The official history of the Hawthorn Football Club was appropriately called “The Hard Way” now updated in the recent publication “One For All”. The journey to date has not been easy with several episodes of real vulnerability.

It took the Club over 30 years to make its first finals appearance but despite then winning nine premierships in the period between 1961 and 1991, it was only five years after the 1991 success the Club contemplated a merger with the Melbourne Football Club.

In 1965, then president of Hawthorn, the late Dr Sandy Ferguson, declared the yet to be completed VFL Park Waverley would, in time, become the new home of his beloved Hawks.  

In 1990 his extraordinary vision would be fulfilled with the Hawks playing home games at Waverley for the first time before relocating to the MCG at the conclusion of the 1999 season. His vision would be complete in February 2006 when the Hawthorn Football Club departed its spiritual home at Glenferrie for the last time to make Waverley Park its new permanent base and in the process established a state-of-the-art administration and training facility.

As a natural progression in 2008, the Club took the momentous decision to establish the Hawthorn Football Club Foundation with the aim of financially securing the Club’s future. It was deemed that donations would be sought from members and apportioned towards the Foundation’s objectives of providing the Club access to income and capital for specific projects which could not be funded from the normal operating profit reserves of the Club.

Donations will ensure Hawthorn Football Club has the capital resources to achieve its on and off-field objectives.

The Foundation was formally established in 2009.

We call on all members to join the growing band of Foundation supporters who are collectively providing significantly towards meeting the Foundation’s objectives.