The "Bank of Mum and Dad," a major sponsor of Australian Olympic athletes, "may be soon superseded," according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. The general public "can now make tax deductible donations to the Olympic and Paralympic campaigns of individual athletes through a scheme created by the Australian Sports Foundation." ASF CEO Patrick Walker said that the foundation, which supports sporting causes, "developed the program after noticing that athletes were registering on commercial crowd-funding websites to help support their Olympic ambitions." Walker said, "Historically (since '86), we have only worked with clubs and organizations but we recognized there was a need here. I think the general public will be surprised to learn how little many of our Olympians earn. ... But if the athletes go through a commercial crowd-funding program, they are not able to give tax deductions to donors." The Australian Sports Foundation is the one organization that the Australian Taxation Office "allows to offer tax deductions for donations to sport." Speed "was of the essence if the program was to be launched in time to be of use to athletes going to Rio in August-September, and Walker said if it became a success, the plan was to extend it for the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast and future Olympic and Paralympic Games." He said, "What we agreed with the ATO is that we would take stock of it after Rio but we are looking at expanding it because of the need" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 6/15).
