The Buderim Foundation is today awarding $450,300 in Thompson Charitable Fund grants to five organisations across the Sunshine Coast and Noosa regions, providing vital support for people facing homelessness, domestic and family violence, housing instability and financial hardship, and helping local families and individuals regain stability, hope and a path forward.

The Buderim Foundation Thompson Charitable Fund recipients with Buderim Foundation’s Rick Woods and Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli and the Thompson family.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli is joining Buderim Foundation chair Rick Woods, grant recipients, Foundation volunteers, and community champions at the event, which honours the generosity of Roy and Nola Thompson, who established the fund in 2021.

Mr Woods said this year’s Thompson Charitable Fund Grants Celebration was particularly poignant with the recent passing of both Roy and Nola Thompson. “We are proud to be continuing their legacy of philanthropy and generosity to help those in our communities doing it tough,” Mr Woods said.

THE Buderim Foundation today announced the launch of the Sunshine Coast Community Fund — a new permanent investment fund that will provide grants to community organisations across the Sunshine Coast for generations to come.

Buderim Foundation chairman Rick Woods said the new fund expands the Foundation’s reach alongside the Buderim Community Fund and the Thompson Charitable Fund.

“Together these funds build on more than $10 million already invested by the Foundation. Since our first grants distribution in 2008, we’ve awarded more than $3.17 million to local organisations, and the new Sunshine Coast Community Fund will help us grow that impact across the region,” Mr Woods said.

Mr Woods said the new Sunshine Coast Community Fund enables tax-deductible donations and will provide grants that support local organisations and initiatives across the Sunshine Coast to access the support they need to thrive. He said the Thompson Charitable Fund grants will also continue to assist organisations which provide financial support to individuals in need throughout the region with emergency housing, food and other essentials.

More than 280 people gathered last night to support the Buderim Foundation, one of the largest community funds in Queensland, which is looking to expand its reach and support more communities throughout the Sunshine Coast.

Renowned ophthalmologist Dr Bill Glasson AO has shaped his career around the ethos of “take the services to the people” and he will be sharing stories from his life and career at a special Buderim Foundation Breakfast on Tuesday 9^th June 2026.

From the early days of his childhood growing up on a sheep and cattle property outside Winton in Far West Queensland, Bill Glasson knew who his people were – the hard working, dedicated producers of the west. However, as he got older and returned home from boarding school during holidays to help on the property, through drought after drought, he knew he wasn’t destined for life on the land.

Instead, he set his sights on becoming an optometrist, thinking “most people need glasses” and then trained in Brisbane and London to become an ophthalmologist, settling in Brisbane with his wife Claire, who he met at medical school at the University of Queensland.