Canon Australia today launched Canon Creative for a Cause, a national campaign targeting the thousands of Australian charities in desperate need of awareness and financial support.

Based on the belief that a single image can change the world, the campaign aims to inspire Australians
through photography for the chance to win their nominated charity $60,000 and to become one of Canon’s
preferred charities in 2009.

The Canon Creative for a Cause launch coincides with the release of Canon’s Charitable Giving Survey
which suggests that despite being a nation of charitable people, Australians are shunning smaller causes in
favour of high profile appeals, leaving our smaller charities inadequately funded and struggling to survive.

The survey found that large charities are receiving on average 34 times the amount of funding through donations than smaller charities each year. This translates on average to $5.6 million for the larger charities
compared with just $164,000 for the smaller, lesser-know charities. Craig Manson, Senior General Manager-Marketing, Canon Australia says that through Creative for a Cause, Canon aims to raise awareness of Australia’s charitable causes and help to make a difference to these organisations.

“Over the past few weeks we have spoken to more than 100 Australian charities, and what they are telling
us is that in the current economic climate, the demand for charitable services is on the rise, yet due to a
lack of funding and public donations, many valuable and much needed smaller charities are really
struggling.”

“Despite tough economic conditions, however, Australians are generous, charitable people, with almost half
saying they will give to a charity this year. The only problem is most of this money will be donated to the
larger, well known charities, with only a small portion of funds reaching smaller ones.”

Creative for a Cause is about celebrating the power of an image and providing a platform for Australians to
raise awareness of the causes they are most passionate about. Creative for a Cause also works to
highlight the many valuable, but lesser known charities in operation across the country that don’t
necessarily have a high profile but whose voices need to be heard.

Canon is urging all Australians to participate in Creative for a Cause by simply taking a photo that reflects
the causes they are most passionate about, along with a 25 word description of what their photo represents
and who their selected charity is, and uploading it to www.canon.com.au/creativeforacause.