Grace Tame set to move on from the charity bearing her name after donor backlash about how it's run

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame is reportedly about to step down as the head of her charity foundation following a backlash from donors over how the funds it raises are used. 

While she is still listed on the Grace Tame Foundation's website as its chief executive officer, the process to find a new CEO is about to begin, The Australian reported.

Foundation director Michael Salter is likely to take charge of the recruiting, with a job advertisement set to be published in the coming weeks. 

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. 

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.  

Ms Tame, 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.'