The Humour Foundation is a charity dedicated to promoting and delivering the health benefits of humour. It is a Public Benevolent Institution with DGR status. All donations over $2 made to The Humour Foundation are tax deductible. Clown Doctors™ is the core program provided by The Humour Foundation. It delivers doses of fun and laughter to sick children and their families in hospital at the bedside when they need it most. Elder Clowns™ is a program delivered by The Humour Foundation that aims through playful engagement, to improve the quality of life of residents living with dementia in aged care facilities. Laughter Boss™ is a program providing workshops for aged care staff, teaching fun and practical skills in how to use play and humour in their everyday work with residents! Laughter Works™ is a program offering talks and workshops to the corporate and community sectors speaking to the benefits of humour and play in the workplace and everyday lives.

Clown Doctors are medical clowns; professional performers selected for their high level of improvisation, Clown and other performance skills, as well as their sensitive and caring personal qualities. They are specially trained by The Humour Foundation to work in the hospital setting. The Humour Foundation provides ongoing training and support to enable Clown Doctors to work to their best ability in the unique hospital environment.

Clown Doctors are hosted by all major children’s hospitals around Australia, and some general hospitals and hospices.  As part of the Outreach program, they also visit regional and metro hospitals regularly.

No, we provide our service free of charge to the hospitals. We rely on community donations and fundraising to keep the Clown Doctors program running.

Click here to view a map of the hospitals we operate in.

Clown Doctors visit children’s wards, yet they can ‘treat’ any person they meet in the hospital. This may be parents, siblings, friends and hospital staff. People of all ages benefit from their special kind of medicine!

At the moment we have 73 performers, 16 Elder Clowns and 67 Clown Doctors, and around Australia they deliver approximately 230,000 interactions with people in hospital each year.

As we receive no government funding, your support is vital to keeping our Clown Doctors program running! You can help us by making a donation, or fundraising in your community for us. Click here or call us on 02 8978 4500 if you’d like to get involved.

Being a Clown Doctor or Elder Clown is not like any other gig, even if you have performed in the health care setting before. It is, however, immensely rewarding. A high level of performing skills is a prerequisite. Our Clown Doctors specialise in different areas – magic, puppetry, music, storytelling, mime etc., and come from differing performing backgrounds. Similarly, it takes a special kind of performer to be an Elder Clown. They are highly skilled performers who are trained to work with the elderly and, in particular, people living with dementia. Performers must undergo a thorough audition and selection process. If you are interested in working as a Clown Doctor or Elder Clown, you are welcome to send through your resume to info@humourfoundation.org.au and we will pass it on to our Artistic Director.

The Humour Foundation has a fundraising strategy in place for its Clown Doctors program, which is continuously reviewed to ensure maximum return on investment. We do this so that we can ensure programs can keep being delivered sustainably into the future. A big part of our fundraising is the face-to-face, door-to-door and telemarketing campaigns we conduct year round. For these campaigns we engage external agencies that can provide us with highly-trained fundraisers in a cost-effective way. These fundraisers are easy to recognise, as they wear either a Clown Doctor coat or a t-shirt with our logo, and carry ID badges with their name and the name of their agency on it. The tablets they hold, allow for donors’ details to be encrypted as soon as they’re typed in, making sure they’re held safe and secure. At any given time, we can also have numerous individual volunteers, community groups and schools fundraising for us in their communities. Each must have a written authority to fundraise issued by The Humour Foundation, and should be able to produce this at your request. If you have doubts about a Clown Doctors fundraiser, please call us on 02 8978 4500 and we will happily check their legitimacy for you.

THF Financials FY 2021

THF Financials FY 2022

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The Humour Foundation has a fundraising strategy in place for its Clown Doctor and Laughter Care programs.  This is continuously reviewed to ensure maximum return on investment allowing for continuous program delivery, sustainably into the future. The Humour Foundation has ongoing fundraising campaigns using face-to-face, door-to-door and telemarketing.

The Humour Foundation engages professional fundraising agencies that provide highly trained and knowledgeable fundraisers to work on our behalf.  Our friendly fundraisers are easy to identify, they wear photo identification and either a Clown Doctors coat or t-shirt with our logo.

If you choose to donate via face-to-face fundraising this will happen using a digital tablet.  All your personal details that are captured through this process are secure and comply with our THF Privacy Policy

At any given time, we can also have numerous individual volunteers, community groups and schools fundraising for us in their communities. Each must have a written authority to fundraise issued by The Humour Foundation and should be able to produce this at your request.

If you have a query about a Clown Doctor or Laughter Care fundraiser, please call us on 02 8978 4500 and we will happily confirm if they are recruiting in your area.