The Beautiful Bunch is a social enterprise[1] dedicated to empowering young women from refugee backgrounds by providing them with paid training opportunities in floristry and business administration. Committed to ethical and sustainable practices, The Beautiful Bunch helps these women flourish while offering the public stunning locally-grown, floral arrangements.
The impact of the William Buckland Foundation grant
The Beautiful Bunch and the William Buckland Foundation both focus on improving outcomes for Victorians who can find it harder to access the labour market. Jane Marx, Founder, shared her story as her team were creating arrangements for a wedding – something she says would not be possible without the core funding and flexibility that the William Buckland Foundation offered. So far, the Foundation has committed $437,000 of funding over two grants.
Flexible funding: a catalyst for growth
At a critical moment when the organisation was poised to expand, financial support was needed to transform their operations. Jane was the sole full-time employee struggling to keep up with increasing event demands – they needed to scale.
“Scaling is tough without solid cash reserves. That’s why I reached out to William Buckland. I applied for a grant, and they called me to chat about my vision. Thankfully, they truly understood what we needed.”
William Buckland Foundation’s flexible funding allowed The Beautiful Bunch to adapt to real-time needs such as investing in professional photography, which enhanced their marketing materials and brand presence, without having to rewrite their grant or seek approval from the Foundation.
“When we support great organisations the last thing, we want to do is cobble them with funding that ties them to a set path,” says Foundation Lead Ferdi Hepworth. “We back great leaders with vision and trust their expertise and skills to deliver. What that looks like can be really different once a project kicks off. Change is something we almost always expect and understand that it is part of the process. I love it – this level of trust and openness builds a much richer partnership.”
The Beautiful Bunch used funding to establish their dedicated events service, facilitating the hiring of professional florists and dramatically boosting sales by 100% on the previous year, primarily through event bookings.
“We’re seeing incredible growth thanks to being able to expand our offering and have been able to turn our minds to other opportunities such as Rooftop Roses, the next phase in our growth journey” notes Jane.
Transformative journeys: from isolation to sisterhood
The Beautiful Bunch are passionate about creating beautiful floral arrangements and supporting young women from refugee backgrounds to fulfil their dreams. Young women are welcomed into a supportive environment that acknowledges their incredible resilience and the significant challenges they face. Their time in the team is a transformative journey as they gain not only practical skills and workplace confidence but also find a sense of belonging in the community.
Not only are they becoming financially independent – getting a bank account, saving money, starting a superannuation fund – they’re working creatively with women who are at the top of their field, and developing transferable skills in the process. These skills have led the women into a wide variety of fields. “Only two have become florists! The rest of them have gone on to paid employment where they are using the skills we helped them build in all sorts of different ways,” Jane shared.
William Buckland and The Beautiful Bunch are a shining example of how trust and flexibility yields better results for the community.
When relationships thrive innovation blooms.
