The Seahorse, Issue 28, May 2017

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Issue 28, May 2017

Craig Connelly participating in the panel discussion "What does it mean to be a leader in philanthropy?' at this year's Generosity Forum

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Being bold

While preparing for a panel session I participated in at the Generosity Forum in March, I discovered this definition for boldness: a willingness to take risks and act innovatively. To me it encapsulated what I felt philanthropy might embrace. I have since added this definition to my email signature, for two reasons: firstly, to remind myself of what I should seek to do and support in my role as CEO of The Ian Potter Foundation, and secondly, that maybe some of my many email recipients might also notice the definition and take it on board.

Innovation is at the core of many items included in this edition of The Seahorse. Whether it’s the exciting development of Victoria Polytechnic’s Skills Hub, with a particular focus on 21st century manufacturing innovation, which the Foundation is contributing $5m towards; or our innovative approach in offering exciting outreach programs to many grantees (current and prospective) such as the recent Arts forum, our dissemination workshops and our second state-based outreach program, this year in Brisbane and Townsville.

I am excited that the team at The Ian Potter Foundation is actively embracing this role of seeking to add value to the philanthropic sector in ways other than purely as a funder.

I am also excited that the Board of The Ian Potter Foundation recently approved the move to a single open round each year for the majority of our program areas (see item below).

This change reflects the fact that our team of program managers is being asked to seek more grants in a proactive way, as opposed to receiving the majority of grants through an inbound application-based process. We believe that this will provide our grants management team with more time to better understand their specific program areas, immerse themselves in the relevant issues, seek out exciting projects, and ultimately bring innovative and bold grant applications to the Board for consideration.

I hope you enjoy this edition of The Seahorse.

Craig Connelly

ROUND UP

76 new grants, $4.7 million

Snuff Puppets will receive $70,000 to establish Snuff Labb, a creative investigation and training program

At our most recent Board meeting, the Governors considered grant applications for Round 1, 2017. Seventy-five grants were awarded, totaling $4.7 million, and a further four grants valued at $930,000 were approved, subject to certain conditions (to be announced at a later date).

This round, grants were awarded across several program areas: Health & Disability,

Education, Arts, Science and Knowledge & Learning.

Find out more about some of the grantees on our blog or see the complete list in our Grants Database.

IN THE NEWS

Innovation leads the way

Reef Life Survey grant wins award The Foundation was also delighted to recently win the 2017 AEGN Environmental Philanthropy Award for its 2015 grant to Reef Life Survey (RLS). The Foundation awarded RLS a capacity-building grant of $278,000 over two years, recognising an excellent grassroots initiative with an extraordinarily successful model, impeded only by lack of resources.

This grant has greatly enhanced project replicability, including a train-the-trainer project to extend capacity, and implementation of new business, communication, fundraising, and dive safety plans.

SIMNA Award to The Ian Potter Foundation The Ian Potter Foundation has also won this year's SIMNA Outstanding Social Impact Measurement Funder award for its integration of stronger and more rigorous approaches to social impact measurement and evaluation across its grant making criteria and recipient requirements. Dr Squirrel Main, the Foundation's Research & Evaluation Manager, who has been instrumental in the Foundation's efforts to improve its evaluation methods and

assist grantees to do the same, accepted the award on behalf of the Foundation.

The SIMNA Awards are in their third year and aim to recognise and promote excellence in social impact measurement in Australia and set the quality standard for social impact measurement in Australia.

Victoria Polytechnic Sunshine Skills Hub In February, Victoria University announced its new Skills Development Hub, an exciting new addition to Victoria Polytechnic's Sunshine Campus. This project received a $5 million grant from the Foundation complementing funding from the Victorian Government.

This is the Foundation's first major investment in vocational education and training and supports the development of an industry Innovation hub where students can study construction technologies, advanced manufacturing and health technologies. The Hub will bring relevant skills training to the western suburbs of Melbourne, encouraging and supporting job creation and industry innovation to meet 21st century trade and industry needs.

PROGRAM AREAS

Funding round changes

The Ian Potter Foundation is making changes to its funding rounds going forward.

Commencing 2018, the Foundation will only be seeking applications in each program area once a year (with the exception of Travel, Conference and International Learning & Development). Previously, most programs areas have been open for applications twice a year.

Please note, however, that due to prior funding commitments some program areas are

closed until 2019.

Read more

OUTREACH

Sector Engagement

Grantseekers to grantees

Lessons from past grantees

Throughout the year, a number of sector engagement activities will be undertaken with the aim of providing grantees, grantseekers and other key organisations the opportunity to engage more closely

Experience is the best teacher, which is why the Foundation is making available the summarised learnings of its grantees from the past five years.

with the Foundation.

The General Learnings cover all program areas, and currently there are also program-specific learnings documents for both our Arts and Medical Research program areas.

So far in 2017, we have run a series of dissemination workshops for grantees, held two program-specific forums focusing on the Medical Research and Arts programs areas, and run An Introduction to The Ian Potter Foundation information session for grantseekers in Brisbane.

Further program-specific learnings will be made available throughout the remainder of this year.

Learn more

Learn more

Grantee news

WILD PLAY is on the way Recently, our CEO, Craig Connelly, visited Centennial Parklands, a recipient of a 50th Anniversary Commemorative grant, to view progress on The Ian Potter Children's WILD PLAY garden. Due to open later this year, WILD PLAY will be the first dedicated children’s garden in Sydney. The garden will include a range of natural features including water play, creek beds, a bamboo forest and outdoor classrooms designed to engage children in creative and imaginative outdoor ‘wild play’.

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Grantee news

Dialogue in the Dark In 2016, the Foundation awarded Guide Dogs Victoria a grant of $200,000 to bring Dialogue in the Dark (DiD) to Melbourne.

DiD is a unique and exciting interactive installation designed to give the broader community a taste of life without vision.

As well as being a world-renowned exhibition, DiD is also an innovative social enterprise that aims to break down misconceptions in the broader community, while building social inclusiveness and providing career pathways for vision impaired people. DiD will employ 20-25 vision impaired people at any one time, providing these individuals with skills that they can then use to go on and achieve further employment.

Research undertaken in 2012 revealed that 58% of blind and vision impaired Australians were unemployed 'not by their own choice', making them four times more

Grantee news

Windows of opportunity In April, Dr Alberto Furlan and Dr Squirrel Main visited the Karinya Young Women’s Service in Tasmania to hear about Karinya’s successful Young Mums ‘n’ Bubs (KYM) program. Karinya received a Community Wellbeing grant in 2015

likely to be unemployed than their sighted peers. Employment provides far more than financial benefits: it increases confidence, improves self-esteem and provides opportunities for regular interaction with others.

DiD opens June 2 and will run through to August.

Learn More

towards KYM, an early intervention service for pregnant teenagers and young parents aged 15–19, which aims to fill a gap in services in the Launceston area.

Karinya have now completed a detailed evaluation of the KYM program, reporting significant improvements in the wellbeing of the participants, including better health for both parents and children, improved life skills, and increased engagement with

Tribute

John Gough Cyclone Shelter

education and training.

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Welcome

New staff members

Recently, we were delighted to learn that the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation (LIRRF) has announced that the new cyclone shelter at Lizard Island Research Station (LIRS) will be named for our late Governor Mr John Gough AO, OBE. The Foundation has a long relationship

Clockwise from top: Mairead Phillips, Lauren Monaghan,

with LIRRF thanks to John Gough, who, along with current Board member Professor Tom Healy, introduced the work of LIRS to the Foundation in the early 2000s. Since then the Foundation has made several grants to LIRS – towards an upgrade of the Research Station, research on the Crown of Thorns Starfish, a research fellowship program and most recently the construction of a cyclone shelter.

Cecilia Roesler, Eleanor Connelly

There have been a several staff changes at the Foundation in the last few months.

Some staff have left to embark on new endeavours and some new faces have joined our team.

Mairead Phillips and Lauren Monaghan have both joined as Program Officers, supporting our Program Management team.

Eleanor Connelly has come on board as

LIRRF’s Chairman, David Shannon, announced that the new cyclone shelter at the Research Station will be named the 'John Gough Cyclone Shelter' at a recent dinner to thank all their funders.

David further commented, 'The words are apt. “Cyclone” for John’s prodigious energy. “Shelter” for his gracious gentlemanly manner, generosity of spirit and wonderful sense of fun.'

John Gough is remembered by LIRRF as

Communications Officer, and Cecilia Roesler has taken on the new role of Finance Officer.

‘the Governor of The Ian Potter Foundation who first recognised the importance of our Research Station and the science it facilitates’ so we couldn’t be happier that this honour has been accorded to him.

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.

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