Over the last 20 years, Gidget Foundation Australia has seen amazing growth, expanding our services to support over 8,400 families since inception.
Since 2022, we have witnessed a 132% increase in clients serviced; however, with over 2,100 parents having accessed our face-to-face and telehealth appointments already in the first half of 2024, this demand shows no sign of slowing down.
While it has been great to see the organisation flourish and grow to support more parents than ever before, this growth is also indicative of a growing demand for support for expectant and new parents in Australia. In fact, new data from Gidget Foundation Australia reveals more than half (57%) of Aussie parents with a child under three have experienced mental health issues – yet just two in five (40%) have sought professional help.
Expectant and new parents wishing to access support may face barriers trying to access care, including fear of stigma, cultural expectations, geographic accessibility, or associated costs. Sadly, cost and accessibility can present major barriers to those seeking care, with a family’s complete care over 12 months – including 10 counselling sessions with a specialist perinatal clinician – amounting to over $3,000.
With an estimated one in five mothers and one in ten fathers experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety (PNDA), Gidget Foundation Australia is committed to raising awareness about PNDA and providing free, GP-referred psychological counselling and telehealth counselling.
However, as a not-for-profit, the impact we make on the lives of expectant and new parents is driven by our generous community, whose donations allow us to continue initiatives such as our Workforce Development Program addressing the national shortage of specialist perinatal mental health clinicians.
Each and every donation we receive from the community works to further our reach and for expectant and new parents. However, compared to driving corporate investments and donations, encouraging community donations can present unique challenges for charities.
Donors from the community – that is, everyday individuals – are unlikely to proactively seek opportunities to donate of their volition. Furthermore, they may avoid the process entirely if they feel it is too time-consuming or difficult for them to engage with. In fact, research indicates donors are only spurred to contribute when they are directly asked to do so1 – highlighting the crucial role of meaningful, consistent communications with the community to encourage donations.
In this way, how we position our requests for community support is just as important as the frequency and volume of the requests themselves. We must ensure opportunities for donations not only feel meaningful for the donor but are also an easy process for the donor to pursue.
To maximise the impact of individual donors, while ensuring the process is as smooth as possible, one of our major annual community fundraisers relies on the process of donation matching. Held annually in June, Gidget Giving Day is a donation matching day wherein all donations in the 24-hour period are doubled by our Giving Day Matchers.
Donation matching is a fantastic tactic not-for-profits often utilise and has been proven to increase the initial uptake of donations received, with over four in five (84%) donors saying they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered2. On top of this, donation matching increases not only the number of donors participating but also the overall amount donated per donor, with one in three (33%) donors increasing the amount donated when matching is applied to their donation2
The act of donation matching itself also helps to strengthen our relationships with individual donors. By offering donors a greater impact from the same value donation, we are also able to amplify the feeling of connectedness and closeness an individual may feel towards our organisation by demonstrating our commitment to our community3.
The community support we have received from donation matching has been overwhelmingly positive – raising over $585,000 for Gidget Foundation over the past four years. In fact, this year’s Gidget Giving Day saw over $130,000 raised in just 24 hours – an incredible amount of support from not only our community but our Giving Day Matchers.
With the estimated cost to the health system, economy and monetised social well-being of those impacted by PNDA totalling over $877million each year3, it is crucial we are able to continue to support expectant and new parents with support and resources to help them through their journey.
With over 19,500 free, GP-referred psychological counselling sessions delivered to over 3,000 expectant and new parents across the country last year, we are grateful for the continued support of the community helping us drive Gidget Foundation Australia forward and ensuring struggling parents can receive support without delay.
Related: New data reveals demand for mental health support rises
Arabella joined Gidget Foundation Australia in early 2017 after a 20-year career in executive leadership roles in the media and communications industry in both Australia and the UK.
Arabella has a passion for improving support systems for expectant and new parents by building emotionally resilient families. Since joining the Foundation, Arabella has expanded its Gidget House program, offering face-to-face psychology support to cover three states and a further 13 sites (14 in total). Under her leadership, the Foundation has introduced three new programs providing direct support: Start Talking, offering nationwide telehealth services for regional, rural, and remote communities; and Gidget Village, group therapy support and Gidget Virtual Village, a peer moderated support program for parents experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety.
Arabella and her husband have twins – a son and a daughter.
