Charities left at the altar

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The Age

National

Bride Brynne Gordon and groom Geoffrey Edelsten.

Bride Brynne Gordon and groom Geoffrey Edelsten. Photo: Getty Images

It was billed as the ultimate wedding with a conscience.

When Geoffrey Edelsten married Brynne Gordon, no expense was spared. A star-studded guest list, a video invitation made by the director of Pretty Woman, a red carpet befitting royalty and American television stars Jason Alexander and Fran Drescher hired to co-host the party.

And all this for a worthy cause, the happy couple said, requesting the 550 guests bring envelopes containing donations rather than gifts.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

The Royal Children’s Hospital, beyondblue, the Lighthouse Foundation – the list of those set to benefit from the 2009 nuptials read like a roll-call of Australia’s top charities.

But more than three years later, some of the charities say they are yet to receive a cent from Edelsten’s charitable group.

Twelve weeks before the wedding, Edelsten and his business partners set up the non-profit Great Expectations Foundation, which they established ”to support a variety of charitable organisations, to ensure that donations will be tax deductible”.

Among the guests spotted lining up for the donation table were Jeanne Pratt and her son, Anthony. The guest list also included AFL footballers, celebrities and business people.

At the time, Edelsten said the glitzy debut for his new foundation was just the beginning, promising future events would similarly ”do a lot of good”.

But more than three years on, many of the charities once linked to Great Expectations have received no funds and, in at least one case, have taken moves to sever ties with Mr Edelsten’s foundation.

Last week, beyondblue took the unusual step of demanding that Great Expectations stop using its name to solicit donations and remove any mention of the charity from its publicity materials.

”The Great Expectations Foundation had neither an authority to fund-raise from nor an ongoing relationship with beyondblue, which is why beyondblue asked it to stop promoting an association between the two organisations,” chief executive Kate Carnell said.

A Fairfax Media investigation has found that at least three charitable and not-for-profit groups have either never received money from Mr Edelsten’s foundation, or were unaware their names were being used to raise funds from the public and wedding guests. They include the Royal Children’s Hospital, Lighthouse Foundation and American Women’s Auxiliary.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Children’s Hospital said: ”The RCH Foundation confirmed it had received personal donations from Geoffrey Edelsten; however, it had no record of donations from the Great Expectations Foundation.”

On Friday, Fairfax Media contacted Mr Edelsten about the story. He requested a list of questions, which were sent to him on Saturday. He did not respond to the questions about the operations of Great Expectations.

Some charities, including Magen David Adom – the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross – reported receiving a donation around the time of the Edelsten wedding. Only the Fight Cancer Foundation has confirmed receiving ”various donations” directly from the foundation over the past three years.

One guest who attended the event said some donations were made out directly to the nominated charities and they received a receipt in return directly from those groups.

But other charities named in the foundation’s constitution or previously listed in publicity materials – such as the Australian Sports Foundation and the Lighthouse Foundation – only discovered they were listed beneficiaries when contacted by Fairfax Media.

”We certainly don’t have a relationship with them as far as I am aware,” said Rod Philpot, general manager of the Australian Sports Foundation.

Company searches reveal that Mr Edelsten’s charity has failed to file financial reports with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission since it was founded in 2009, which could put it in breach of the Corporations Act.

According to the constitution of Great Expectations only the company’s directors – Mr Edelsten, his long-time business partner Lewi Karalis, and suburban lawyer Michael Webb – have access to the accounts.

In 2009, Mr Edelsten told Fairfax Media: ”We are trying to do a lot of good here. Every dollar spent on the wedding has been spent by me, not Great Expectations, every dollar collected by the foundation will be going to the charities.

”We’ll have one of the big four accounting firms do the audit.”

There is no record of any financial reports or audit of Great Expectations lodged with ASIC.

The foundation’s constitution, which permits its directors to operate bank accounts anywhere in the world, requires the company to hold annual meetings and complete full financial accounts. The directors are entitled to be paid for their work.

Since the wedding, Great Expectations has continued to solicit donations through another Edelsten project, the website petitioned the Supreme Court of Victoria to wind up two of his companies for unpaid payroll taxes.

Reporter Chris Vedelago is listed on Edelsten’s website, Australia’s Worst Journalist.

cvedelago@theage.com.au

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