Grace Tame makes shock move after charity that bears her name triggered backlash from donors over the way it spends the money

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame is about to make a shock move after her charity faced a backlash from donors over the way it spends donations.

Ms Tame is stepping aside from the chief executive officer role she has held since the Grace Tame Foundation (GTF) was founded in 2022.

A statement from GTF issued on Tuesday afternoon said she is ‘transitioning to an impact and advocacy focused role within the foundation’.

At the heart of the donor dissatisfaction is the claim that they were not told how their money would be spent. 

The foundation says it works ‘with political and societal leaders, and helps fund peak bodies to advocate for and drive meaningful change’. 

Among its achievements in that area was a change to the wording of a serious child sex abuse offence in South Australia. 

After a campaign led by Ms Tame, the crime’s name was changed from ‘unlawful sexual relationship with child’ to ‘sexual abuse of a child’.

But the foundation then moved away from its original purpose and began funding counselling services and legal fees for sexual abuse survivors – services already offered by other, more established charities. 

When a new charity head is found – a search likely to be helmed by GTF director Michael Salter – Ms Tame said she will focus on her ‘role as founder and work alongside the new CEO, board and team to deliver on our goals. 

‘My commitment to the success of the foundation remains, and this new role will align with my energy and skills to maximise my impact,’ she said. 

Some people who donated to the foundation were said to be furious about the change to how money was spent and a perceived lack of transparency.

In the 2022/2023 financial year, around $170,000 – out of $250,000 raised in the period – was used to pay for counselling and legal costs.

The $107,000 spent on legal services went to Marque Lawyers, whose managing director, Michael Bradley, is on the Grace Tame Foundation board, the Australian reported.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest there was any conflict of interest in where the foundation’s legal expenses were spent.  

Mr Salter and Mr Bradley have been contacted for comment. 

The 2021 Australian of the Year gained notoriety when she gave then prime minister Scott Morrison a cold side-eye glance at a morning tea for the 2022 Australian state and territory award recipients in Canberra.

The photos drew national and international attention, with both praise and criticism raining down on Ms Tame.

Speaking to former detective Gary Jubelin last August on his I Catch Killers podcast, Ms Tame said it wasn’t about not smiling, it was about ‘not playing the game’.

‘I think just generally and it’s not just for women … a lot of the response that I got was about women realising that they didn’t have to smile anymore,’ she said. 

‘And for me, that’s not actually what I thought. For me, it was about not playing the game and especially in the context of the experiences that I had gone through.’