Biscuits Pty Ltd (later to merge with and be renamed Arnotts Biscuits), rising through the ranks and eventually becoming Managing Director in 1950. Sir Jack was always philanthropic at heart, influenced primarily by the community work of his mother.
The original endowment by Sir Jack of $5 million was made in the 1970s but the majority of the endowmen followed his death in 1984. The total contributions to the Foundation by Sir Jack comprised just over $12 million. 47 years later, the Foundation has a corpus of $60 million and has given away over $100 million to eligible charities. What an incredible legacy!
Please tell us about your own journey within the philanthropy sector and what your current role as Executive Officer of the Jack Brockhoff Foundation entails.
I have been lucky to have played a role in the philanthropic sector for the past 15 years. I started my philanthropic career at the Myer Family Company (now Mutual Trust) as grants coordinator/administration assistant, earning my stripes from one of the pre-eminent philanthropic families in Australia. Since that time, I have held roles at the RE Ross Trust and Australian Communities Foundation.
In my current role as Executive Officer of the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, I am responsible for the strategic direction of the Foundation’s grant making and its evaluation impact. The communications and brand of the foundation is also something I will focus on over the coming years as we continue to refresh and communicate the impact Sir Jack’s generosity continues to have in the Victorian community.
There are many private smaller philanthropic organisations such as The Queen’s Fund doing invaluable work with our community’s most vulnerable. Why does the Jack Brockhoff Foundation choose to support The Queen’s Fund in particular?
“The Queen’s Fund is an organisation that continues to grow and adapt to the needs of the community. ”
The elements of the organisation that give me confidence that funding is well targeted and reaching those most in need are the connections it maintains with a broad variety of case workers and community organisations who are working directly with the community. This is critical to continuing to remain relevant and impactful in the ever-changing landscape we work within.
How have you seen the need for funding change during your time working within the philanthropy sector?
In the time that I have been working in the philanthropic sector, inequality has continued to widen, and climate change has become a climate emergency. This frustrating reality is a clear calling to us in the philanthropic sector that we must not only fund the symptoms of the systems and structures that are resulting in these intractable issues becoming worse, we also need to think about our work with a systems change lens if we are ever going to break cycles and make long term, sustainable change.
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