Our first stage involves a target of $40 million by raising $20 million from individual, corporate and philanthropic investors in partnership with a $20 million investment by the Australian Government.

This is a private sector led initiative in partnership with leading schools and the Australian Government with a long-term view to deliver educational empowerment coupled with pathways to careers and tertiary education for Indigenous students by leveraging relationships with our corporate supporters and engaging their staff in mentoring roles.

AIEF has already partnered with six leading boarding schools. Following the announcement on 30 October 2008 by the Prime Minister
at the Business Council of Australia dinner that the Australian Government will be investing $20 million in this initiative, we will soon
be partnering with other leading schools around Australia.

AIEF's principal activity is the AIEF Indigenous Scholarship Programme, which initially involves raising $40 million to deliver a boarding school scholarship programme for Indigenous children at some of the best schools in the country. Whilst the focus is on boarding schools, the AIEF Indigenous Scholarship Programme could also provide some non-boarding and/or tertiary scholarships.

AIEF will also be establishing:

1. a School-to-Work Programme – to work with its corporate supporters and partner schools for mentoring and post-school career pathways for Indigenous students; and
2. a School Council website – open to schools across Australia, to record and share 'best practice', provide a 24/7 online information hub for schools, and a collaborative members' forum for schools to share their Indigenous education learnings
   and experiences with one another.

As a private-sector led initiative, through its activities AIEF acts as a vehicle for bringing together key stakeholders in a collaborative partnership to empower Indigenous children through education. This collaboration includes:

• Indigenous children and their families and communities;
• schools involved in Indigenous education;
• corporate investors and employers (and their staff);
• individual and philanthropic social investors;
• other leading community organisations; and
• the Australian Government.

AIEF will seek to work with leading community programmes and organisations where there is a complementary fit. This could include, for example, collaborating with Indigenous employment and mentoring programmes, such as the Australian Employment Covenant and the Aboriginal Employment Strategy.

AIEF Partner Schools

AIEF was initially planning to raise a $5 million fund to provide scholarships for Indigenous girls at Sydney boarding schools to match the success of the $5 million St Joseph's College Indigenous Fund, and we partnered with five girls boarding schools in Sydney for that purpose. Now that we are embarking on a larger-scale $40 million programme we will soon be partnering with other boarding schools around Australia.

AIEF's initial partner schools for the AIEF Indigenous Scholarship Programme are schools that, like St Joseph's College Hunters Hill,
are considered by AIEF to be:

• high quality schools with strong leadership that have shown an existing commitment to Indigenous education;
• schools that have a successful track-record over several years with Indigenous enrolments and in developing and maintaining relationships with Indigenous communities;
• schools that have developed a track-record in Indigenous education by investing their own resources from within the school or their school community;
• schools that have the capacity to increase the number of Indigenous boarders if AIEF can fund their expansion; and
• schools that either have, or have agreed to build, an appropriate critical mass number of Indigenous boarders.

AIEF has no religious affiliations or preferences and religion is not part of our selection criteria. AIEF's initial partner schools are the following girls' boarding schools in Sydney:

• Kincoppal-Rose Bay School - Rose Bay
• Presbyterian Ladies' College Sydney - Croydon
• St Catherine's Anglican School for Girls - Waverley
• St Scholastica's College - Glebe
• St Vincent's College - Potts Point

AIEF has also partnered with St Joseph's College Hunters Hill to assist with their Indigenous education programme.

As mentioned above, as a result of the recent announcement by the Prime Minister for a $20 million investment by the Australian Government, we will soon be partnering with other leading boarding schools across Australia (both boys and girls).

AIEF People

AIEF is under the Patronage of some of Australia's most respected civic leaders and is managed and governed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals with proven track-records in the private sector.

AIEF is a non-profit public company limited by guarantee under the Patronage of:

• Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New South Wales (Patron-In-Chief)
• Sir William Deane AC KBE (Patron)
• Mr Carlo Salteri AC (Patron).

AIEF is governed by a six member skills-based Board of Directors. The Board includes an Indigenous leader, male and female business leaders, and individuals with experience in governance of successful non-profit organisations, Indigenous boarding school scholarships, Indigenous affairs, law, banking, funds management, media and legal compliance.

AIEF's Board of Directors consists of:

• Mr Rob Coombe
• Mr Michael Lindsay (Secretary and Treasurer)
• Mr Ray Martin (Chairman)
• Mr Warren Mundine
• Mr Andrew Penfold (Chief Executive)
• Ms Ann Sherry AO (Deputy Chair)

AIEF also has a partnership with the Catherine Freeman Foundation and will soon be announcing details of its official Ambassadors.

Further Information

Further details will be available on this website after AIEF has launched. In the meantime enquiries can be directed to Andrew Penfold
at andrew.penfold@aief.com.au

AIEF also has a dedicated channel on YouTube where various television stories about AIEF and Indigenous education can be viewed: http://uk.youtube.com/user/AIEFoundation

A donation form and copy of the tax deduction (DGR) endorsement certificate for AIEF is available at the top of this website.