Couple wins philanthropy award after helping to raise nearly $20 million for marriage equality
Image: Brooke Horne and Tom Snow. Image: Tom Snow / Facebook.
Husbands Brooke Horne and Tom Snow have been awarded the Best Large Grant Award at the 2018 Australian Philanthropy Awards for their support of the Equality Campaign.
The awards, which were held at the Sydney Opera House, recognised the achievements of seven of Australia’s most strategic philanthropic funders and their non-profit partners.
Chief Executive of Philanthropy Australia, Sarah Davies, said the leadership demonstrated by this year’s awardees reflected the best of philanthropic practice.
“The recipients of the 2018 awards truly showcase the capacity of philanthropy to contribute to meaningful social change,” she said.
“Some of the projects recognised at these awards have changed our national landscape forever.”
In 2015, Horne and Snow met with Australian Marriage Equality to seed fund and co-design an organisation capable of leading the Yes campaign in the event of a plebiscite on marriage equality.
What resulted was the Equality Campaign, a partnership between philanthropy, community, business, and NGOs that ultimately saw nearly eight million Australians vote in favour of marriage equality.
In collaboration with some of Australia’s leading philanthropists and foundations, Horne and Snow leveraged their own investment to raise nearly $20,000,000 in cash and in-kind donations, resourcing the Equality Campaign to employ over 80 full-time staff and manage 15,000 volunteers just 18 months after its incorporation.
Horne and Snow dedicated their award to the thousands of Australians who supported the Equality Campaign.
“This award is a huge honour that we share with every single person who donated money or time to achieve marriage equality,” Horne said.
“The Equality Campaign was the result of significant philanthropic leadership that gave strength to the thousands of everyday Australians who were willing to stand up and push for fairness and equality.”
I hope they both explicitly give all that charity money to transgender victims of archaic and draconian state and territory divorce laws still on the books across Australia – namely in Tasmania, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Our transgender bothers and sisters within our LGBTIQ+ community are still right here waiting for marriage equality, even 8 months after same-sex marriage being made legal across Australia. The federal government has given the states/territories until 8 December, 2018 to change this archaic injustice on our transgender brothers and sisters within our LGBTIQ+ community.