The good eggs

Necessity they say, is the mother of invention, and the advent of a global pandemic has forced people and organisations around the globe to rethink how they can operate efficiently in the face of a new set of ongoing challenges.

For not-for-profit organisations like the Humpty Dumpty Foundation – whose biggest pre-Covid fundraising efforts were based around large scale events – it’s provided an opportunity to work smarter, and from a place where connection is key. Postponed community initiatives such as the much-loved Balmoral Burn – which would annually bring crowds of fundraisers together in their thousands – made way for small, targeted gatherings with long term supporters of the organisation. 

“We had to stop and think about the best way of doing things and the best way of communicating with the community,” explains Humpty Founder and Executive Chairman Paul Francis OAM. Balmoral Burn enthusiasts can breathe a collective sigh of relief with the event flagged on the calendar for 2022 (pending Covid restrictions). “It doesn’t mean we won’t go back to some of the things we used to do but in the shorter term we’ve learned to think in a different manner and at the same time, really work very hard at taking the opportunity to get to know our supporters even better. I think we’ve become a lot closer to a lot of our people,” he says.

For the uninitiated the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, or Humpty, as it’ is affectionately known, connects donors with the vital lifesaving and pain-relieving equipment needs of children across more than 440 Australian hospitals. There’s nothing more pressing than the health of a child, and thanks to Humpty’s frequently updated Wish List of equipment needed by hospitals, donors can expect real outcomes to their donations. Humpty is a vessel for donors to make a positive difference to families right across the country each day. 

“We provide tangible results for our donors, and it doesn’t matter what the size of the donation is. We encourage people, like the Audi Foundation has done, to come and witness the equipment in the hospitals.”

Along with an ongoing immediate need within metro areas, there’s a rising crisis in rural and remote hospitals which needs urgent attention too. At a recent event, Humpty Dumpty Foundation’s only Junior Ambassador Lauren Channon, who at 12 years of age has undergone 132 operations, stated that if she’d been born in the bush, she wouldn’t be with us today.

Francis explains: “If you look at the Northern Territory as an example, the infant mortality rate is double that of any state in Australia – it’s simply not good enough. Additionally, in the NT there are four birthing units, so, if you want to have a baby, you might have to travel 500 or 600 kilometres. In regional Australia it’s not to the same degree, but it’s very similar in that quite often families are separated because a sick child and a parent must travel a couple of hundred kilometres to get the care their child urgently needs.

As housing affordability in metro areas escalates, and more people consider moving to rural areas, hospital resources, which are already under pressure, many with inadequate equipment, need urgent support.

“We’re putting a lot more focus on regional Australia and getting the equipment out there. The added benefit here is that once you get the equipment into these hospitals and health services, you’re more likely to attract more doctors and nurses because they’ve got the tools required for their trade. We don’t want to see any more doctors or nurses working in regional areas, trying to save a child that they know they could have saved in Sydney, but they can’t in a rural town because they don’t have the equipment they need.”

For most people it comes down to understanding the current need, and Humpty are driving further awareness through their Good Egg Magazine. 

“250,000 copies are distributed through the Weekend Australian, twice a year and that helps enormously,” says Francis. The bi-annual edition features stories, fundraising initiative updates, an abbreviated Wish List (the full Wish List can be found on the Humpty Dumpty website), as well as critical information around the provisions required to care for sick children, regardless of postcode.

As long-term supporters of the incredible Humpty Dumpty Foundation, the Audi Foundation has helped purchase equipment each year for hospitals that desperately need it. Francis says, “[Audi’s] customer support is being turned into helping young children survive or suffer less pain.” 

As well as support from larger organisations, it’s individual donations that are having an enormous positive impact. “I hear sad stories, but I hear lots of good stories and I’m blessed to get good news every day,” says Francis. 

“We recently had someone send in a cheque for $100,000 – he’d never donated before, but he wanted to buy everything on Page 16 of The Good Egg Magazine. He’d never dealt with us, but to have the confidence to do that, well, there’re just lovely down to earth people out there,” says Francis. A good egg indeed.