Today in the award winning The Good Girl Confessional, host Sandy Lowres is chatting with Louise Pfeiffer, a passionate philanthropist, politician and animal rights advocate. Louise is a woman who doesn’t do things by halves. Down to earth and approachable, Louise is quietly passionate about the things she believes in, and living a life that aligns with her values.
Louise is a proud South Australian, and the Director of Philanthropy at The Life You Can Save, an organisation that makes smart giving simple by recommending charities that save lives and improve well-being where each dollar goes the furthest. Having done the research already, The Life You Can Save makes it easy for donors to support charities that are proven to be highly impactful. Through their website they recommend many charities that are making an impact including those that support women and girls globally, climate change, and charities that create ecomomic opportunities. While studying ethics, Louise was inspired by Peter Singer, the man often dubbed by Journalists as the “world’s most influential living philosopher”, to become more mindful in regards to issues that impact the world – global poverty and animal justice amongst them. She became interested in effective altruism which measures the number of lives saved per dollar. On their website, The Life You Can Save has an Impact Calculator so you can see what impact your donation is making.
Beyond her work at The Life You Can Save, Louise has worked or volunteered in roles across financial advising, management consulting, political campaigning and animal advocacy. In 2017, Louise felt moved to join the Animal Justice Party in South Australia becoming a Senate candidate, with a key focus of helping farmers transition to move to more sustainable, plant based crops and business models. Louise is now the Vice President of the Animal Justice Party. Louise was hoping she could create structural change at a bigger level. For Louise, the treatment of animals cannot be separated from the health of our environment and is linked to the wellbeing of our community. Big change requires bold thinking and in 2018, Louise ran in the South Australian State Election as a candidate…and then as a lead candidate in the Senate in 2019. In 2022, she ran for both the State and Federal election. She is now the Vice President of the party.
‘They may be a minor party but we can still have an impact. It gives us the ability to negotiate with bigger parties at a State and Federal level.”
Sandy chats with Louise about her life in philathropy, being a woman in Australian Politics, animal rights and veganism, and why passion for what you do really matters, and the changes it can effect.
