Simon McGrath with AccorHotels’ charity partner CEOs in the Hacienda room at Pullman Sydney Quay Grand, on Thursday, 23rd of February 2017, Sydney, Australia (Photo: Steve Christo)

AccorHotels Australia has founded a Community Fund, a unified identity where money raised through national fundraising initiatives will be directed.

The AccorHotels Community Fund is committed to building healthy families by supporting three focus areas being Youth, Health & Wellbeing and Diversity through four foundation partners.

Four founding partners which align with the fund’s primary focus of ‘Building Healthy Families’ have been selected and money raised through AccorHotels national fundraising efforts will go directly to key focus projects within these charities.

The four chosen foundation partners of the Community Fund which all have significant positive impacts in the Australian community are, Kokoda Youth Foundation, The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Lifeline and AIME Mentoring.

AccorHotels has committed to a three-year agreement with these foundation partners to ensure long-term support for their program implementations.

Simon McGrath, Chief Operating Office of AccorHotels Pacific said: “After recently celebrating our 25th anniversary in Australia it is humbling to see how far we’ve come in terms of our growth, development of our people and the contribution we’ve made to the community.

“AccorHotels has a history of giving over the past 25 years in Australia and we have donated in excess of $5 million to charity. In ascertaining our ambitions for the next 25 years and our contribution and commitment to the Australian community, we decided to set up our own Community Fund; a passion project that aligns with our values and is designed to have even greater impact.

“We fundamentally believe that healthy families build healthy communities and by directing our fundraising efforts to one central Community Fund we will be able to better garner the passion and focus on areas of need for the Australian community.

“Our four foundation partners, Kokoda Youth Foundation, The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Lifeline and AIME Mentoring all align with our key focus on building healthy families and they are trailblazers in their fields.

“We see investment in mental health, cancer research, Indigenous employment and supporting our youth as being critical to the nation’s wellbeing and to this I am delighted to have our four founding partners on board. I am especially excited that money raised for these partners will be going directly to key projects within their organisations which will make an enormous impact,” he said.

  • The Garvan Institute of Medical Research will be directing Community Fund money into Rare and Neglected Cancer Research Programs;
  • Lifeline will use the funds for their Text Crisis Support Project;
  • AIME Mentoring funds will help grow the mentoring program from 6,000-10,000 Indigenous high school students by 2020; and
  • Kokoda Youth Foundation will direct funds to their On the Right Track Program, a program that targets Year 9 students with learning, behavioral or social challenges which detract from educational outcomes.

Throughout 2017, over 10,000 staff across 200 AccorHotels Australian properties will be fundraising through a variety of initiatives with a goal of raising $800,000 for the Community Fund.

The culmination of the year’s fundraising efforts will result in a 3-day adventure challenge: ‘Race to Survive’ in association with the Kokoda Youth Foundation, where teams compete in a survival of the fittest adventure race on the Gold Coast in October 2017.