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Translate Issue 38, September 2020

Early Childhood Development grants feature in the latest funding round. Image courtesy of Smiling Mind. MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Looking to the future Despite the challenges 2020 has thrown at us, here at the Foundation we remain committed to our mission to encourage excellence, enable innovation, facilitate positive social change, and develop Australia’s creativity and capacity as a nation. We achieve this by supporting outstanding charitable organisations that are leaders in their sectors. This year, the philanthropic sector has rallied to assist the not-for-profit sector to provide additional support for service providers whose work assists those communities experiencing increasing economic stress. For our part, the Foundation held an additional special Board meeting in July at which several grants were awarded to some of our existing not-for-profit partners. These grants provided timely funding to support these organisations to pivot activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis. These out-of-round grants were awarded in the Fair pillar funding streams (Community Wellbeing and Early Childhood

Development) to support organisations responding to the critical needs of vulnerable Subscribe Past Issues communities at this time.

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In the September funding round, five further Community Wellbeing grants were awarded to support initiatives focused on employment support and homelessness prevention for vulnerable groups. Details of these grants and the organisations they support are outlined in the Grants Round-Up below. Similarly, in July, two Early Childhood Development grants were awarded to the University of Wollongong and Playgroup Australia. Both these grants are community-focused and designed to support the early childhood education and care (ECEC) needs of families with young children in light of the disruptions caused by COVID-19. At its September meeting, the Board allocated grant funds to initiatives designed to address the long-term needs of the ECEC sector. Strengthening this sector will not only lead to better outcomes for our children and their families, it will provide the basis for more Australian children to develop to the best of their ability and go on to become positive contributors to Australia’s future prosperity. The importance of such strategic investment is expressed succinctly in an open letter from Professor Fiona Stanley AC FAA (IPF Governor) and Nicola Forrest AO (Minderoo Foundation). The following extract is particularly prescient: "A broad cross-section of the Australian community – educators, researchers, business leaders, unions, health professionals, parents, community organisations, and economists from across the political spectrum is calling on the federal government to invest in a universally accessible, high-quality early learning system, delivered by a skilled and supported workforce. Such an investment, supporting the important role played by families, will set Australia up for a prosperous, equitable, and sustainable future as we recover from a devastating pandemic." The Ian Potter Foundation is committed to partnering with other philanthropic funders and the ECEC sector to build capacity, innovate and promote evidence-based best practice. So far this year, the Board has awarded over $2.5m across eight multi-year Early Childhood Development grants specifically designed to address the gaps in data, knowledge and policy research. This has fully expended our current grantmaking capacity in the Early Childhood Development program area. So, we have decided to defer considering further Early Childhood Development grants until Round 2, 2022. This hiatus will give our grantees time to report back on their progress and learnings, providing insights that will strengthen our future grantmaking in the Early Childhood Development area. We remain committed to our mission and vision for a vibrant, fair, healthy and sustainable Australia. Craig Connelly CEO

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Lulla's Children and Family Centre, Shepparton. Courtesy of SNAICC – National Voice for our Children.

GRANTS ROUND UP

$3.3 million across 10 grants In this round, applications were considered within the Fair pillar resulting in the Board awarding 10 grants totalling $3,284,000. Within the Early Childhood Development program, five multi-year grants (totalling $2.3m) were awarded to organisations seeking to improve early childhood education and services to ensure all young Australians are provided with the essential building blocks for later life. A further five multi-year grants (totalling $984k) were awarded in the Community Wellbeing program. These grants are focused on preventing homelessness, improving employment opportunities for at-risk individuals and providing wrap-around support for people experiencing mental illness. Find out more about this round's grantees on our blog or see the complete list in our Grants Database.

FUNDING AREAS

Refined guidelines

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Public Health Research objectives refined As part of the Foundation's commitment to continuous improvement, the Board recently refined the funding guidelines for the Public Health Research area. Australia is a global leader in public health but there are still many challenges and inequities in health outcomes. Going forward, the Foundation will consider applications for research projects or programs in the following areas: • Improving health outcomes for Indigenous Australians • Prevention of anxiety, depression and substance abuse in older Australians • Prevention of chronic ill health and disease including obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes through the amelioration of common determinants and risk factors. Preference will be given to proposals which are preventive in nature, aspirational in scale and seek to improve health outcomes using public health approaches at the population level.

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2021 Funding Rounds to open as usual In late August, the Foundation announced via its website that funding rounds in 2021 would proceed as per normal practice. Round 1, 2021 will open on Monday 19 October for Arts, Public Health Research and Medical Research funding areas. Please visit the relevant sections on our website to learn how to contact our Program Managers to discuss your proposed Expression of Interest or application. We thank grantseekers for their patience throughout the past few months as we have focussed our grantmaking on areas of immediate need in the not-for-profit sector.

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IN THE NEWS

Bright Spots

The Bright Spots Schools Connection program recently featured on ABC National News.

The Power of Connection Run by Social Ventures Australia (SVA), the Bright Spots Schools Connection program (The Connection) is a network of high-performing school leaders across Australia, delivering exceptional results within communities experiencing disadvantage. The Foundation has previously provided two grants totalling $358,000 (in 2016 and 2017) to support the scaling up of The Connection and has now awarded a further grant to allow SVA to scope out an innovative online collaboration space for educators. This initiative will enable The Connection to reach significantly greater scale and support schools in isolated communities. A comprehensive evaluation by RMIT’s Policy, Strategy and Impact team found ‘The Connection sets a distinctive example of how system-wide school improvement can be achieved, to help close the inequality gap in Australian education’. The evaluation report, Unleashing the Power of the Collective in Education is available online.

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SECTOR ENGAGEMENT

Staying connected

Welcome workshops remain virtual Welcome workshops for new grantees will continue to be done remotely via Zoom. During August, several one-on-one welcome sessions were held for new grantees who were awarded grants in July. Grantees just announced have been invited to attend a group virtual workshop or a one-one session over the next week or so.

IPF News

Staff continue to work remotely In mid-March, we advised various changes to our office hours and staff availability. Since then our staff have been working remotely and as our office is located in Melbourne, these arrangements remain in place for the foreseeable future. However, as a new funding round opens next month, we are expecting an increase in calls from grantseekers. To alleviate bottlenecks, we have set up direct numbers for the relevant program managers which can be found on our website. If your call cannot be answered, you will be able to leave a voicemail. Please leave a message with your name, organisation and contact number so your call can be returned.

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We produce this quarterly e-newsletter to keep our friends and associates up to date with all the news and recent grants made by The Ian Potter Foundation.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.

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