August 2nd, 2010 by admin | Posted in information, news | No Comments »
The following is an article which appeared in the July 2010 issue of Transatlantic Community Foundation Network’s newsletter, featuring Philanthropy Australia’s Community Foundation Development Officer, Andrew Lawson.
The full newsletter can be downloaded here, or visit the TCFN website.
Regional Focus – Australia
Background and History
Community foundation development started in Australia with the Victorian Community Foundation established in 1983. It was a decade before others followed - the Tasmanian Community Foundation formally starting in 1995 and the Melbourne Community Foundation in 1997. For the last ten years, Philanthropy Australia, the membership association for the country’s trusts and foundations, has provided development support and now numbers 24 community foundations among its members, while yet more areas are working on community foundation formation.
A key actor in the field’s development has been the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), supported by the Australian Government and the Sidney Myer Fund, ANZ Bank and The Pratt Foundation, with the remit of helping establish community foundations in rural and regional Australia. Much development has been driven by a commitment in rural areas to allowing local people to take more control over their own resources and priorities, rather than letting the bigger centres of population and state or federal government set the agenda.
There have been legislative and fiscal impediments to full community foundation functioning – ways of coping with these have been found and the foundations are working hard on creating their own sustainability.
To get a sense of the support offered by Philanthropy Australia and FRRR and the stages of development of different foundations, see the Community Foundations Gateway, managed by Philanthropy Australia. The Australia National Community Foundation Forum 2010 will be held from 19-21 October, 2010 in Melbourne and fuller details should be available soon on Philanthropy Australia.
Two perspectives which follow on the field start to give a flavour of development and we shall be pleased to follow up with more contributions from Australia in future issues.
New State government initiative in Victoria
Andrew Lawson, Community Foundation Development Officer, Philanthropy Australia writes to tell us about a new programme for supporting community foundation development in his state, Victoria. Like community foundation practitioners in many countries, he has studied the way the UK government has over the years got involved in flowing funds through community foundations for grantmaking and for endowment matches: he sees the great advantages in this – and the risks.
Over the past ten years in Australia, Federal Government support in the form of limited funds to assist the start up of community foundations has come from grants made by the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal. These grants are restricted to foundations in rural and regional areas and in the past two years, a new programme has been put into place, aimed at assisting with limited amounts of administration funding and tightly targeted. It includes an element of match funding over a three year period.
In the past year, the Victorian State Government’s Department of Planning and Community Development has introduced a new initiative for community foundations. The Department recognises that community foundations enable local people with philanthropic interests to support local priorities and initiatives more easily and effectively than can government. One of the strengths of community foundations, their ability to establish a sustainable funding stream for the community which is independent of government funding, is understood. One of the Victorian Government’s Action Plans is to “Strengthen Community Organisations”. One part of this initiative is for grants to 12 community foundations in areas where there is the right mix of community interest and need. The funding investment is intended to boost the prosperity of communities and increase business and community involvement in community life. The funds invested can help create a sustainable base for activities and the intention is to invest this in areas where government has already supported community development programmes and where the groundwork for success is already in place.
The way in which the decisions to fund are taken, has made for a successful and well received programme. Andrew says, “It is giving a very strong impetus for the foundations involved in developing their local community funding as well as lifting their community profiles. The important component of the programme is ensuring that community foundations have to be active in local community fund development and they cannot rely on a stream of government funding which could sap independent development activity.”
This article can be read in full here.
A new start – Fremantle Foundation
Dylan Smith (dylan@fremantlefoundation.com) of the emerging Fremantle Foundation has sent some thoughts and updates. He says the mood at the moment in Australian Philanthropic circles is “a feeling of emergence”. The culture of giving has traditionally been confined to a few wealthy families with their own foundations. Melbourne Community Foundation is the exception and its size and experience offer leadership to others. There is now, though, a sense that things are starting to blossom, typified by the topic of this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference Philanthropy at the tipping point? to be held 31 August – 1 September in Melbourne.
The Fremantle Foundation is in its formative stages with a launch planned for October this year and a focus very much on internal matters at the moment - setting up the correct structures and operating environment.
Nonetheless they have worked carefully on priorities, especially in
- Approaches to alleviate poverty: their initial focus area is women’s homelessness, in particular the women’s refuges that operate in Fremantle and they are debating how best to assist, without taking on the responsibility that state government should provide
- Supporting collaboration and partnerships in the community has been the active area to date, as establishing operational partnerships and sponsorships has been essential. They have close links to local government, universities and government agencies. This is highlighted by the support of the Fremantle Ports – a crucial element of the Fremantle economy so that “to have their support is wonderful”.
Grant guidelines will recognise the link between health and community participation, and focus on tackling isolation, powerlessness and lack of community engagement.
Those involved in the Foundation are proud of the mix of people involved. Their interests reflect the full gamut from professional sport to crisis accommodation, and from arts to business.
The full newsletter can be downloaded here, or visit the TCFN website.
