My Food Bag co-founder Theresa Gattung has been revealed as a benefactor of women’s domestic violence outreach group The Aunties’ founder Jackie Clark.
Gattung has been paying half of Clark’s salary since 2018, which Gattung said amounted to about $6,000 “every few months”, after meeting her at the Women of Influence Awards.
“I met Jackie, I heard about The Aunties, but I didn't know what they did … I only shifted to Auckland a few years ago ... And we were on the stage together. I heard it read out what she'd done. I heard her speak, I saw the whanau support around her. And I thought, ‘Oh, that's really amazing’. And so I leaned over to her and I said, ‘Look, I'm happy to help you. I'm happy to help you’.”
At first Gattung offered money and clothes, but she said Clark pointed out it was easy to get clothing but much harder to get money, and asked if she would support her salary.
“And I said sure.”
Gattung said domestic violence was a scourge on New Zealand and contradicted the view that the country was leading the way for women, with more than one female prime minister, female CEOs or chief justices.
The Ministry for Women said a quarter to a third of NZ women would experience intimate partner violence or sexual violence in their lifetime, and the biggest risk factor for being a victim of intimate partner violence or sexual violence is being a woman.
Gattung said she had supported charities since her first paycheck and had been a monthly donor to Women’s Refuge since her early 20s. She also supports the Shine domestic violence charity in Auckland and now is supporting Pet Refuge, set up to help the animals of women who have been abused.
“It's an area that I think that women who've got means should support those women who don't. In general, I have an agenda on my investing and my charitable giving and I've supported that category.”
Clark recently publicised Gattung was supporting her work in the hope other like-minded people might also step up.
The entrepreneur said others who are thinking about supporting groups like The Aunties should only give money to those which “aid your soul”.
“Some people are passionate about supporting child cancer, some people are passionate about the environment. The why is very important. I feel drawn to supporting women who haven't had the advantages that I've had.”
Gattung was also funding $2.5 million over the next 10 years for the University of Auckland's chair of women in entrepreneurship.
The new chair will helm a centre that aims to encourage entrepreneurial women and equip graduates with business skills, including analysis of financial information.
Describing it as "another arm of support for women's business empowerment," Gattung said women need to know how to launch a business, how to read a balance sheet and what venture capital is.
The former Telecom boss also launched the women-only funding platform SheEO in New Zealand in 2017.
SheEO in NZ now had more than $1m available to invest in women-led businesses, Gattung said. It had provided funding to online small business accounting firm Beany, sustainable packaging firm Better Packaging Co and period underwear company AWWA.
The money gets lent out to the businesses and then paid back.
“I feel very proud of the fact that we are creating part of a joined-up ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.”
