Matt Darvas Email & Phone Number

Australia

Micah Australia is a coalition of faith based international development agencies under the leadership of Rev. Tim Costello AO. Micah empowers Australians to advocate on the most urgent global justice issues facing our world today - extreme poverty & hunger, rising conflict and climate change. We build campaigns and broad coalitions to achieve this.Micah’s impact over the past 5-years:- Encouraging bi-partisan support for Australia’s international development program and ODA budget through over 500 MP meetings by Micah advocates- Building public support to increase aid & vaccine sharing to our Asia-Pacific neighbours during the pandemic through our #EndCOVIDforAll campaign (over $1.1 bn in additional aid was given as well as 60 million vaccines shared)- Advocating for the successful creation of 16,500 additional humanitarian places for Afghan refugees through our Christians United for Afghanistan campaign (in partnership with Action for Afghanistan)- Helping to inform the Government on the unique role of the Church in the Pacific as a significant civil society voice and development actor

In 2015, I began as the Communications and Creative Manager at Compassion, before transitioning to becoming the Marketing Manager. Compassion Australia is one of the nation’s largest charities with an annual income in excess of $90 million AUD.The teams I managed were responsible for Compassion Australia's; child sponsorship product, major fundraising campaigns and appeals, additional core product development and innovation, digital and content marketing, media and PR, and creative brand strategy.Key achievements:- Delivered Compassion's new multi-year Brand Campaign, 'A hope more powerful than poverty.'- Helped to increase sponsorship income by 24% across department, and non-sponsorship income by 6%.- Strong strategy execution and people management skills.- Restructuring of the Marketing department to help breakdown silos, in favour of much more dynamic agile working groups.- Introduced new Design Thinking approaches to product development and innovation at Compassion.

Leading a talented team of designers, writers and digital marketers, I was responsible for the creation and delivery of stand out campaigns for Compassion Australia.

Matt’s speciality is in telling powerful and dignified stories from some of the world’s toughest locations. Matt has an ability to work in complex cross-cultural settings, where he endeavours to understand with sensitivity, the situation facing a community or individual, before communicating this for audiences ‘back home’ in a way that helps them truly understand the situation and inspires them to take action.

Pokhara, Nepal

Whilst living in Nepal, I worked on a number of short contracts for World Vision Australia. My services for them included:- Reporting on the Nepal Earthquake as an Emergency Communications Officer- Helping to initiate and then lead World Vision Australia's 'Overseas Experience Program'​ here in Nepal- Collecting stories and producing high quality video content from the field for marketing and campaign purposes

Newcastle, Australia

As the Child Advocate Network Coordinator, it was my role to empower and inspire our nationwide grassroots movement of supporters and volunteers to "do more" and "go deeper" in their advocacy for children living in poverty.

- Assisted with the creation of a Field Advocacy Handbook for the Asia Pacific Region- Assisted with research tasks for the Don't Trade Lives Campaign on human trafficking and child labour