THE RELATIONSHIPS CAME FIRST
They still do.
Six years of listening, showing up and working alongside communities, before
Branches 4 Change even had a name.
WHO WE ARE
A charity built on relationships
Branches 4 Change Ltd is an Australian charity, run entirely by volunteers. We're registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient.
We work in partnership with Catholic sisters, parishes and community organisations to meet fundamental human needs across education, health, poverty alleviation, homelessness and disability support, both in Australia and overseas.
Nobody here draws a salary, including our directors.
OUR STORY
It started with school shoes.
The first thing our partners in Fiji asked us for was school shoes.
It was a simple request, and we could manage it. Parish networks in Australia collected, we sent them over, and more than a thousand pairs went out to children across rural communities. That should probably have been the end of it.
Instead, the sisters asked for something else. Lunches, at St Peter's Chanel Parish, for children coming to school hungry. So we did that too.
Then books and learning materials; not a general appeal, but a list written by teachers who knew exactly what their classrooms were missing. Then food hampers for families in villages a long way from anywhere, carried out by the sisters themselves, one box at a time.
Six years went by like that. Each request more particular than the last, because each one came after we'd shown up for the one before.
THE MOMENT EVERYTHING CHANGED
Then a sister told us about a boy in her Grade 2 class.
Some of her students have autism. Others have learning differences nobody has ever formally identified, because there's no one there to identify them.
When the classroom gets too loud and too bright for this boy, he crawls under his desk and goes to sleep. At lunchtime he sits on his own and plays with a stick, because there's nothing else.
She wanted to know whether we could help build him somewhere to go.
That's not a question you put to strangers.
We said yes, and then had to work out how. Branches 4 Change was registered in September 2025, because by then the work needed a structure, governance, transparency, and the ability to raise money properly and account for it.
The relationships came first. They still do.
OUR MISSION
Purpose that goes beyond borders.
To advance social justice and alleviate disadvantage by coordinating resources and working in partnership with churches, community organisations and other charitable entities, delivering projects that address fundamental human needs in education, health, poverty alleviation, homelessness and disability support, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised communities.
What guides us
OUR VALUES
Dignity
Every person has inherent worth.
Help offered without dignity isn't help.
Led by our partners
The people doing the work
know what the work requires.
They set the priorities; our job is
to make it possible.
Openness to all
Our work is inspired by
faith and offered without
condition, to anyone in need,
whatever they believe and
wherever they're from.
Accountability
We publish what we
raise and what we spend it on.
Trust is earned by being checkable.
WHERE WE WORK
Rooted in relationships. Connected across communities.
In Australia
Our volunteers run collection points, sort and pack donations, and support local initiatives responding to poverty, homelessness and disability. Our strongest networks are in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Overseas
We work through Catholic sisters and the parishes and schools they belong to. Our partnerships have included work in Fiji, and sisters in Tanzania have approached us about potential future projects.
We take on new work only where three things are in place: a partner we already know, a need identified by the people who live with it, and the capacity to see it through.
WHERE THE FUNDS GO
Making every contribution count.
Most of what we deliver is donated goods and volunteer time, so the money you give goes a long way. It pays for the things goodwill can't cover freight, equipment we can't source through collections, and setting each project up properly.
How things get there depends on the project. Sometimes we ship. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy items and have them delivered. Whichever way, the arrangement is agreed with our partners in advance, documented, and confirmed once it arrives.
GOVERNANCE
Accountable by design.
Branches 4 Change is a public company limited by guarantee, governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. No director is paid.
Anyone asking the public for money should be easy to check. Our directors, governing documents and annual reporting are published on the ACNC Charity Register.
HOW WE REPORT BACK
Trust is built through transparency.
Every project gets an impact report: what was delivered, to whom, and what it cost. Our partners send photographs and written reports, and we pass them on. If you give to a named appeal, you'll hear how it went.
Our annual impact report and Annual Information Statement are published here and on the ACNC Charity Register.
SAFEGUARDING
Dignity and safety come first.
We're committed to the safety and dignity of every person our work reaches, and to children in particular. Our projects are delivered by established institutions, religious orders, schools and parishes, within their own structures of accountability.
Where our volunteers travel to work on a project, they do so at the invitation of our partners, under their supervision, and within the school's own child safety arrangements.
Volunteers working directly with children hold the working with children checks required in their state or territory.