Catch up on Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025 breakout sessions – Part 2

Here’s your chance to catch up on what you missed in the second set of our ‘Deeper dive into real life leadership’ sessions. Read reflections on gender equality trailblazers, what leadership demands now in international development and emerging approaches to addressing inequality.

• Lighting the way: Lessons from trailblazers for bold and inclusive leadership

Hosted by Australians Investing In Women and She Gives. Supported by the Nunn Dimos Foundation.

Opening remarks: Melissa Smith, She Gives. Closing remarks: Julie Reilly OAM, Australians Investing in Women (AIIW).
Panellists: Elizabeth Broderick AO, Fondation Chanel Chair, Sarah Buckley, CEO, Trawalla Foundation, Upenyu Mawande, Director of Programs, Africa at Judith Neilson Foundation.
Moderator: Cathy Scalzo, Scalzo Family Office and AIIW Chair. Reflection provided by Julie Reilly.

At a time of alarming pushback on women’s rights and gender equality the world needs bold and inclusive trailblazers demonstrating leadership for women and girls in all their diversity.

That leadership was on display for a full house at the Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025 in this session. What we heard and witnessed on stage was leadership grounded in a bold strategic vision, a deep understanding of power, active listening, the art of storytelling, pragmatism, agility and a clear orientation to action. This kind of leadership demands collaboration and rejects what Uppi described as the “narcissism of small differences”. The scale of change required today cannot be achieved alone.

We need bridges between funders and doers to ensure social investments deliver dignity and justice. Leadership also means ‘helping the helpers’, and the invitation was clear: join us in supporting women’s leadership in giving and in driving social change, guided by tools such as AIIW’s Gender-wise resources, Plan International’s Gender Compass, and lend your voice to movements like She Gives.

Thank you to Philanthropy Australia for a fabulous Summit, the Nunn Dimos Foundation and to our speakers and session partner Melissa Smith, Founder, She Gives.

• In a world on edge: What leadership demands now

Hosted by Australian International Development Network. Supported by the Judith Neilson Foundation.

Panellists: Andrew Hudson, CEO, Centre for Policy Development, Darrell Wade, Chair, Intrepid Travel, Annabelle Chauncy OAM, CEO, School for Life Foundation.
Moderator: Simon Goff, CEO, Purpose. Reflection provided by AIDN.

Wars, trade disputes, political unrest and terrorism don’t just disrupt economies – they unravel communities, deepen inequalities and, at their worst, cost lives.

With global development funding shrinking, most starkly demonstrated by 2025’s devastating USAID cuts, health systems are weakened, progress on poverty, gender equality and education is stalling, and societies have been left more fragile in the face of climate and conflict.

For philanthropy and civil society, the stakes have never been higher.

At the recent Philanthropy Australia Leadership Summit in Canberra, AIDN and the Judith Neilson Foundation were pleased to host this timely breakout session. The discussion reinforced that leadership is most effective when policy, business and philanthropy perspectives intersect, ultimately enabling innovation from unexpected voices, catalysing change in times of crisis, and grounding solutions in communities themselves.

• From privilege to possibility: Leadership in the age of economic inequality

Hosted and supported by the Reichstein Foundation.

Panellists: Dr Cassandra Goldie AO, Australian Council of Social Services, Dr Katherine Trebeck, The Next Economy, Molly Whelan, Foundation for Young Australians
Reflection provided by Moderator: Rachel Ball, CEO Reichstein Foundation.

In her opening plenary, social researcher extraordinaire, Rebecca Huntley, explained that one of the messages she hears consistently in her focus groups is that our economic model is broken. Wealth is being concentrated at the top, and it’s fuelling discrimination, disadvantage and disengagement. 

We dove deeper in our session on leadership in an age of inequality, asking what it would take to move beyond an economic system that entrenches inequality and its multitudinous offshoots, including poverty, polarisation and environmental degradation.

Panellists offered a range of ideas and approaches:

• we have opportunities to make change within our own organisations, including ceding control of decision-making and resources (even if this feels uncomfortable)
• our tax and transfer system is society’s greatest act of care, and one of the strongest levers to address inequality. Yet as it stands, we’re falling short when it comes to backing advocacy for fairer tax and social security
• we need to look upstream and reimagine our economic system. Funders have a critical role to play, but it will require trust, patience and an appetite for genuine change. 

We know this last point is possible, because philanthropy has done it before. In Larry Kramer’s 2018 letter to the Hewlett Foundation, he described the funding of the neoliberal agenda in the 1950s-1970s as perhaps “the single most successful example of effective philanthropy in history”.

Our sector helped get us into this mess; let’s see if we can help get us out.

For more on the Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025:

Philanthropy Leadership Summit 2025: ‘People have appreciated the honesty of the speakers’  – Philanthropy Australia

Catch up on the Philanthropy Leadership Summit breakout sessions – Part 1 – Philanthropy Australia

Leading with hope – Philanthropy Australia

Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon: How can we lead with ‘commanding hope’? – Philanthropy Australia

Impact-driven networks – this is how philanthropy can ‘fund the glue’ – Philanthropy Australia