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Issue 25, May 2016
CEO Craig Connelly (centre) and the IPF staff team
Message from the CEO
Strategy and structure I am sitting at Boat Harbour, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, having spent two days attending a philanthropic think tank run by QUT’s Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Non-profit Studies. As a CEO new to the sector, this was a wonderful chance to sit with my peers and some NFP CEOs to discuss philanthropy and the many relevant and topical issues I find so interesting in this role. Such an opportunity seemed perfectly timed, given I have been in this role since midDecember 2016. It provides me with some time to reflect. Since becoming CEO, I have emphasised to the staff as well as the Board of Governors, that effective grant-making is at the core of what we do as an organisation. The program managers have been challenged to become more proactive in seeking out organisations and projects to present to the Board for consideration. Our focus will be more strategic, higher impact, longer duration, larger grants, which are clearly aligned with the funding objectives of our program areas. Our program managers will elevate themselves to be ’general specialists’ in their particular program areas: well-connected and ‘plugged in’ to organisations, government and other key stakeholders. We will convene on important, topical issues in an attempt to elevate the conversation and our thinking around matters significant to our program areas.