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Every donation makes a
meaningful difference
When you donate to First Light, you are helping widowed people across Australia access vital programs, peer support and trusted information as they navigate grief and begin to rebuild their lives after devastating loss.
First Light is Australia’s only national charity dedicated to supporting all widowed people. Our trauma-informed programs and resources ease isolation and loneliness, improve mental wellbeing, and build resilience and community connection.
Your generosity shines a light of hope during life’s most difficult moments. Thank you!
First Light Widowed Support is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Where funds go
When you send us a donation, you are giving us a gift that we can put towards the program or resource that most needs critical funding, at that time. Your contribution can help us to:
- Distribute Newly Widowed Packs to those who are recently bereaved.
- Host in-person meet-ups for peer connection and support.
- Sponsor a widowed person to attend an in-person event.
- Cover the costs of hosting our online resources, like our Widow Talk video library.
- Continue to deliver the important work that we do by covering some of the associated costs in running a charity.
- Help us raise awareness about the unique and difficult challenges of being widowed before the natural course of life events, and build understanding around the best way to support young widowed people as they navigate their new reality.
How your donation helps
Over the next year, more than 70,000 Australians will be widowed.
With your support, First Light will be able to provide them with access to our life changing support including:
- newly widowed packs, to provide comfort, information and guidance to widowed people as they try to come to terms with their new reality
- informative webinars on a range of topics that widowed people struggle with, such as self-care, parenting grieving children and managing finances
- online resources including virtual support groups, podcast, video interviews, book library and checklists
- peer support opportunities that reduce isolation, improve mental wellbeing and help widowed people feel understood and less alone in their grief
Bequests: how to leave a legacy donation in your Will
Donating a legacy bequest is a meaningful and truly special way to have a lasting impact on the lives of others.
We deeply appreciate and celebrate those who choose to include First Light Widowed Association as a charitable donation in their Will or ask their loved ones to make a donation on their behalf as an informal legacy bequest (for example, in lieu of flowers at a funeral). If you’d like to leave a legacy donation, you can do so formally by leaving a gift in your Will.
To do so, create or update your Will, with the appropriate preparation process (seeking legal advice is greatly recommended so that it is legal and valid).
It’s often also recommended to ensure that you’re taking care of and talking to your loved ones about your intentions. Your solicitor or legal advice will let you know about the different types of gifts you can leave in your Will, eg. a share of your estate/residuary gift, a fixed sum of money or a specific gift (known technically as a bequest), that can be sold for the charity’s benefit.
The correct wording is important in preparing your Will, or it could be deemed invalid. It’s also a good idea to let your executor, guardians, and any relevant loved ones know.
To informally request a legacy donation in your honour, you could tell family members and loved ones, and consider writing a letter.
Wall of love: donations in loving memory
First Light Widowed Association acknowledges the following contributions, graciously donated in the name of loved ones who have passed away or in support of widowed people who are working to rebuild their lives in the face of the greatest pain and adversity. Thank you for supporting our widowed community and contributing to our life-changing programs.
Donation in memory of Peter Crawley
Donated by Debra Esquilant
Donation in honour of Debbie Esquilant
Donated by Trichelle Hippisley
Donation in memory of my beautiful Angel husband
Donated by Jacci Quinlivan
Donation in memory of James Leslie
Donated by the Carr family
$100 donated in memory of Daniel Collins
Donated by Peter and Janette Hackshaw
Donation in memory of Joshua Groth
Donated by Amy Groth
$2000 in memory of Steve Donaghy
Donated by Kate Donaghy and family and friends
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to some of the questions we get asked the most about donating to First Light.
Yes, as a registered charity in Australia that is endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR), every donation over $2 is tax deductible in Australia.
We are registered with the ACNC. (The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission is the national regulator of charities) and endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR). We are covered by Item 1 of the table in the section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
Yes. We partner with SupporterHub to ensure you information is secure. SupporterHub is a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant Service Provider and compliant to the relevant Australian Privacy Principles. PCI DSS is a set of security standards formed in 2004 by Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services, JCB International and American Express.
SupporterHub does not store credit card information due to a direct integration with our preferred banking partner who utilise fully encrypted solutions to ensure the raw cardholder data is never visible or accessible to anyone if a breach occurred. SupporterHub leverages the latest tokenisation technologies including MDES and VTS to ensure data is always safe for programs such as Regular Giving.
There are many ways that you can help us in the work that we do. If you’d like to make a donation, you can contribute a one-off donation for the amount of your choice to contribute to our work overall, fund something specific, like a newly widowed information pack to be sent out, or you can set up recurring donations.
Yes, a receipt will be emailed to you once your payment has been processed (this also applies to all recurring donations). Please be sure to check your junk mail if you do not receive it.
You will also be emailed an end of financial year summary that will include details of all your donations for the financial year.
We highly value and appreciate your generous donations and support, that allows us to continue the work that we do. But we don’t make it hard to exit from your recurring donations.
We understand completely that circumstances can change. If you’d like to change or cancel your recurring donations at any time, you can do so in any of the following ways:
- Submit a Regular Giving Change Form.
- Email us.
- Contact us via our contact form (on our contact page).
At First Light, we will only contact you as much as you’d like to be contacted. You can rest assured, we won’t keep calling you, and you’ll only receive emails if you’re subscribed to our newsletter (aside from tax receipt emails). If you do receive emails from us, and would no longer like to, simply click the ‘unsubscribe’ link on the bottom of an email.
Hope, community, understanding
Join our community for access to information, resources, events, and a network of widowed people for peer support. Joining is free, with options to become a financial supporter to keep us running and helping others.