Media release: PILCH welcomes funding to support not-for-profits

28 May 2024

PILCH welcomes funding to support not-for-profits

The Public Interest Law Clearing House VIC (PILCH) today welcomed the announcement from Peter Ryan, the Minister for Regional and Rural Development, that its PilchConnect service would receive $1.2m over the next four years.

PilchConnect is a service provided by PILCH that helps small not-for-profit community organisations. It provides free or low cost legal advice, information and training, and campaigns to improve laws that affect those in the not-for-profit sector.

PilchConnect Director Juanita Pope said this funding will allow more not-for-profit organisations to get on with their core work.

“It is great to see that the Victorian Government continues to recognise the importance of small community-based organisations,” Ms Pope said.  “In many ways these organisations are the social glue of our state.  They provide affordable housing, they protect our environment, they are on hand when we need them in a crisis.”

Kathy Russell of the Women’s Liberation Halfway House (WLHH) also welcomed the news.

“For small services such as ours, the probability of keeping up with the myriad of changes to the law would not be possible without the support of services such as PilchConnect.  As we are a very small organisation these resources are invaluable to us,” Ms Russell said.

A report conducted by Deloitte Access Economics for PILCH last year estimated that 3,500 additional client services were provided to Victorians because organisations like WLHH spent less time worrying about legal issues.

 “We understand our not-for-profit clients are time poor, often working in a volunteer ‘out of hours’ capacity,”  Ms Pope said. “The Victorian Government’s support means we can keep helping the helpers so they can get on with what they do best.”

PilchConnect was established in 2008 and operates in Victoria.