Help for community services Information and advice for workers assisting tenants in the community.
Why donate?
Secure and affordable housing is a fundamental need for people of every walk of life in Victoria. For too many tenants this need is out of reach. Tenants are often vulnerable. They can and do fall between the cracks in the housing system, especially due to:
- High costs of renting a house relative to average incomes. More than 150,000 renters in Victoria pay more than 30% of their total income in rent.
- Tenants face greater levels of insecurity. There are more than 20,000 applications for possession at VCAT including evictions for no reason at all.
- Most of the affordable rental properties are poor quality and a long way from jobs and services.
- The tenancy law simply doesn’t provide adequate protection for some basic housing rights.
In fact the majority of tenants aren’t even aware of their rights, or don’t know that they can get help. That’s what we do – we make a difference for Victorians tenants through advocacy, education and advice. However, Government funding for our services is not enough to meet the demand or to provide the kind of services we think can make the most difference for tenants…we’re just treading water.
Your donation is a valuable way of helping us help other tenants. It’s an investment in a fairer community.
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Donations are critical
We simply cannot meet the demand on our services from Victorian renters.
- Over the last 12 months the abandoned call rate for our telephone help line has averaged about 50% – this means one in two people hang up because we don’t have enough staff to respond to phone calls.
- We have been forced to turn off our email advice service because we are receiving about 3 times as many emails as the staff we have available can answer. We now have to have a gateway to limit the number of emails we can receive.
- VCAT (the tenancy Tribunal) receives about 60,000 applications per annum mostly by landlords either seeking to evict tenants or trying to claim a tenants bond. We only have enough resources to represent about 500 tenants per annum. Without our assistance, the odds are stacked too much in the landlords favour.
- We have about 400,000 users of our website per annum but we need to develop better resources for our website users so that tenants that can help themselves feel informed and empowered. Tenants need resources such as videos, apps and even an online chat service to answer questions when they really need them answered.
- Decisions are made that adversely affect tenants every day but we don’t have enough resources to respond properly to all these changes which often place more demand on our services. We need more policy and research staff.
Invest in your community
Join us in our commitment to every tenant in Victoria. A small donation of your money or time can make a big difference to the lives of tenants within our community:
- For $10 per month – along with 100 other tenants making the same $10 regular donation, we can employ a lawyer to deliver our email advice service to around 11,500 tenants per year.
- For $25 per month – can help to employ an advocacy worker who will help disadvantaged and vulnerable tenants from being unfairly evicted.
Invest a minute now and check out your donation options.
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Your donation
We are a registered charity and we take our obligations to donors and regulatory bodies very seriously. When you direct your donation to a specific project (for example stop an eviction or email advice service) you can be assured that funds are used only for the dedicated purpose.
How can you be assured?
- We commit to being fully transparent
- We will provide a quarterly report in our online newsletter about donations raised on a per project basis and exactly how the money is being spent. (You can sign up to the newsletter when you Donate)
- Our target is a maximum of 10% of donation funding being used for the administration of donations
- We will report on performance associated with this target and also on the funds received and how they were expended, along with outcomes achieved, on a project by project basis in our Annual Report
If you’d like to discuss any aspect of how we manage your donation, please contact our Finance and Admin Manager on 9411 1444.
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A gift in your will
If you admire and support the values and work of Tenants Victoria, consider including a gift to the organisation in your will. Making such a gift will help us continue to tackle the problems faced by all renters and get better outcomes from our work on behalf of tenants.
Making or revising your will does not need to be expensive. You can speak to your own solicitor about how to do this. The three examples below show a simple form of words you can use:
Pecuniary Bequest
I give (free from all duties or taxes of whatsoever nature) to Tenants Victoria of 55 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, (ACN 081 348 227) for its general purposes the sum of $[insert amount] and the authorised receipt of the Secretary, Treasurer or other proper officer of Tenants Victoria shall be a complete discharge for my executor(s) in relation to this gift.
Specific Bequest
I give (free from all duties or taxes of whatsoever nature) to Tenants Victoria of 55 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, (ACN 081 348 227) [insert specified items e.g. personal possessions, a parcel of land, a life insurance policy] for its general purposes and declare that the authorised receipt of the Secretary, Treasurer or other proper officer of Tenants Victoria shall be a complete discharge for the executor(s) in relation to this gift.
Residuary Bequest
After payment of all debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, taxes and duties (howsoever described), I give my residuary estate to Tenants Victoria of 55 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, Victoria, (ACN 081 348 227) and I declare that the authorised receipt of the Secretary, Treasurer and other proper officer of Tenants Victoria shall be a complete discharge for my executor(s) in relation to this gift.
If you have already included a gift to Tenants Victoria in your Will, please let us know so we can thank you personally. All information is treated in the strictest confidence. For more information about leaving a gift to Tenants Victoria, please contact us on (03) 9411 1444.
