About Dave
Dave Burkett is the founder of Givora, a managed storytelling and fundraising channel for local charities — and a builder and systems thinker with a decade of doing it at scale. As director and Chief Growth Officer of a Brisbane software group, he co-founded the Codebots platform and helped grow the firm from a $300k studio to a $3.5m government and enterprise modernisation business across fifty-plus engagements — chairing project boards on multi-million-dollar government programs and building the ISO-certified governance systems that kept them honest.
He has also been a foster carer, living inside the systems meant to protect vulnerable children. That experience anchors the conviction behind his work: systems fail people not from lack of care, but from lack of design. Givora applies that thinking to community fundraising.
He lives in Wynnum, on Brisbane's bayside, with his family. The causes closest to home: child safety and food security.
The intro you can read out
"Dave Burkett is a builder and systems thinker — a decade leading technology delivery for government and enterprise, a co-founded software platform, and lived experience as a foster carer inside the systems meant to protect vulnerable kids. He founded Givora to help local charities get heard — and funded."
Talk & episode topics
Failed by design: lessons from inside the child-protection system
What foster caring taught Dave about why well-intentioned systems fail the people they serve — and how the same design lens applies to any organisation trying to do good.
Get heard, get funded: storytelling as a revenue channel
Why the charities doing the best work are the least known — and how consistent story work compounds into predictable funding.
Own the audience, rent the reach
The single biggest strategic choice in charity fundraising: who keeps the supporter when the campaign ends.
What boards should ask about any fundraising channel
Cost per dollar raised, the three ownership tests, and the questions that separate a channel from a treadmill — from someone who has chaired project boards for a living.
Raffles, rules and reality: charitable gaming in Queensland
How prize economics, licensing and compliance actually work for community raffles — and the traps small charities walk into.
Formats: podcast conversations, 20–45 minute talks, board briefings, panels. In person around South East Queensland, remote anywhere. Portrait and bio on this page, print-ready versions on request.
Enquire about a date