I had an idea and it came from another thing that had struck me time and time again, ever since working with the Myer family on one of the episodes of Dynasties. The Myer Foundation exists to give away part of the family wealth, primarily through a grants scheme to support philanthropic endeavours. I saw how you could take limited amounts of money and then value add to it by applying some clever thinking. It could be then used to promote good and improve human quality of life. I became intrigued by the notion of philanthropy. It took me a while to understand the difference between charity and philanthropy, and there is some argument. There are people infinitely more qualified than me to argue the definitions but I'll give you my take on it.

One view says philanthropy is necessarily associated with the wealthy. Their donations are targeted to specific causes to bring about recognisable change in social conditions. Many rich philanthropists support the arts, religious, humanitarian and educational causes. These often require large donations over a period of time. This need for large financial commitment is a prerequisite for philanthropy. The organizations that are subsequently created out of philanthropic giving then allow for charitable giving of smaller amounts by the individual.

I subscribe to another line of thought. I don't think wealth creates the distinction between philanthropy and charity, I think it is intent. Charity generally doesn't require foresight. We all drop a few coins in a tin because we want to contribute and Australians by and large are generous givers. As long as someone else identifies an area of need and sets up the infrastructure to address it, we are happy to support it; can't complain about that. Philanthropy, I think, takes that next step where you find a problem of interest to yourself and looking ahead, you identify social issues then use that money to try and head off perceived problems. It is this foresight that I think is the hallmark of philanthropy. Collective pooling of funds by like minded individuals can create volumes of money that can make a difference, therefore you needn't be wealthy to be a philanthropist. To my way of thinking it's wanting to make a difference and finding a way to do it that that identifies a philanthropist. A line I like to use is philanthropy is charity on steroids. Semantics aside, I needed to find a definition I was comfortable with to be able to discuss it.

Over the years I spoke to hundreds of people in positions of influence and if there was a spare moment I liked to see what they thought about the idea of philanthropy. What surprised me was the majority had never really given it any thought. It would be one of those things they could attend to in retirement. This struck me as reverse thinking. They are well placed now, when they are in positions of influence and control, when they have their hands on the levers, so to speak, and access to resources. Now is the time to do it. So I thought how do you turn that around? How do you move the clock forward on people giving something back to society? I don't know why but I couldn’t let go of this. First of all I knew there needed to be more talk about it. It's a discussion I rarely hear. I've never been much of a talker though. Wherever this nagging idea took me I didn’t want to head down the road of idealism. If I could come up with an idea it had to be very nuts and bolts and suit my pragmatic outlook. Another thing I knew was it would be very hard to teach an old dog new tricks, so children would play a major role. How on earth was I going to take the very adult concept of philanthropy and package it in a way that could be understood and of some use to children? More than that, did anyone really care or was I simply having my mid life crisis and heading off on an inconsequential tangent?

No matter where I looked I came back to the model of PC Graham Waddington and his work of going into schools and using direct action. I could see myself doing that as my strength was effectively delivering messages to children. I wanted to let kids know that they can make a difference and they can start doing it now. The simplest explanation I could come up was give a man a fish you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime but it wasn't original and as it came with religious overtones, it wasn't for me. My message also needed to be memorable, so much so, that if I was able to provide them with some sort of a mental trigger, they would maybe remember it as a working adult. It was all heading for the too hard basket when I realised I’d seen this sort of trigger in action before. Almost every few months over the past twenty years someone would walk up to the camera and flash five outstretched fingers to the camera lens, followed by a peace sign. It was the Channel Seven promotional campaign from 1980s. This non verbal gesture had been drilled into their psyche and the sight of a TV camera could still trigger a response nearly twenty years later. I know the camera was the trigger in this instance but it made me realise the power of a non verbal gesture like this. Once I started thinking along those lines the idea the pieces of the jigsaw all came together. The T.H.U.M.B Program was born in about an hour. T.H.U.M.B is an acronym for:

Think of others Help when you can Use your noggin to Make the world a Better place

It’s a child friendly version of thinking charitably then taking the extra step. Imagine the classic thumbs up gesture of four fingers curled into a fist and the thumb pointing skywards. Starting with the thumb as number one you then extend each finger in turn as you read each of the lines from the THUMB acronym. If I can use this visual imagery to reinforce the THUMB message into the minds of children throughout their primary schooling then I'm in with a chance that the thumbs up gesture will remain for them an ongoing reminder that now is the right time to try and make a difference. My vision is this. In about forty years time if you eavesdropped on a group of business leaders from around the world and heard them comparing what they earned, you’d hear 150 thousand, 200 thousand, a half a million and then it’s the Australian’s turn, what do you make they ask and she answers: What do I make? I make a difference. A nice sentiment but how could I get it into schools? I'd have to disguise this character building dose of brussell sprouts as ice cream. I came up with the THUMB Program. The showpiece of the program is the hilarious THUMB show, a magic and juggling laugh fest that promotes building strength of character through resilience, responsibility and respect. Then it encourages kids to try and make a difference. So far so what? Nothing particularly new but what makes this idea unique is the way it gets the idea off the whiteboard, out of the classroom and turns it into a living breathing learning and teaching experience. This is where it gets good. I've come up with a way to give schools modest funding to help them realise an idea that a student or teacher may have put forth after the THUMB show visited their school. It's what I call project ignition money. Every school will vary in how they run with this opportunity. Their project may be driven by a handful of eager students, maybe one driven teacher; indeed they may just enjoy the show and its positive character building messages and leave it at that. That is still a good outcome. However to encourage schools to embrace this and to include the THUMB message as part of their school's ethos there is the THUMB Award. Each year participating schools will be able to enter their project and maybe win the $5000 prize. The criterion is that they attempt to value add to the benefits that money can generate by applying some clever thinking to their project ignition money.

What sort of projects? There is unlimited potential as it's anything that promotes good or improves the quality of life. It could be an energy saving initiative for their school or something to benefit the local community. It could be a sporting program or tuckshop initiative to improve students' health. This how I explain it to the kids. If you had $20 to help fix a problem in your school how could you use the money? Imagine there’s a path at your school that’s got a crack in it and one bit sits a bit higher than the other. Every day someone trips over the crack and skins their knee. What could you do? You could buy lots of Band Aids; plenty for everyone. What about spending that $20 another way. What if you held a competition and made the $20 a prize. You could win it by bringing in toys and books at home you don't want any more; the person who brings in the most toys wins the $20. All the toys and books would be sold at the next school fete at the Nothing Over A Dollar stall. If you made $300 at the stall you could use that money to buy sand and cement, rent a cement mixer, get Dads to come in on a school working bee. That way you could repair the broken path and there would be no more skinned knees.

From little things big things can grow. It’s all about preparing today's students to be tomorrow's architects of social change. Along the way it will give us adults the chance to give back to our kids the one thing we seem hell bent on keeping at arms length from them, that deliriously life enriching drug called responsibility. Am I crazy and naïve? Time will tell. I told my idea to Frank Manthey, one of the colourful Bilby Brothers. People had said he was mad when he embarked upon his ambitious plans to help save the Bilby from extinction. Frank said to me, “The man who never failed never did anything.” What I do know is that I have seen enough good ideas labour under the burden of over - administration. Under pinning all this will always be my memory of PC Waddington, his direct action stopping three aerosol sprays disappearing up the noses of kids full of potential. I’ve tried to track him down but so far have failed. He would have no idea that a chance meeting nine years earlier, a meeting that he has most likely forgotten, has spawned an unusual venture on the other side of the globe. I’d love to see his face.