PAY IT FORWARD

One dollar from every sale of this issue will be donated to GIVIT, the charity state governments officially call on for grassroots disaster relief. Meet JULIETTE WRIGHT, its incredible founder, who now draws the support of Oscar winners, a former president and even royalty

- JULIETTE WRIGHT

It all started over a decade ago with an especially chubby baby. Brisbane-based Juliette Wright didn’t want to drop her newborn son’s beautiful unworn baby clothes into a dirty, malodorous charity bin. Still, she struggled to find a way to pass them directly to another mum in need. And so the seed for GIVIT was sown.

The concept for the charity is so elegantly simple, it’s hard to believe no-one else in the world had attempted it. In a nutshell, GIVIT’s mostly automated website allows more than 3,000 registered Australian charities to list the specific needs of impoverished or crisis-affected individuals in their communities. If you have it and can spare it, you can pledge it with the click of a button. To date, more than 1.6 million items have found their way into the hands of Australians in need.

“Charities do amazing stuff, but they don’t have a warehouse full of donations out the back for a rainy day,” says Wright, 47, who left her career as a naturopath and nutritionist to run the not-for-profit full-time, and has since earned a host of awards, including the Order of Australia, for her tireless efforts.

“Charities can’t provide an old man with a microwave or a young mum a bike with a baby carriage on the back. They don’t have a water tank sitting around during natural disasters that they can give to a farmer. So I decided to create a website to help.”