Jane Tewson

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Jane Tewson (b.???, UK) is the originator of several innovative charitable (non-profit) organisations and ideas for community strengthening, notably in the UK and Australia. She believes in making charity "active, emotional, involving and fun", by building connections between people of different backgrounds, cultures, wealth, and social positions. Her approach argues for "people getting directly involved and giving themselves.....", rather than giving money for charitable works. This "embraces human connection as a vital part of social change".

In 1999 she received a CBE from HM Queen Elizabeth II for her foundational work with Charity Projects, which later spawned the highly successful Comic Relief concept, that combined 'Red Nose Day' with a BBC TV telethon featuring Britain's top entertainers and comics. Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Safawa, Sudan, in response to the African famine (Helen Fielding's novel Cause Celeb, 1994, may be partially based on the launch). By 2005 it had raised £337 million for famine relief and community development, notably for Africa and in disadvantaged areas of the UK. Comic Relief distibutes much of its aid through partner organisations. In her CBE acceptance Tewson was modest: "It’s odd for me to receive this honour as I never see myself as anything special. I’m just lucky to be in touch with crucial issues and to work with exceptional and inspiring people who actually tackle and experience those issues on the ground."

She has, however, set up the following organisations:

And concepts she pioneered include:

  • Comic Relief (1985)
  • Timebank (1999). Otherwise known as ONE20, encourages people from all walks of life to give time to community projects, with beneficiaries 'passing on' a similar dedication of time and effort to others. Timebank has featured on BBC TV several times, and the 2000 Hollywood movie Pay It Forward is based on a similar idea (believed unrelated).
  • The Corporate Responsibility Index in Australia, that benchmarks companies against their corporate responsibility performance.
  • Charitable Projects ran the Holborn Great Investment Race - which challenged investment companies in the City of London to accrue maximum returns (within ethical guidelines) on ‘seed money’ donated by Prudential Holborn Trust. In two years, over £1.5 million was raised and notated to charity.
  • Feet First for Homeless People saw central London commuters walking home in the evening, and donate the money saved in fares to help young homeless people living in the West End. This raised £100,000 in 4 weeks.
  • Pilotlight undertook further unconventional activities like Real Deal, which brought together homeless and disadvantaged young people with key policy-makers to speak about drugs, health, education and so-on. A “closed doors” workshop took place between young people and Cabinet Ministers at 11 Downing Street.
  • With her husband, Tewson organised Whose land?, which funded exchange visits between East African Maasai pastoralists and Aboriginal Australian communities, both fighting hard to regain land rights [1]. In October 1999, Pilotlight also helped facilitate an historic meeting between a senior delegation of Aboriginal Australians and Her Majesty the Queen.

Among numerous other roles, she has been Trustee of The Media Trust, The Camelot Foundation, Oxfam, and she served on the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Committee.

In March 2000, she was named by The Times newspaper as one of the top ten innovators of the 1990s in the UK. In the same year, she relocated from South-East England to Melbourne, Australia, when her husband Charles Lane was appointed as director of project funding at the Myer Foundation and then the Dept. of Victorian Communities. Tewson resides in an eastern suburb of Melbourne and is the mother of two children. She works on some inner city Melbourne projects, and elsewhere, through Pilotlight Australia. For example in 2005, Pilotlight helped take forward a concept begun in East London, We Are What We Do, which asks people to make small voluntary actions promoting goodwill and sustainability. The book "Change the World for Ten Bucks" was published (price, $10, 200,000 copies sold), and German and British editions have also been released. She sits on the boards of the Reichstein Foundation and the St James Ethics Centre.

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