NEXTGEN and Netskope partner to provide ongoing support to Starlight Children's Foundation

Distributor NEXTGEN has partnered with Netskope to provide ongoing standardised donations to the Australian branch of charity The Starlight Children's Foundation.

The Sydney-based IT services distributor and cloud security vendor will donate an undisclosed percentage of margins of all sales to the foundation on a quarterly basis.

In a joint statement, Netskope said that making charity work sustainable, where it does not require stakeholder approvals for large lump sum donations, was important to the company. 

Netskope said that because it has a “relatively small local presence” in Australia it will provide a purely financial role while NEXTGEN will handle the management and logistics of the charity support.

Netskope’s pivot into the Australian not-for-profit sector coincides with a number of recent initiatives to expand in the Asia Pacific market. 

This week it also hired Matt Paull for the newly created role of vice president of Asia Pacific Japan channel sales and launched its first global, more scalable partners program— Evolve Partner Program— to replace its region-specific programs.

NEXTGEN's head of operations Gavin Lawless said that the IT industry had been in a relatively fortunate and sheltered position over the past few years and that it was important to give back to those in need of support.

“The work that Starlight does to deliver happiness to sick kids and their families is extraordinary,” Lawless said.

“Working together, we can make a more meaningful contribution. Vendors are often quite inhibited in their ability to make these kinds of decisions locally, but when they’re working closely with us there’s a lot more that we can achieve.” 

Starlight provides support to hospitalised children with goods such as hospital wear, games, and other deliveries.

Starlight Children's Foundation boss Louise Baxter, said “this partnership will help us continue to brighten lives and bring much needed joy, fun and laughter to sick kids when and where they need us…in hospitals and in communities right around Australia.”