Burn Bright named as Australia’s most innovative charity second year in a row – NFP Innovation Index
5 Sept 2019 – Sydney -Burn Bright has just been announced for the second year in a row as the Number One Not-For-Profit Innovator in Australia in the 2019 GiveEasy Innovation Index as a result of their influential leadership, wellbeing programs and national camps for young people. In 2019 Burn Bright finished in the equal top place with Thankyou. Other charities in the top 10 included the Movember Foundation, Cure Brain Cancer, Batyr, Starlight Children’s Foundation and The Shepard Centre. The 2019 Innovation Index is supported by EY, the University of New South Wales and eWAY.
https://www.nfpinnovationindex.com.au/2019-results to download the detailed report.
Burn Bright delivers Student Leadership, Wellbeing Programs and National Camps for schools and young people across Australia and New Zealand, working with over 15,000 students each year.
Burn Bright has been recognised by the GiveEasy Innovation Index as a leader in innovation for the not-for-profit sector for their innovative workplace culture, for modelling positive influence through genuine relationships and measuring the impact their work is having on schools and communities.
Two Years In A Row
Burn Bright’s CEO Andy Skidmore said “the Burn Bright team are humbled to have been recognised as the most Innovative Charity In Australia for the second year in a row, everyday Burn Bright strives to make a difference in the lives of thousands of young people every day and show young people that they have influence and they can use it to serve the world around them”. Burn Bright in 2019 were named alongside Thankyou who are a household name across Australia for their innovative approach as a social enterprise.
A Vision For The Worlds Young People
Burn Bright’s vision is a world where all young people flourish, understand their influence and impact the world selflessly. Andy explains “this is a huge vision for the world and one that we can only achieve in partnership with other organisations and Burn Bright plays a small role in achieving this”. Burn Bright hopes to achieve its vision by building connected communities to grow authenticity, hope, awareness and meaningful relationships in young people.
Burn Bright is recognised as a preventative mental health organisation, providing young Australians with the tools to look after their wellbeing through experiential learning in all the programs and camps Burn Bright run.
These programs and camps challenge students to see how they can use their influence for good, both in their schools and wider communities, exploring the power of positive influence and the idea that every student has an opportunity to lead.
Taking a Social Enterprising Approach
Burn Bright has been recognised as one of Australia’s leading social enterprises. “At Burn Bright’s foundations are a social enterprising approach meaning whilst we are a not-for-profit organisation we don’t rely heavily on government grants or donations and this allows us to provide our services where required to all young people across Australia. It’s also the core of our innovative approach and allows Burn Bright to stay on the cutting head of innovation in the charity space” says Andy.
Using Technology To Enhance Program Delivery
Since last years award Burn Bright has focused on harnessing the power of technology to increase the impact of their service delivery and give the team more time to focus on delivering programs in partnerships with schools and community organisations that truly have an impact. Andy states that “Burn Bright believe that technology is one of the greatest enablers to innovation, by giving their team greater access to information and freeing them up routine tasks the team have more capacity to build our culture and innovate in new areas”. Burn Bright have also just invested new technology in online program delivery to increase their reach and access to young people across Australia.
Modelling Authentic Team Culture
Born in 2014, Burn Bright exists to build leadership capacity and self-awareness in young people and believe this is best demonstrated through their leadership team and the culture and values they model to students.
The Burn Bright team demonstrates authenticity in relationships which is powerful when modelling this behaviour to the students they work with.
Andy says, “For us it’s important that if we’re going to go to a school and we’re going to talk about great relationships, looking after your wellbeing, being able to serve others and thinking about your leadership capacity, then that needs to start with our team.”
Resilience As The Key To Young People’s Success
A recent survey conducted by Burn Bright of young people across Australia has indicated that 75% of young people will turn to their most immediate relationships for help when something difficult in their lives happen, being their parents and friends, 38% parents and 37% being friends.
Andy says “a teenagers relationships have the greatest impact wellbeing either positively or negatively. If we want to raise resilient young Australian’s then we need to focus on the quality of their relationships with peers, family and the their community”.
The survey also found that the leading cause of stress for teenagers was their school work with 73% of young people surveyed saying it causes the most stress in their lives. The survey also showed that year 8 and 9 students are 5x more likely to often experience bullying than their older peers students.
Andy says “developing grit, and a growth mindset towards challenge is also a non-negotiable for young people in today’s social climate – these qualities coupled with a strong support network and foundation of genuine relationships is the key to overcoming struggles facing young people.”
Proving the impact
Burn Bright have been able to prove the mind-shifting impact they have, seeing positive behavioural change, shifts in mindset and personal wellbeing through innovative data collection methods.
This data collection has been a game changer in understanding the young people Burn Bright works with as well as providing a unique insight to the schools about their student’s wellbeing.
“We use scientifically backed wellbeing research to measure the students before and after attending our trainings. What we have found is that often the bottom 20% that move the most for the young people that we work with. If you look at the resilience scale, students are moving from zero up to 30%.”, Andy explains.