🌈 Celebrating Georgia Mathews’ contribution to Rainbow Giving Australia

Rainbow Giving Australia extends our deepest gratitude to Georgia Mathews for her extraordinary leadership and service to Rainbow Giving Australia, GiveOUT, and the broader movement for LGBTQIA+ community-led philanthropy in Australia.

Georgia has been part of this movement from the very beginning. In 2016, she co-founded The Channel, Australia’s first LGBTQIA+ giving circle, helping create a new pathway for donors to support rainbow communities. The Channel went on to become GiveOUT, with Georgia serving as Executive Director during its first four years and later as Chair of GiveOUT.

Under Georgia’s leadership and alongside many others, GiveOUT helped build vital infrastructure for LGBTQIA+ giving in Australia. GiveOUT Day was brought to Australia in 2019, raising more than $85,000 for 39 LGBTQIA+ organisations in its first year. It has since grown into a major national day of giving, raising more than $635,800 in 2025 and supporting LGBTQIA+ organisations across the country.

One of the main reasons I joined GiveOUT was to work and learn from inspiring leaders like Georgia Mathews and I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have had this opportunity. She is truly one of a kind: whip smart, deeply values-led, and brings confidence, clarity and care to everything she does. Georgia has had a profound impact on Australia’s LGBTQIA+ communities and the community philanthropy sector, and Rainbow Giving Australia would not be the organisation it is today without her leadership.

- Em Scott, CEO of Rainbow Giving Australia

Georgia has also helped shape some of the sector’s most important shared initiatives, including the Rainbow Resources report, released by GiveOUT and Aurora in 2021. The report helped name and evidence the ongoing funding gaps facing LGBTQIA+ communities, and strengthened the case for more sustained, community-led philanthropic investment.

Image source: Australian Philanthropy Awards 2024

She also played a key role in the development of Amplify Pride, a collaborative grant program designed to mobilise larger and more sustainable funding for LGBTQIA+ organisations through a community-led process. Since its establishment, Amplify Pride has mobilised $1.405 million for LGBTQIA+ communities and was awarded the 2024 Community Philanthropy Award by Philanthropy Australia.

It’s not too much to say to that we don’t have Rainbow Giving or the LGBTQ+ giving in Australia in its current form without the work of GM. She helped found the beginnings of what would become an enormous vehicle for growth in LGBTQ+ giving in this country. She has been a CEO, a Chair, a Deputy Chair, a Board Member and a dedicated leader in LGBTQ+ and community giving in this country. She’s also been a wonderful friend to many of us through it all. I feel like I have had a front row view not just to her amazing work ethic, but also to the bloody good human whose passion and commitment has helped grow the impact of philanthropy in this country. I’m proud to have worked with and alongside her at RGA and know she’ll continue to make a difference for our community and all communities going forward.

- Cat Fay, former Director of GiveOUT and Rainbow Giving Australia

As Chair of GiveOUT and then Deputy Chair of Rainbow Giving Australia, Georgia consistently brought strategic leadership, generosity, care and a deep commitment to collaboration. She helped guide the merger between GiveOUT and Aurora, including the work to bring together GiveOUT Day, Amplify Pride, Ignite Pride and the Aurora Ball under the new Rainbow Giving Australia banner.

Georgia’s impact has extended well beyond one organisation. She has helped donors, institutions and community foundations better understand, resource and back LGBTQIA+ communities.

Georgia’s leadership has helped build Rainbow Giving Australia into a stronger national organisation for LGBTQIA+ philanthropy. Her impact can be seen not only in the programs and partnerships she helped create, but in the culture, values and ambition of the organisation itself: grounded in community, collaboration, equity and collective action.

Georgia's vision and commitment to community were instrumental in bringing GiveOUT and Aurora together to create Rainbow Giving Australia. As a co-founder and Deputy Chair, she brought a rare combination of strategic clarity and genuine care for community, helping build something that is now channelling more funding than ever before to LGBTQIA+ organisations across the country. On behalf of the RGA Board, I want to thank Georgia for her extraordinary contribution and wish her all the very best in her important role at Community Foundations Australia.”

- Sam Turner, Chair, Rainbow Giving Australia

We are delighted to see Georgia step into her new role as co-CEO of Community Foundations Australia, where we know she will continue to make an extraordinary contribution to the broader philanthropic sector.

On behalf of Rainbow Giving Australia, thank you Georgia for your vision, leadership and service. Australia’s LGBTQIA+ communities and the philanthropy sector are better for your contribution.