LKF News
We are excited to bring you the latest news for the Lachlan Kean Foundation (‘LKF’) here. This is our way of keeping our generous community informed about the progress we've made, the initiatives we've launched, and the exciting events we have planned.
2024 Contributions
30th March 2025
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Chris O'Brien Lifehouse Contribution
To date LKF has donated $ 150,000 to COBL, as part of their Matched Giving Day on 20.11.2024. This initial donation was 1/3 instalments of 150,000 over a 3 year period to appoint a new Clinical Specialist Nurse in Lower GI (the first Lower GI CSN for Chris O’Brien), announced on 20th November 2024.
Choosing to commit and to be a part of 2024 Giving Day meant that LKF was a keen driver of funds, leading to COBL raising $ 811,744 to support their own mission to create a Specialist Nurse role across all streams of cancer treated at COBL.
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As of March 1, 2025, Nilika Kansakar has commenced her role as The Lachlan Kean Foundation Lower GI Specialist Nurse at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.
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This year, LKF's Golf Day has dedicated all proceeds raised to go towards this commitment to Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. The 2025 LKF Ball, Saturday October 11th will additionally raise funds to fulfill this 3 year pledge.​.
GI Cancer Institute (AGITG)
30th March 2025
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To date LKF has donated $ 70,000 to The Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group. Moving forward we will work with GI Cancer Institute (the community division of Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group, working across Australia to raise funds and awareness of GI Cancer and clinical trials).
Currently we are working towards collaborating on GI Cancer Institute x LKF Gutsy Challenges, where LKF supporters can create their own challenge and we can assist in facilitating the fundraising element, directing those proceeds to GI Cancer Institute. On September 13th, GI Cancer Institute is hosting one of their own annual Gutsy Challenges and we are hoping to get a group together to take on a Blue Mountains 15km Day Trek to start a connection with this Gutsy Challenges concept – more to come.
Awareness campaign Jan 2025
30th Feb 2025
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LKFs first awareness campaign went live across Sydney late January 2025, spreading vital information around the importance of Bowel Cancer testing - because life is so good! JCDecaux Australia and Sam Noble were the driving force behind this initiative, and we look to furthering our partnership with JCD along with additional media partners throughout 2025 and beyond.
August 2024 Update
When we started this journey, we were fortunate to have a large network to offer us guidance on the best way to set up a charity to support Lachie's legacy.
Following detailed investigations, legal and accounting advice, Lachlan Kean Foundation (LKF) was established as a Public Ancillary Fund (PuAF), which is a trust set up and maintained solely for the purpose of providing money, property or benefits to deductible gift recipients (DGRs). A PuAF, whilst having DGR status, does not perform charitable work itself. Instead, it acts as a bridge between donors and charitable DGRs, promoting philanthropy through fundraising and collecting public donations, which provide donors with an immediate tax deduction.
This structure is most suitable for LKF as the foundation does not currently employ full time employees. This way, we are able to focus on maximising the success of fundraising initiatives, which can then be deployed to further the foundation’s stated objectives, and causes identified by Lachie as being important throughout his battle.
As such, the Foundation is endeavoring to form a panel of partner charities that are suitably aligned to the LKF Mission. We look forward to announcing these partner charities in the coming months.
LKF is committed to undertaking thorough diligence of the mandate, constitutions and governance of any organisation that receives funds from LKF. Furthermore, as a PuAF, the Foundation is obligated to conduct audited financial reporting and other records that detail and explain all transactions that are relevant to its fundraising activity, allocation of funds raised, and status as a DGR
Our progress so far...
Since Lachie passed, in addition to formalising the Lachlan Kean Foundation, with the right governance and structure, our core focus has been building initial awareness of the Foundation and our mission, whilst bringing our tight-knit community along on our journey. Websites and Socials were up and running early, to spread our story and we were thrilled to run some early merchandise collaborations with incredible brands (Thank you, Budgy Smuggler and Tucker Cafe, Randwick). In addition to this, our fundraising activity commenced with two key initiatives:
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GoFundMe | LKF raised $57,000
The initial GoFundMe initiative was undertaken in December 2023 with the view to welcoming the generous eagerness from the LKF community to support. Funds allowed us to finance larger fund-raising activities (see below) and assist in the various establishment costs associated with the Foundation and obtaining the PuAF and DGR status.
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Golf Day | LKF raised $42,000+
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Sydney Marathon $40,000+
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Gala Ball $250,000+
LKF Golf Day
On the 5th of April 2023, LKF held its very first event, the LKF Golf Day at St Michaels Golf Course, Little Bay. Some 124 golfers braved torrential rain on the day to compete for an array of prizes with the team from JWC taking out the 1st place handicapped ambrose event. The biggest prize of the day, sponsored by Corpsure, was $50,000 cash for a hole in one on the 5th hole. This prize was apparently never remotely threatened. We are proud to say that the rain didn't dampen the spirits and the day was a great success!. A special thanks goes to the major sponsors for the day, Forma Projects, Jim Wilson Constructions, R & G Constructions as well as hole sponsors Nearmap, EC Pohl & Co and Corpsure. The LKF team would like to call out the organising and support committee on the day for all their hard work in pulling off such an amazing event, as well of course the sponsors and the numerous people who generously donated prizes towards the day.
LKF Ball 2024: Disco Nights
The LKF Ball 2024 was a huge success raising over $250,000 on the night.
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✨ $150K was donated to Chris O'Brien Lifehouse funding a specialist bowel cancer nurse to enhance patient care.
✨ $70K was donated to AGITG, accelerating bowel cancer research trials to improve treatments and lives.
We'd like to thank our platinum sponsor Salesforce, our gold sponsors Wilson Asset Management and Hale Capital Partners. Silver sponsors include Novus, Palmerbet, Certe Finance, Lamborghini Wines, King's Demo and Seedtag. These corporate partnerships are fundamental to the success of the Foundation, and the generosity of these organisations provides a lasting impact for LKF to deliver its mission.
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Sydney Marathon 2024
The Sydney Marathon took place on Sunday 15th September 2024 and LKF was lucky enough to have 25 runners supporting the cause. The marathon raised over $40,000. Special thanks to Salesforce running team for their contribution.
Salesforce Partnership
We would like to take the opportunity to place a special call out to our platinum partner at the inaugural LKF Ball event in Salesforce. Lachie worked for Datarama, a Salesforce company, once he returned from Singapore.
Lachie immediately found his place at Salesforce where he appreciated the company's culture and energy. The value of his time with the organisation was evident in the many colleagues who soon became friends and later stood by his side through his diagnosis and ongoing battles.
Salesforce as an organisation was also extremely generous when Lachie had to take leave to focus on his health and since his passing have continued to show support in honour of his legacy.
The Salesforce and LKF partnership will initially include sponsorship of the LKF Ball and the LKF team participating in the 2024 Sydney Marathon. LKF also intends to present on the Foundation's story and mission at Salesforce Sydney offices in the coming months.
A very big shout out to those involved in establishing this partnership, in particular Hugh Allerton and Camilla Franklin from the Salesforce team.