Representatives from a charity with a Canberra branch met with Queen Camilla during the royals’ visit to Australia.
Queen Camilla caught up with GIVIT at the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Monday 21 October – an organisation she became a patron of in 2020.
The national not-for-profit was founded in 2009 by Juliette Wright OAM to offer an online platform that connected donors wishing to give money, time or goods with the charities that needed them.
Canberra-based GIVIT spokeswoman Caroline Odgers told CW when the organisation found out the royals were visiting Australia, Ms Wright asked to be involved – and she received a resounding yes. Staff, volunteers and GIVIT CEO Chris Staines also took part.
“At the Botanic Gardens, we were supposed to do a 20-minute presentation to the Queen, but it went for almost twice that,” Ms Odgers said.
“She was very generous of her time.”
Ms Odgers said they discussed two areas of the organisation’s work: disaster recovery – it has responded to 25 disasters across Australia – and domestic and family violence.
“They’re two causes that are close to our heart and a huge part of our work,” she said.
Ms Odgers said the Queen asked lots of questions and was “very conversational”.
She said Camilla received a very “Australian experience” while at the gardens with sightings of brown snakes and water dragons.
Ms Wright told the Queen her attention on the organisation would help donations flow.
“You were so tiny in 2020,” the Queen replied, recalling when she first got in touch with GIVIT.
Ms Wright said the operation had been based at her dining table at that time.
“I’m so glad I’ve been able to see you in person not just looking at you on a screen. It’s never the same as face-to-face,” the Queen said.
Camilla also met two of the organisations the platform worked with Fearless Women and Eurobodalla Mayor Mathew Hatcher.
In 2020, Camilla gave GIVIT a “generous donation” of an undisclosed amount, she also donated money to its flood appeal in 2022.
In 2023, some of the GIVIT team, who all paid for the trip themselves, were invited to Buckingham Palace to attend the King’s Coronation.
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