Save the Children is a global child-focused, independent and secular, development organisation. We have no membership or affiliation to any political party or religion.

As part of Save the Children International, Save the Children Australia works in more than 122 countries around the world. Save the Children Australia manages and implements programs that assist children in 17 countries around the world. We directly deliver programs in the Pacific region and support children and families in our own community, running programs in 508 community locations across Australia.

Whenever we start a project, campaign or emergency response, we consider what other organisations are doing and how our work will complement existing initiatives. We work in partnerships with other organisations when a collaborative approach will increase our effectiveness. For example, in times of emergencies, Save the Children co-leads a cluster with UNICEF on education in emergencies.

Save the Children has been running programs for Australian children since the 1950s. We have branches, programs and supporters in every Australian state and in the Northern Territory. Find out more about our work in Australia.

Save the Children Australia is a signatory to the Save the Children International Code of Conduct and the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct for Non Government Development Organisations (NGDOs). This Code defines standards of governance, management, financial control and reporting with which NGDOs should comply, and identifies mechanisms to ensure accountability in NGDOs' use of public monies.

Our programs are funded by income received from supporters, our retail stores, government funding and corporate sponsorships. Find out more in our 2022 Annual Report.

From every $1 Save the Children raises, we invest more than 80 cents to benefit children through our health, education, child protection and humanitarian response programs, and through increasing public awareness of the challenges children face. We invest 6.6 cents back into fundraising to sustain the programs we run, 5 cents to commercial activities such as our retail stores. The remaining 7.5 cents is invested to ensure we have the talented people, infrastructure and systems we need to manage and deliver our programs for children. Find out more about our financial activity in our annual report.

Save the Children receives expert advice from external human resource company AON Hewitt Australia, which includes specific information on NGO salary data. Save the Children also contributes to this data on an annual basis, ensuring we help the sector remain both professional in terms of the experts we recruit, and responsible in the way we spend donated funds. The salaries of all Save the Children's Executive team, including the CEO, are reviewed annually. This review process involves the Board of Save the Children determining the remuneration of the Executive team. As of 2013, the remuneration of all members of our Executive team falls in the bottom half of salaries for comparable organisations.

We believe working at Save the Children will always be a vocation, and charities shouldn't pay as much as the private sector. However, we also need to pay enough to attract the best people to help our cause. Aid agencies cannot afford to be run in an amateur way, however well intentioned. We need professionals to staff the complex global organisations we have become; experts at delivering aid in tough and often dangerous places and campaigning for changes to help the poorest children.

Save the Children Australia does not provide bonuses for staff above the salaries set by industry standards. All staff salaries, including that of the CEO and our Executive Directors, are set using industry standards.

No. Our Board members generously donate their time and experience at the highest level of the organisation's governance to help improve the lives of children at home and overseas.  We do however offer to cover economy fare travel and accommodation costs related to the attendance of Board members at Board meetings.  However, not all Board members take up this offer and instead cover their own travel and accommodation costs.

To keep travel costs to a minimum and to ensure we invest as much funding as possible in programs for children, we always book the cheapest possible airfares.  All of our staff including the CEO fly economy class, whether travelling in Australia or overseas.

Save the Children has a zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption, to ensure that we can continue our important work to improve the lives of vulnerable children and their families.  To safeguard against fraud and corruption we apply strict financial controls in all our dealings with partner organisations. 

Data is not "shared" with Meta, it is collected and sent to Save the Children as per the privacy policy outlined on the fundraising form. By clicking Submit, you agree to send your info to Save the Children Australia, and we agree to use it according to our Privacy Policy. Meta will also use it subject to the Facebook Data Policy and Facebook Privacy Policy, including to auto-fill forms for ads.

The data we are provided is shared only with third party suppliers for the purposes of fundraising. This is outlined in the form as "contact you to follow up" which you can choose to consent to when submitting your data - both via phone and email. Your data is not shared with any other organisation or for any other purpose, e.g. we don't do co-ops or swaps, as this would need your prior and specific consent.

Save the Children does have an ongoing telemarketing recruitment program and you may receive a call if you have expressed an interest in supporting our work, or if you are a previous Save the Children donor. If you have any queries about a recruiter calling on behalf of Save the Children, please contact us on 1800 76 00 11.

Yes! Volunteers play a vital role in helping us improve the lives of vulnerable children. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people, become part of the Save the Children community and help you improve your career prospects. Find out more about volunteering with us.

There are a number of ways you can use your time and skills to support our work, even if you have a full time job. Some volunteer roles require only a few hours on a weekend while others involve a longer, ongoing commitment outside of office hours.

Our volunteers come from a diverse range of backgrounds and ages with a wide range of skills and experiences. From young people to retirees, professionals and people looking for work, we encourage everyone to volunteer.

We have limited capacity to accept interns. We accept applications from post-graduate students interested in undertaking an internship with us, but we don't accept a set intake each year. All internship positions are arranged and appointed on an individual basis and as needs arise. If you're interested in applying, visit our Careers page.

Please contact our Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11 - they are more than happy to help. The Supporter Care Team can also post you a Change of Details form if needed. We will send you confirmation of any changes you request.

We also understand that circumstances can change, and we want to provide flexibility for our supporters. In addition to updating your details, we also offer the option for you to reduce, pause, or cancel your monthly donations if needed.

Please read our full terms and conditions.

As part of our commitment to honouring and respecting the financial contributions made by our supporters, Save the Children has developed the following refund policy. In acknowledgement of the generosity of our donors and of their critical importance to our organisation, we want to ensure we establish appropriate principles of transparency and fairness in regard to the management of refunds.

This policy outlines the circumstances under which Save the Children will refund a donation.

Refunds will be returned using the original method of payment – if a donation has been made by credit card, the refund must be credited to that same credit card. Refund requests must be made by either the person who made the donation, a named person on the record or the card holder.

In the event that fraud is involved, the matter will be reported to the police. 

We understand that mistakes can be made when making donations online, in this instance we will honour all refund requests that are made within 30 days of the original donation date. 

In any instance where an error has been made by Save the Children, or any of our third-party affiliates, we will honour a refund request made within 90 days of the donation date. We’ll need the supporter to provide details of the initial transaction – including date, donation amount, supporters’s name, ID, tax invoice number and the nature of the error. In the event of a refund we will issue a new tax receipt and the original will become invalid. 

We urge anyone who is wishing to make a donation to consider their decision carefully and check the value of their donation before finalising any transactions. In order to protect the funding structure and expectations of our programming and operations, we cannot issue a refund after 90 days of the donation date. If the donation amount is over $250 refund requests will have to be escalated to, and approved by the Supporter Care Manager.

Absolutely! Simply contact our Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11 and they will add your spouse as a supporter.

To amend the date that we debit your bank account or credit card, please call our Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11.

All donations of $2 and over are tax-deductible.

Save the Children does have an ongoing face-to-face recruitment program. Our friendly informed recruiters will always have their Save their Children identification on display. If you have any queries about our recruiters please contact us on 1800 76 00 11 and we can confirm if they are recruiting in your area.

Your tax receipt is automatically sent to you at the end of each financial year, so you can expect to receive it from us in July. If you have misplaced a previous tax receipt, you can contact us on 1800 760 011 and we will happily send you a copy. Please keep us updated if you change your address so that we can ensure prompt and safe receipt of your tax invoice.

We are no longer running our knitting campaigns. We recommend that you donate your knitted items to Knit One Give One.

If you need assistance when making a donation online, please don't hesitate to contact a friendly member of Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11 or send us a message.

If you don't want to donate via direct debit, we have a range of alternative options. You can make monthly donations via cheque, money order or direct deposit into our bank account.
 

Save the Children Australia, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, Level 9/469 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000. If you wish to make a direct deposit into our bank account or you have any further questions please contact our Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11 or send us a message.

Our generic Biller Code is 266460. To access your unique Bpay reference number, please phone us on 1800 76 00 11 or send us a message.

Please contact our Supporter Care Team on 1800 76 00 11 or or send us a message and we will happily assist you with your request. You can also read our Privacy Policy for more information.

We don't accept donations of goods or items for overseas emergencies. What's needed most are financial donations to help us purchase relief items locally. Buying items locally can help stimulate economies affected by disasters and reduces the expensive costs of transporting goods-in-kind to affected countries. In many regions, Save the Children has emergency relief supplies such as clothing and food ready to be distributed in times of disasters. For emergency relief operations in Australia we may be able to accept goods and services that are relevant to the response. If you'd like more details, please contact us on 1800 76 00 11.
 

We advertise to create awareness about the enormous challenges vulnerable children face every day, and how Australians can be part of the solution to alleviating poverty. With the support of generous donations, we can continue to protect children from harm and provide them with access to quality education and healthcare.

The more support we receive, the more children we can help.

We produce all marketing and advertising material within the guidelines of the ACFID code of conduct.

• Our mission is to save lives and our TV ads reflect this

• Our priority is to elicit a response but always with responsibility

• It is never our intention to deliberately offend but the reality is that we exist to create change and our job is to galvanise a response

• We balance need and progress across the range of our communications

• Our portrayal of children and their families is always truthful. There is never intentional manipulation or deception

• Our portrayal is intended to avoid implications of endemic neediness

• We would never show the death of a child

• We are careful to obtain consent for footage and an understanding of how we use it

• We engage in dialogue with the communities we work in about portraying their lives and experiences

• We have rigorous procedures to maintain the safety and security of children in the ads

All projects in overseas countries supported by Australian funds are implemented through our Save the Children partners and rigorously monitored by our staff here in Australia.

Our monitoring systems ensure we know where and how our aid is being used – we track our supplies from the warehouse to the people who need it, based on need. In addition, our programs are independently audited once a year and we undertake on-the-ground evaluations to ensure aid money is being spent effectively and to ensure plans are put in place to invest it well in the future.

We have strict processes for selecting local partners to ensure that they have the skills to deliver the project and are not aligned with violent groups. We also have strict internal controls on how our money is managed in-country – to ensure we can be completely accountable to our donors including the Australian Government.

In emergencies, our aim is to get lifesaving aid to children and their families where and when they need it. We have more than 100 years' experience responding globally and at home to emergencies like cyclones and earthquakes, war and drought. We know how to mount large-scale relief operations to make sure we have the maximum benefit for children – regular monitoring and evaluation is central to this.