The Seahorse, Issue 32, September 2018 by The Ian Potter Foundation

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Craig Connelly (left) and the Hon Mr Alex Chernov AC QC (right) meeting with MK Turner AOM at Children's Ground near Alice Springs.

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Sharing knowledge It’s been a busy few months since our last newsletter. The program management team and I have recently undertaken a week-long scoping trip to the Northern Territory visiting Alice Springs and Darwin. A personal highlight of the trip was a site visit to Children’s Ground, approximately 50km outside Alice Springs, with one of our Board members, the Hon Mr Alex Chernov AC QC, Community Wellbeing program manager, Alberto Furlan, and program officer Lauren Monaghan. We enjoyed the company of local elders, their families, Children’s Ground staff, and all shared a meal of traditionally cooked kangaroo tail. During this trip our Arts program manager, Louise Arkles and program officer Subhadra Mistry also met with arts organisations and artists to learn about Alice Springs’ unique and vibrant arts community. Later in the week, the entire program management team presented to more than 60 Darwin-based not-for-profits at our Grantseeker Forum held at Menzies

School of Health Research. Subscribe Past Issues I’d like to thank all those organisations we met with and that helped us host sector events. It is invaluable hearing directly from those organisations and individuals about the specific challenges and the opportunities they wish to explore. As a national funder, we are committed to supporting not-for-profit organisations across Australia. This recent trip gave the team and myself an opportunity to engage with many NT-based organisations, community groups, local government representatives and members of local Indigenous communities. These exchanges are designed to provide an informed perspective on the type of support that best suits the particular circumstances of those communities. It is therefore pleasing that at our September Board meeting grants were awarded to organisations from every state and territory. Of these, four grants will directly support programs to improve educational, health and wellbeing outcomes for Indigenous Australians. You can read more about the latest grants awarded below. At this meeting, the Board also decided that the Foundation will no longer award Conference grants. The decision to close this funding area was made after an extensive review of past grants and applications which showed that while financial support from the Foundation is no doubt valuable to Australian conferences, it is not pivotal to bringing international keynote speakers to Australia. Over the past five decades, the Foundation has invested close to $2m to support 290 conferences. We are now confident that local conferences can continue to flourish without the Foundation’s support. The Board have also decided to suspend Travel grants through 2019 while a review is undertaken of this program area. I’d like to congratulate Philanthropy Australia on the launch of Foundation Maps: Australia at its recent annual conference. The Ian Potter Foundation helped fund this initiative alongside Gandel Philanthropy and Perpetual Trustees. Philanthropy Australia has partnered with the US-based Foundation Center to provide a resource rich in grants data that will help philanthropic funders make more strategic grants. Our team look forward to using this highly interactive and searchable mapping platform as part of our future grantmaking. Lastly, I’d like to welcome Rikki Andrews to the team. Rikki will be looking after the Education program area while Nicole Bortone is away on twelve months maternity leave. Rikki has a strong background in the philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors so will hit the ground running. We wish Nicole and her family all the best over the next year. Craig Connelly

LATEST GRANTS

$7.4m to 71 NFPs across Australia

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A still from Back Track Boys, a documentary about the Back Track program helping at-risk youth in rural and regional NSW. Back Track Youth Works received a three-year grant in the latest funding round.

The Foundation recently awarded 71 grants totaling $7,368,221 in Community Wellbeing, Medical Research, Education, Science, Environment & Conservation, Travel and Conference. This funding round saw grantees from every state and territory in Australia. Find out more about the latest grantees on our blog or see the complete list in our Grants Database.

IN THE NEWS

Making waves

Why are oyster reefs so important? Dr Dominic McAfee explains the many benefits of oysters.

Windara Artificial Oyster Reef finalist in SA Science Excellence

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Awards Past Issues

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Congratulations to the Windara Artificial Oyster Reef project (the largest oyster reef restoration project in the southern hemisphere) on being a finalist in the SA Science Excellence Awards. This project is a collaboration between The University of Adelaide, local community, the SA state government, Yorke Peninsula Council and The Nature Conservancy Australia. One million baby oysters have already seeded making this reef restoration a model for further restoration projects around the Australia coastline.

Re-opening of the 'Alex', the first stage of The Ian Potter Centre for Performing Arts

A new era for the Alexander Theatre at Monash The iconic Alexander Theatre re-opened earlier this month, as part of the transformation and expansion of this complex into The Ian Potter Centre of Performing Arts which will also house a jazz salon and state-of-the art Sound Gallery. The revitalised performance spaces incorporate a fully programmable acoustic system with speakers and microphones integrated seamlessly into the space, known as ‘activated architecture’, enabling optimal sound quality. The Ian Potter Centre of Performing Arts is the first venue in Australia to have this system. In this video, Paul Grabowsky, Catherine Andrews and Professor Margaret Gardiner explain the significance of the 'Alex', its new technology and its importance to Monash University and the wider community.

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PROGRAM AREAS

Conference program to close, Travel program suspended The Board of The Ian Potter Foundation recently considered the future of the Conference and Travel program areas as part of its ongoing evaluation of all program areas. As a result of this process, The Ian Potter Foundation has decided to close its Conference program effective immediately. The Travel program will be suspended through 2019 to allow time for an in-depth review to determine how best to continue providing support to early career researchers.

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GRANTEE NEWS

Latest launches

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Dr Rebecca Glauert, Professor Jonathan Carapetis AM, Nicola Forrest and Professor Fiona Stanley AC

Child Development Atlas pilot launched In June, the WA Child Development Atlas pilot was launched by Professor Fiona Stanley. The Atlas is Australia’s first spatial mapping tool bringing together data on children’s health and development from a range of sources. The Ian Potter Foundation and the Minderoo Foundation have jointly funded this project which aims to tackle social inequality by giving community leaders and service providers access to local data, enabling them to identify and address the issues faced by children in their communities.

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Hope Street Mobile Outreach Program exceeds targets

Subscribe Past Issues Translate Hope Street's Youth Mobile Outreach Service identifies and engages with young people and young families who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. In 2017, the Foundation awarded a grant of $1.8m (over five years) to help establish the First Response Youth Service in the City of Melton. The service is available seven days a week from 10am to midnight in Melton and surrounding suburbs. Since commencing in June, the mobile outreach service team has assisted over 70 young people, far exceeding the anticipated demand. Hope Street had orginally projected the program would assist 100 young people in its first year. Local businesses and community organisations in Melton and surrounding areas have assisted in creating awareness of the service among young people through First Response posters, postcards and keep cards. The First Response kit is available from Hope Street's website.

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New opportunity for Indigenous artists in SA Guildhouse has announced a new career development mentorship program for South Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, craftspeople and designers. In partnership with TARNANTHI, this mentorship program provides a funded opportunity for an artist to work with a mentor for up to eight months, culminating in a presentation of new work as part of the TARNANTHI 2019 Festival. This follows the Foundation's grant earlier this year to Catapult, the next iteration of Guildhouse's proven artist mentorship program.

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SECTORPast ENGAGEMENT Subscribe Issues

Travelling North

SECTOR ENGAGEMENT

Getting on the Map

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The recent Philanthropy Australia National Conference saw the launch of Foundation Maps: Australia, a new initiative of Philanthropy Australia in partnership with

Thank you to Menzies School of Health Research for hosting our Grantseeker Forum.

Last month, the program management team headed to the Northern Territory, visiting Alice Springs and Darwin to meet with our grantees and to speak to potential grantseekers. The first stop was Alice Springs where our program managers met with local NFP organisations and some past grantees. This included a visit to a Children's Ground community and presentations to the arts community. In Darwin, the team presented to more than 60 grantseekers at our 2019 Grantseeker Forum hosted by the Menzies School of Health Research.

the US-based Foundation Center. Foundation Maps: Australia provides comprehensive information about grantmaking in Australia, from local and international funders. It is a highly interactive and searchable mapping platform that will help both funders and NFPs make smarter and more strategic decisions. The Ian Potter Foundation has supported this initiative through a $150,000 grant and by providing data on of its grants (currently the last five years).

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SECTOR ENGAGEMENT

Learnings now in IssueLab

STAFF NEWS

Rikki Andrews

Over the past year, we have been publishing our Grantee Learnings across most of our program areas. The last of these, covering Health & Disability grants, will be released by the end of this year. While these are freely available via our website, the Foundation has also made them discoverable to a global audience by including them in IssueLab, a service provided by the Foundation Center in the US.

IssueLab is a collection of free research Translate from social sector organisations around

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the world. The repository covers more than 30 issue areas and comprises over 25,000 publications and reports from more than 600 organisations making it an invaluable research tool for the NFP and philanthropic sectors alike.

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Welcome to our new staff member Rikki Andrews who will be looking after the Education program areas while Nicole Bortone is on 12 months maternity leave. Rikki has worked in various roles within the philanthropic sector and as a consultant on philanthropy for universities and NFPs. All the team at the Foundation wish Nicole and family all the best over the coming months.

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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