#105 From charity partner to foundation leader, Gill Whelan Head of the Decjuba Foundation

Gill Whelan joins Purposely to share her story as the inaugural Head of fashion label Decjuba’s charitable foundation. Gill swapped corporate sales for a career focused on purpose, combining skills learnt from business and experience leading the charity ‘St Kilda Mums’ in her new role, leading a corporate foundation. Decjuba is a private company and was bought by former Cotton On founder Tania Austin in 2008. A women and girls apparel brand with 140 stores across Australia and New Zealand it has gone from strength to strength. The new owners of the company had envisaged setting up a foundation when the time was right. Formally established in 2021, the motivation to start a foundation was partly driven to provide some structure and strategy to their existing charitable giving. Gill Whelan joined as inaugural ‘Head of’ in July 2022. Decjuba had been a supporter of the charity St Kilda Mums, and this is where Tania got to know Gill. Gill impressed as someone with knowledge and passion for the charity sector as well as a long-standing love for fashion. Leaving St Kilda Mums was not an easy decision for Gill, she had been with them for over a decade and had grown close to their clients, staff, and supporters. Established in 2009, St Kilda Mums, based in Melbourne Australia, raise funds, and redistribute pre-loved items to children to ensure a safe start to life. Instead of being discarded, prams, cots, clothes, and essential items are donated to St Kilda Mums to then be rehomed to families in need. Gill’s gateway into the charity sector was through volunteering, she had spent a ‘fun’ five years living in New York with her family and had arrived back in Melbourne Australia at a ‘bit of a loose end’ but determined to re-engage with her community and make use of the spare time she had. She started volunteering at St Kilda Mums, performing several roles over the first few years but ended up falling in love with the organisation. Inspired by the founder and CEO Jesse McPherson (a former guest of Purposely), ‘she wa