Proposed: Sydney NYE 2014 Charity Partner May Be ‘Re-Engineered’

For the first time since 2005, Sydney New Year’s Eve may have the same Charity Partner for 2 consecutive years.

Sydney New Year’s Eve has appointed an annual Charity Partner every year since 2004. Previous Charity Partners are listed in the table below:

Event	Charity Partner
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2004 – ‘Reflections On Australiana’	Oxfam
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2005 – ‘Heart Of The Harbour’	Oxfam
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2006 – ‘A Diamond Night In Emerald City’	Médecins Sans Frontières
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2007 – ‘The Time Of Our Lives’	WWF
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2008 – ‘Creation’	Planet Ark
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2009 – ‘Awaken The Spirit’	Australian Conservation Foundation
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2010 – ‘Make Your Mark’	WWF
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2011 – ‘Time To Dream’	CARE Australia
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2012 – ‘Embrace’	The Fred Hollows Foundation
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’	Engineers Without Borders
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014	?

The Charity Partnership gives the Charity a promotional opportunity as well as a chance for the Sydney New Year’s Eve audience to reflect on the Charity’s cause and thus creating a promising public opinion of the selected Charity Partner and Sydney New Year’s Eve.

The Charity Partner appointed for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’ was Engineers Without Borders Australia: a member-based not-for-profit, community-focused organisation with 10 years’ experience in creating systematic change through humanitarian engineering and education, with a focus on education and community development. Engineers Without Borders engaged strongly with Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’ by providing pop-up interactive sites & a working Lego® wind turbine set at the Lord Mayor’s Picnic 2013 – ‘Sparkle In Space’ for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’. These pop-up interactive sites were the first major installations by a Charity Partner at Sydney New Year’s Eve, providing it with strong visibility within Wynyard & Pirrama Park and at National Australia Bank House.

The last time a Sydney New Year’s Eve Charity Partner received visibility as strong as this was for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2004 – ‘Reflections On Australiana’ when Oxfam and Sydney New Year’s Eve launched an Australian-wide fundraiser during the event to help victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. But since then, Charity Partners have been less visible. For example, in 2012, The Fred Hollows Foundation installed a photographic exhibition in the Customs House library during the December/January holiday period – this wasn’t officially part of the Sydney New Year’s Eve 2012 – ‘Embrace’ event.

Sydney New Year’s Eve’s Charity Partnership with Engineers Without Borders also aligned with 2 iconic features of construction engineering – the Sydney Opera House (which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013) and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (a sustained unique symbol for urban community connection and providing an important central point for Sydney New Year’s Eve).

The Charity Partnership with Engineers Without Borders for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’ proved very successful for both parties. Sydney New Year’s Eve have since identified that the appointment of a Charity Partner for 2 consecutive Sydney New Year’s Eve events would be most beneficial. This has occurred previously, with Oxfam being reappointed as Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2005 – ‘Heart Of The Harbour’, following a Partnership with the event in 2004. This would definitely make the best of the opportunities and benefits for both parties; providing the Charity Partner with an extended awareness platform. An Expression of Interest will be publicly advertised every 2 years seeking a potential Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve.

In recommending the selection of a Charity Partner, Sydney New Year’s Eve considers the following criteria:

(a) The organisation is an official registered Charity;

(b) The Charity is reputable and internationally recognised;

(d) The Charity has no religious affiliation;

(e) The Charity’s operational and organisational focus is compatible with Sydney New Year’s Eve as an event;

(f) The Charity is a member of the Australian Council for International Development; and

(g) The Charity has offices in Australia.

Other than Engineers Without Borders, 2 other organisations have approached Sydney New Year’s Eve to be considered for the Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014 Charity Partnership; namely, Oxfam and the United Nations (UN) International Day Of Peace Program (2014-2018). Oxfam was Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2004 and 2005 (‘Reflections On Australiana’ and ‘Heart Of The Harbour’) and remains significant with its delivery of much needed international aid. However, Sydney New Year’s Eve does not consider Oxfam to be as strong an alternative as providing a second year to Engineers Without Borders.

The UN International Day Of Peace Program has scheduled a series of events for April-October 2014 to 2018, promoting UN International Day Of Peace on Sunday, 21 September 2014 and commemorating World War 1 (1914-1918). They seek a Charity Partnership with Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014 to maximise the effect of the message “working together for peace” to reach the broadest spectrum of the community. The UN is likely to gain significant interest in its International Day Of Peace Program from its own firm publicity platforms. As such, the UN International Day Of Peace Program is not seen by Sydney New Year’s Eve as a suitable appointment for the 2014 Charity Partnership.

Engineers Without Borders though, has associations and partnerships with a range of community organisations including Aboriginal community organisations. In 2014, they will lead the establishment of 2 new, national-scale Reconciliation Initiatives, the planning of which is underway. Engineers Without Borders is currently seeking partners and collaborators for both initiatives across industry, government and the education and community sectors. These are:

(a) Technical Career Pathways Initiative – designed to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with careers in the engineering sector and related technical fields; and

(b) Best Practice Guidance Initiative – designed to build a vibrant and committed community of practice across the Australian engineering sector that shares and leverages resources, learning and successful practices to drive and facilitate best practice engineering and access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Engineers Without Borders will also be able to build on the work done in their first year as Charity Partner and stands to increase national and international awareness from another year of association and incorporation with Sydney New Year’s Eve. Engineers Without Borders has already showed their wish to increase its participation should they be appointed for a 2^nd year; providing more pop-up interactive sites to the benefit of both Engineers Without Borders and Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014 attendees.

Accordingly, Sydney New Year’s Eve has recommended that Engineers Without Borders should be re-appointed as Charity Partner for Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014. The re-appointment will deliver benefits to Sydney New Year’s Eve and Engineers Without Borders, in particular allowing the new initiatives trialled at Sydney New Year’s Eve 2013 – ‘Shine’ to be developed.

The appointment of the Sydney New Year’s Eve 2014 Charity Partner should be finalised by 30 May 2014 with an official announcement made possibly sometime in early June.

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