Media Release

September 28, 2007
 

Our Community rides the waves of success

'Cool Company' award adds to a growing list of achievements

"A deeply noble enterprise" were the words used to describe community support organisation Our Community as it was named the winner of the 2007 'Cool Company' Social Capitalist Award in Melbourne last night (September 27).

Our Community rose above stiff competition from other socially responsible companies including Carbon Planet, New Water, Flexicar and GO SHOUT to take the top honour in the national awards, which are run by Anthill Magazine and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The awards, which began in 2006, are designed to publicly acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently or defying convention to bring about positive change.

Our Community, which provides resources and tools for Australia's 600,000 community groups and schools and linkages between the community sector and the worlds of business and government, was recognised as an "über-cool social capitalist company" that was giving back to the community through social endeavour.

According to next month's edition of Anthill Magazine, the organisation provides a "wonderful example of the next frontier of the world wide web - using a profoundly borderless technology platform to enrich bonds at the hyper-local level".

The award caps a stellar year for Our Community, in which the organisation has also won an Australian Marketing Institute Award for Marketing Excellence in recognition of a sponsorship arrangement with Australia Post that has spawned a range of initiatives, including the Marketing, Media and Post Centre at www.ourcommunity.com.au/mmp. This web-based resource provides free information and tools to help Australia's 600,000 community groups spread their message to a larger audience.

This year has also seen Our Community co-founder and CEO Rhonda Galbally named by the Australian Financial Review's Boss magazine as one of Australia's 25 "True Leaders". Dr Galbally was described by the selection panel as a "visionary" whose career provided a perfect example of how to build bridges between different worlds.

The Cool Company award prize - a surfboard - has taken pride of place in Our Community's West Melbourne office alongside a suspended chicken, a floating chair, a tin kangaroo and other artworks that sit amongst the company's 20 workers and its founders, Denis Moriarty and Rhonda Galbally.

The organisation is now eagerly awaiting the result of the national Australian Marketing Institute Awards, which will be announced in mid-October.

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