While the worlds of big money Sydney philanthropy and its glittering balls,gala dinners and delicate politics in 2023 sound a lot different to those of 80 years ago,at their core things have remained remarkably similar when it comes to raising money for charity.
It’s still all about who you know.
The Ronald McDonald House gala at Rose Bay’s swanky Catalina in April was organised by Dekyvere’s modern-day counterpart,social pages fixtureLisa Wipfli,wife of radio starMichael “Wippa” Wipfli. She is currently living it up on the Cote d’Azur in a no-expense-spared Euro vacation after attending chicken heiress in Paris.
Wipfli and her fellow committee members pulled off an event that was definitely not Dekyvere’s proverbial cup of tea,though she would have been impressed by the $1 million raised to help support seriously ill children and their families.
Just as Dekyvere had done decades before with her Black&White Balls,Wipfli worked her little black book of contacts,summoning everyone from her hubby’s boss,the billionaire media mogul Lachlan Murdoch and his wife,former supermodelSarah,to breakfast TV starKarl Stefanovic and Westfield heiressMonica Saunders-Weinberg. All of them happily endorsed the event.
Similarly,as the wife of one of Australia’s most prominent wool buyers,in 1936 Dekyvere targeted rich pastoralists like the White family and wealthy city folk,including the Packers,who gravitated to her annual ball for the Royal Sydney Industrial Blind Institution (later the Royal Blind Society). Dekyvere served as the committee’s president from 1952 to 1970.
Things got a little looser in the 1970s,perhaps in reaction to the end of Dekyvere’s iron-fisted reign,like the time the lateLady Susan Renouf and the lateLady Sonia McMahon dressed up as Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe performingTwo Little Girls from Little Rock from the movieGentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Another year saw the ball’s scantily clad committee members perform a jaunty rendition ofTake Back Your Minkfrom Guys and Dolls. This may seem unthinkable in 2023,although the current chair of the Silver Committee,Maree Andrews,did throw a “Dark,Dangerous and Decadent” themed 40th birthday party last year which saw guests turn up in lacy lingerie.
Needless to say,a position on Sydney’s more exclusive charity committees is a one-way ticket to social cache,as it was for Dekyvere,who was appointed MBE in 1958,and elevated to CBE in 1972 in recognition of service to the visually impaired.
The late media mogulSir Frank Packer even convinced her to write a weekly column for hisSunday Telegraph.
While the Black&White Committee still exists,philanthropy has morphed into a much more diverse concern,raising funds for myriad causes like Two Good Co,which started out in a soup kitchen and now aims to empower vulnerable women in refuges,giving them a practical pathway out of domestic violence to independence.
Others have embraced professional management,such as former corporate high-flyerArabella Gibson taking on the CEO role of the hugely successful Gidget Foundation,which is focused on creating a community to raise awareness and fund services to help mothers dealing with perinatal depression.
In terms of social gravitas,the annual Gold Dinner and Silver Party eclipsed the Black&White Ball years ago. Aimed firmly at the top end of town,it raises tens of millions of dollars to fund the equipment and research that keep Sydney’s Children’s Hospitals functioning.
Over the years a stellar line-up of mostly women have driven each committee,from PR supremoNaomi Parry,purveyor of Hermes pursesKarin Upton Baker,socialitesMarley Boyd andDeborah Symond O’Neil,wealthy food bloggerStephanie Conley-Buhre,Ingham and fashion designerCamilla Freeman-Topper on the Silver committee,to the Gold Dinner’s alma mater that counts social blue bloodsSkye Leckie,Monica Saunders-Weinberg,Russian heiressAlina Barlow and current co-chairs,mother and son duoJoshua andLinda Penn.
The Penns made headlines this year when they convinced Australia’s wealthiest person,Gina Rinehart,to donate $5 million at the most recent Gold Dinner,a donation which took months of negotiation and which was orchestrated to the most minute detail. The Penns also threw in $3 million of their own dough,bringing this year’s result to a record-breaking $19.2 million for sick kids.
Even Dekyvere could only dream of such a result.
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