philanthropyOz Blog

Guest Blog: Gandel Philanthropy’s review of strategy, philosophy and the need for small grants

This post written by Vedran Drakulic, Chief Executive Officer, Gandel Philanthropy.

Over the recent months Gandel Philanthropy has undertaken a process of reviewing its strategic direction, its granting philosophy and the nature of its grant-making. The reasons for this include Gandel Philanthropy’s wish to expand its community involvement and influence, create stronger links and develop its relationships, as well as the fact that the Board aims to increase grant distributions in the coming years.

The new strategy addresses matters such as the areas of interest that we wish to support; outlines the three levels of grants in terms of their financial size; the distinction between grants that are open for application and those that are by invitation; and it outlines the time-frames for grants in relation to the application periods and the frequency of granting.

In terms of the actual structure of giving, Gandel Philanthropy developed three levels - categories of grants that are aimed at providing support for both Jewish and Australian causes and organisations:

1. communityassist grants

These grants are allocated up to a maximum amount of $40,000. They are generally envisaged as one-off grants aimed at providing support for a defined program or part of a program. They are geared towards smaller community organisations, however any eligible organisation can apply. These grants are open for application to anyone that is eligible, and that delivers programs or services within one of the specified areas of interest (see below). This is a rolling program of applications throughout the year and there are no closing dates for these grants. Decisions will be made around four times a year.

Reasoning:

Gandel Philanthropy believes that all types of grants are needed to enable us to provide support for the benefit of those in need in the community, and to achieve our vision of “creating a positive and lasting difference in people’s lives.” We believe that, strategically, we can support both the ongoing, immediate, as well as emerging needs in the society through allocations from our communityassist grants. As Chet Tchozewski, of Global Greengrants Fund, pointed out in Alliance magazine, “too often foundation leaders incorrectly assume that small grants are not strategic”. We believe they are and can be, and our strategy reflects that belief.

In addition, we will provide grants in both the traditional, as well as some new, areas of interest, reflecting our wish to explore and learn about the needs in a range of sectors in the community. These areas of interest may continue to evolve as part of our learning.

Currently Gandel Philanthropy communityassist grants are allocated towards eight specific Areas of Interest:

• Arts & Culture;
• Education;
• Health & Medical Research;
• Community Development;
• Social Cohesion & Inclusion;
• Poverty & Disadvantage;
• Environment; and
• Emergency Response & Recovery.

Additional details related to eligibility, Areas of Interest, the application process, exclusions and other relevant information are contained in the communityassist Grant Guidelines document. Potential applicants need to contact Gandel Philanthropy on info@gandelphilanthropy.org.au, or by calling (03) 8564 1288, to obtain the communityassist Grant Guidelines and the communityassist Application Form. Applicants are encouraged to discuss their project proposal with us before submitting an application.

2. communitybuild grants

The communitybuild category of grants reflects Gandel Philanthropy’s wish to provide significant support to community organisations to achieve stronger and longer-term positive social impact within the specified areas of interest. These grants can be allocated as single, one-off contribution or multi-year support, depending on the nature of the need and the proposal. As a rule, the aim is to support programs that are evidence-based, that deliver defined positive outcomes in the community, that may provide long-term benefit to the target audience, that have the potential to be ‘transferrable’ and broadly implemented.

Continue reading Guest Blog: Gandel Philanthropy’s review of strategy, philosophy and the need for small grants…

New issue of Australian Philanthropy journal - Brave Philanthropy: taking risks and testing solutions

Brave Philanthropy: taking risks and testing solutions is the theme of our latest issue of Australian Philanthropy, Issue 82, Spring 2012.

Lisa Jordan, executive director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation wrote in Alliance magazine, (March 2012) “…taking risks is an inherent responsibility of organised philanthropy … to use private money to try to solve intractable problems … The question is, do we?” While foundations often explore and plan for financial risk in their investment management, there is little understanding of risk on the program side. “We have no forums where risk can be discussed … and we rarely use the tools we have such as evaluation to help us understand the degree to which we have succeeded or failed.”

The question of failure is a tricky one – it assumes we have identified a measure of achievement to be aimed for, and fallen short of that bar. But how many foundations have actually identified the impact they want to make in a given place or field, let alone measured success against those aims? If, on the other hand, the only true failure is a grant that nothing is learned from, why do many foundations inhibit the extent of their successes by not sharing the learnings? Issue 82 investigates whether Australian philanthropy does indeed take risks in its grant-making and learn from both its successes and failures.

SELECTED ARTICLES

Innovation doesn’t grow on trees - the art of finding and funding new solutions (PDF)

By Brenton Caffin, CEO, The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI)

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation works with people to create and spread new ways to lead better lives. We heard the call from the child protection system and in response we undertook a project to explore ways of preventing families fromb spiralling into crisis and to enable more families to thrive. The result was Family by Family.

Interview: Eda Ritchie (PDF)

The R. E. Ross Trust, funding across Victoria, is one of the most innovative and respected foundations in the country, showing leadership across grant-making, communications and transparency. Eda Ritchie joined the Trust as trustee in 1997 and Louise Arkles asked her about the importance of risk-taking in philanthropy.

Interview: Dr Sam Prince (PDF)

Picture this: a Scottish-born Australian doctor with Sri Lankan heritage running a chain of Mexican restaurants alongside his work in emergency medicine and doing aid work in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and now in remote communities in the Northern Territory. Phew!
Dr Sam Prince lives this life – he’s a medical doctor, a business entrepreneur, and the founder of the charities Emagine Foundation and One Disease at a Time, and to top it off he’s not yet 30. Louise Arkles, editor of Australian Philanthropy, asked Sam Prince about his philanthropy and his approach to taking risks and testing solutions.

Browse the full contents list on the PhilanthropyWiki

» Click here for more information on the Australian Philanthropy Journal

Members of Philanthropy Australia can download the full PDF version of issue 82 here (requires Member login)

New foundation-funded film on organ donation

The Anita Luca Belgiorno-Nettis Foundation has funded a new film looking at organ donation, to be screened this Sunday 26 February on ABC1 at 6.30pm (repeated Monday at 1:30pm).

The Last Race is a compelling 30-minute drama about a family suddenly faced with a decision of whether to donate the organs of 25-year-old Mike, and a race against time to save a life. A moving and powerful film, it shows a family struggling to make a difficult decision on behalf of a loved one. The complexities of not knowing the deceased’s intentions, and the speed with which the decision has to be made, are brought to the fore. The Last Race tells a story that could become reality for any of us, a decision that anyone may have to make, and paradoxically offers the chance to change a person’s life for the better. As we see the family reach their decision, the film asks: what would you do?

If you’d like to find more about the film, you can visit the film’s website, go to The Last Race on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter - hashtag #lastrace.

Observations from the CHOGM People’s Forum

Bruce Argyle attended the CHOGM People’s Forum on behalf of Philanthropy Australia last week.

As part of the various meetings and fora held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Heads of government Meetings in Perth, the CHOGM Peoples Forum (CPF) brought together 250 civil society representatives from across the Commonwealth to share ideas and to respond to issues under the theme ‘Driving Change for a Dynamic Commonwealth’.

The program included eight themed workshops;

1. Governance and Democracy
2. Gender and Women’s Rights
3. Indigenous People
4. Education, Technology and Innovation
5. Culture, Identity and Peace
6. Economic Development, Trade and Finance
7. Climate Change, Environment and Disaster Management
8. Human Rights

The People’s Forum was opened by the Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard who spoke about the CPF being a place for promoting democracy and civil society, representing over 2 billion people from 54 countries. She encouraged those present to ensure that civil society brings commonwealth values to life on a daily basis.

Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah (‘Danny’), Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, highlighted that, in order to remain relevant, the Commonwealth needed to return to focusing on both values and on value-adding in terms of adding value to people’s lives.  Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary General of the Commonwealth highlighted these values as including tolerance, respect and understanding and cited the Commonwealth as being the original worldwide web.

Phiroshaw Camay, Chair of the Commonwealth Foundation, spoke about the Statement on Civil Society that has been developed and highlighted the importance of education as a fundamental human right.  Ingrid Srinath, Secretary CIVICUS, The Global Society for Civil Society, took the assembled group on a journey of civil society … through the heady optimism of the 1990’s to the war on terror and increasing levels of disparity around the world.  This has been mirrored by an increase in criminalisation of dissent in many countries.

There was a strong focus on civil society throughout the Forum sessions and an encouragement to ‘join the dots’ through partnerships and collaboration. Interestingly, Facebook was cited as the largest example of civil society on the planet. Commonwealth connect was launched as a new platform for building closer connections between people in the Commonwealth.

Three recommendations forwarded to the Heads of Government were:

1. To see civil society as a resource and as allies of government
2. To instruct public servants to work more closely with civil society
3. To instruct the Commonwealth Foundation to take on a facilitator role to make the above happen.

Sir Ronald Sanders spoke on behalf of the EPG (Eminent Persons Group) that was set up in 2009 to frame a report for the Heads of Government on reforms for the Commonwealth. This report includes 206 recommendations but has yet to be made public (much to the consternation of delegates present). It is said to include recommendations for a Human Rights Charter, the establishment of a Commissioner for democracy and human rights and an expert group to look at the impacts of climate change for member countries.

On Wednesday evening a panel of human rights advocates included the Hon Michael Kirby who spoke to the topic ‘Silence is not an option’.  Participants were strongly encouraged to speak up for human rights as part of civil society. In terms of Commonwealth priorities this included speaking up on:

• Early and forced marriages
• Racism
• Rights of women and girls
• Impacts of climate change

Climate change was highlighted as an area that the Commonwealth needs to adopt a much stronger position on, given the huge impact likely to be seen on small Pacific islands and low lying countries. Speakers included Daisy Cooper, Director of the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau who gave clues to how increased efforts could be achieved; Nicholas Watt of the Commonwealth Ecology Council spoke about the need to establish marine parks and sustainable fisheries (‘If we don’t have fisheries on the agenda then by 2050 we won’t have fish on the menu’).

On the final afternoon participants were delighted to have two special guests speak about the need to finish the task of totally eradicating Polio. It was noted that there are now only four countries and 1% of the world still have Polio (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria) but speakers highlighted that we cannot afford to rest before total eradication. The first guest was Ramesh Ferris, a polio survivor from India, now living in Canada. He talked of his own experience and how he was provided rehabilitative support and corrective surgery.  The second was Hugh Evans, CEO of Global Poverty Project (previously Oaktree Foundation) who talked about the need to raise funds to remove the final traces of Polio. Without this a further 10 million children will get polio over the next 40 years.  A special concert is being held for Polio in Perth during CHOGM and Julia Gillard announced that  Australia will commit to providing $50M of additional funds to address polio. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are also contributing $40M.

The Commonwealth People’s Forum provided an opportunity to see firsthand how civil society can engage around shared values to address global issues and to be a part of framing future directions. Against a backdrop of needing to ensure relevance it was great to network and be a part of a worldwide web of very diverse peoples.

» Click here to visit the official CHOGM website

Gandel’s $7m donation to the arts

Melbourne property magnate John Gandel and his wife Pauline have donated $7 million to the National Gallery of Australia, to be used to buy artworks and to help fit out a new reception hall that will open next month as part of the gallery’s $107 million redevelopment.
NGA Council Chairman Rupert Myer said the gallery’s new function space had been named Gandel Hall in perpetuity in recognition of the gift from a couple who were among the gallery’s founding donors when it opened its doors in 1982.
Australian donors used to loathe being named for fear of appearing boastful but in recent years they have adopted the American attitude that, by being outed, they might foster greater philanthropy here.

» Read the Australian Financial Review article, 26 August 2010 (Link available for AFR subscribers only)

» This story has been added to our Major Donations page

$5 million gift from Betty Amsden to the Victorian Arts Centre

Melbourne benefactor Miss Betty Amsden OAM has made a $5 million donation to the performing arts with a major endowment to the Arts Centre, establishing the Betty Amsden Arts Education Endowment for Children.

A self-made woman, Miss Amsden began work at 15. During her working life she built and managed aged care facilities, lived modestly and invested astutely in commercial properties, real estate and the share market. She began her association with the Arts Centre soon after it opened in the 1980s. Over the past 12 years she has donated more than $500,000, mostly in support of the artists-in-schools program, expansion of a music therapy program for disabled children and the introduction of a staff development grant. Her latest gift will enable the Arts Centre to program special Australian and international performances for children and young adults and create new works for young audiences.

Miss Amsden is a Governor of the Arts Centre Foundation and a former Chairman of the Philanthropists’ Council. Her gift will be one of the pillars of the Arts Centre Endowment Fund. It follows the recent endowment donation of $2 million from The Myer Foundation to support the Arts Centre’s new Asian theatre series. Members of the Myer family have also pledged a further $3 million to establish the $5 million Kenneth Myer Asian Theatre Series Endowment Fund.

Read the media release on the Major Donations page on the Philanthropy Australia website.

AbaF releases Arts Sponsorship Outlook Survey 2009

The Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) has released the results of its Arts Sponsorship Outlook Survey 2009. The survey was conducted in April 2009 of major Australian businesses actively involved in supporting the arts, and was aimed at discovering how the global financial crisis (GFC) has affected arts sponsorships, businesses’ level of satisfaction with existing arts sponsorships, and major factors that drive their arts relationships.

The survey found that more than two-thirds of businesses are committed to sustaining their arts partnerships over the long term, although over half of them expect to decrease their arts sponsorship over the next 12 months. The majority of businesses are satisfied with their arts partnerships, particularly with their delivery of social goals, brand affinity and communication.

Download the full report from AbaF’s website in PDF format.