OPERATING PRINCIPLES

The Foundation's strategy reflects the Porter/Kramer recommendations, including:

• aiming for superior performance in a chosen area, including measuring our own performance;
• striving for continual improvement, including supporting only those organisations that perform consistently better than average;
• unique positioning, which may include limiting the number of social challenges we address;
• unique activities, including doing things differnetly from others; and
• accepting that every positioning requires trade-offs, and that may include deciding what not to do.

"Broad-based philanthropy is still young in Australia. Boosted by the introduction of Prescribed Private Funds in 2001, there are now more than 500 foundations in Australia, and The Thomas Foundation's experience in progressing from ‘expressive giving' to tightly focussed and results-oriented ‘instrumental giving' is relevant to all of them".

- David Thomas, chairman The Thomas Foundation