The Seahorse, Issue 39, December 2020

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A bird's eye view of the Melbourne Arts Precinct from Southbank Boulevard facing north (artist impression). Image by HASSELL + SO-IL

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Time to be hopeful As we approach the last weeks of 2020, with state borders re-opening and as many Australian families, friends and loved ones are reunited, I have been reflecting on all that we have endured throughout 2020. Frightening bushfires, environmental carnage, a global pandemic, closed international borders, government-mandated societal lockdowns, loss of freedoms previously taken for granted, a focus on individual actions designed to support the greater good, a public health emergency and unprecedented government fiscal stimulus supporting compromised industries. What a year!

Subscribe Past Issues In the face of such challenges, communities have come together. People have an elevated sense of the value of family, friends and loved ones. Simple things matter. A

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sense of hope pervades my thinking as I ponder what 2021 might have in store for us.

I am particularly hopeful about a long-term project supported by The Ian Potter Foundation, Accounting for Nature (AfN), a social enterprise established to deploy the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Accounting for Nature measurement framework. The Foundation has supported this framework with in excess of $1 million of philanthropic funding across three related but distinct projects over a ten-year period. AfN was awarded the 2020 Environmental Finance Impact Award - Impact Initiative of the Year: Oceania.

This prestigious award recognises the unique and powerful framework that underpins the AfN vision and the substantial progress made in the past twelve months as the AfN works to operationalise its environmental measurement framework. It is very encouraging to see consistent support of considered, quality research yielding results that might have real impact and benefit for large tracts of Australia’s environmental assets and many Australian communities.

The response of Australian Indigenous communities to the COVID-19 pandemic provides me with another reason to be hopeful. Across Australia, Indigenous-led organisations quickly informed and protected entire communities from the pandemic. Professor Fiona Stanley, a leading epidemiologist and Foundation Board member, recently highlighted how extraordinarily successful this response was in an interview on ABC’s 7.30 Report.

The Foundation seeks to support Indigenous-led not-for-profit organisations working to strengthen communities by enhancing Aboriginal leadership and improving whole-of-life outcomes based on Aboriginal knowledge, culture and empowerment. We will continue to look for opportunities to walk alongside and work with Indigenous communities to increase their capacity and ensure that they are best placed to manage their own futures.

At its December meeting, the Board of The Ian Potter Foundation undertook a comprehensive review of the focus areas for Major Grants. The Board agreed to retain the focus areas for Indigenous Projects and Public Health programs until 2025. However, the focus areas for Community Wellbeing and Sustainable Major Grants will be revised over the coming months. We expect to announce these new Major Grant focus areas in May 2021, to be effective from 2021 to 2025.

As just announced, The Ian Potter Foundation is pleased to support the Victorian Government and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Australia’s largest cultural infrastructure project, the $1.4 billion phase 1 redevelopment of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, by supporting the NGV’s ambitious $200 million philanthropic fundraising effort with the Foundation’s largest-ever grant of $20 million towards the development of NGV Contemporary.

The Governors of The Ian Potter Foundation regard the development of NGV Contemporary to be of national and international significance. The Foundation is making this large financial commitment at this time in the hope that it will galvanize further funding commitments from a variety of community members and philanthropic foundations who share our desire to further expand Melbourne and Australia’s culturally vibrant and diverse

arts sector.

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The Board and management of the Foundation wish to congratulate Lady Potter on being recognised with the Creative Partnerships Australia Arts Visionary Award this year. This is a wonderful and well-deserved recognition of Lady Potter’s tireless and passionate support for the arts over many decades. As Lady Potter so succinctly puts it, ‘if you want something to last, you have to look after it’ ­– a sentiment many now share having observed the devastating impact COVID-19 has wreaked on the arts sector in 2020.

As we all, hopefully, wind down to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with family and friends, I would encourage all of us to think of others less fortunate than ourselves. The year 2020 was tough, but from adversity springs hope, opportunity and a strong sense of purpose. Let’s embrace those feelings with a sense of community, of outreach and support for those around us. If I took one thing from my own experience this year, it is that human connection matters. Those we love and respect matter to us and our sense of community is a core tenet of who we are as a nation – an inclusive, loving, caring and supportive Australia.

Craig Connelly

GRANTS ROUND UP

$6.4 million across 13 grants

Image courtesy of Murray–Darling Wetlands Working Group

In Round 3, 2020, the Board of The Ian Potter Foundation awarded 13 grants totalling $6,398,000.

Of these over $3 million was awarded across five Environment grants and $2 million to five Subscribe Past Issues Translate Community Wellbeing grants. One Early Childhood Development grant ($300,000) was also approved at this meeting.

Two existing major grantees were awarded an additional $900,000. One to extend an existing pilot into an important second year and the other to further support the construction of The Ian Potter Conservatory at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra.

Find out more about the latest grantees and their projects on our website or see the complete list of grants in our Grants Database.

GRANTEE NEWS

Major milestones reached

University of Sydney's Chau Chak Wing Museum is a museum for teaching and learning

University of Sydney's new museum opens Congratulations to the University of Sydney on the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. This landmark new museum now houses the largest collection of antiquities in Australia and the largest collection of European antiquities in the southern hemisphere.

The Foundation has proudly partnered with many leading Australian institutions in their quest to establish galleries, museums and venues celebrating the arts. Such institutions are a vital part of any vibrant society as they provide enhanced educational and research opportunities as well as extended community benefit and, importantly, community

engagement with the arts.

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There is no doubt this state-of-the-art building will be a focal point for the University’s cultural outreach, allowing the wider community to engage with important historical artefacts and through them better understand all that makes up Australia’s rich cultural heritage.

The first exhibition to open in The Ian Potter Gallery is Gululu dhuwala djalkiri: Welcome to the Yolŋu foundations.

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Data leads the way

Reef Life Explorer launched Reef Life Explorer is an interactive platform exploring the health of thousands of reefs worldwide. As part of the Reef Life Survey Program, hundreds of citizen science divers take to the ocean to measure and record the state of global reef ecosystems. This tool is a product of years of hard work from Reef Life Survey divers and collaborating partners.

Through their contribution – conducting surveys and collecting data – these citizen scientist scuba divers are enabling us to see and understand the shifting condition of our reefs.

Reefs that support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

The Ian Potter Foundation has proudly supported Reef Life Survey since 2014 to build its capacity to conduct reef surveys and expand its educational role. Further background on the Foundation’s partnership with Reef Life Survey is outlined in this article on the

Australian Environment Grantmakers’ Network website.

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Explore now

Professor Fiona Stanley explains how the Western Australian Child Development Atlas will improve children's services throughout the state.

Child Development Atlas now online The Western Australian Child Development Atlas (CDA) is an online, free, interactive tool that maps data on all children and young people aged 0–24 in WA. It includes data on children’s health, learning, development and social characteristics, enabling the profiling of geographic areas within the State. The aim of the CDA is to improve the outcomes of Western Australian children by enabling data-driven policy development, research, and service delivery. The CDA will also support community leaders and service providers to identify the priority issues for children and families in their geographic location.

This exciting initiative has been proudly developed by Telethon Kids Institute and funded jointly by The Ian Potter Foundation and Minderoo Foundation. It is an important and valuable resource that visualises data with significant public benefit.

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PROGRAM AREAS & FUNDING ROUNDS Subscribe Past Issues

Open for business

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After some disruptions to funding rounds during 2020, funding rounds for 2021 will open as per usual.

Round 1, 2021 has now closed for EOIs (Arts and Public Health). Applications for Medical Research grants are open until Friday 22 January (5 pm AEDT).

Funding Round 2 opens 29 March 2021 for Community Wellbeing and Environment grants.

Funding round dates

EVALUATION

Learning Ground Planning and budgeting for evaluation can be the key to a successful grant application.

Evaluation is an essential aspect of any project and includes capturing learnings and providing an evidence base. Programs that can demonstrate an evidence base are far more likely to leverage further funding. Recently, we received feedback from a former grantee to that effect. The Chain Reaction Foundation highlighted how valuable undertaking an evaluation of its Learning Ground program has been for the organisation.

"We have been able to enclose copies of this evaluation with every funding application we've made since the report was released in 2016. It is probably the most important document we use when applying for funding. Potential funders regard the evaluation as the evidence base they look for when making an assessment of potential funding,"

said Margaret Bell AM, President of the Chain Reaction Foundation Subscribe Past Issues

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The Foundation encourages grantseekers to think of their evaluation budget at the application stage. To aid grantees and applicants, the Foundation's Research & Evaluation Manager, Dr Squirrel Main, continues to provide various resources on how to budget and plan for evaluation and how to engage suitable evaluators. The Chain Reaction Foundation has also shared its insights on the value of evaluation in a case study recently published on our website.

Case Study

Grantee awards

Justice Connect Justice Connect has recently been named a winner in the 2020 HESTA Excellence Awards in the category of Community Services. The HESTA Excellence Awards recognise the work of teams and organisations who enhance the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities.

Justice Connect is committed to achieving social justice by advocating for systemic change and continuing to share what they’ve learned across all the sectors they intersect. As a result of COVID-19, Justice Connect had to quickly enhance their capacity to deliver effective legal help online. Their Justice Connect Answers online platform now connects people with lawyers who can provide pro bono legal advice online.

Grantee awards

Ian Potter Southbank Centre The 2020 Daryl Jackson Award for Educational Architecture (National Architecture Awards) has been awarded to the Ian Potter Southbank Centre, home of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne's Southbank Campus.

The National Architecture Awards jury commented: "The project has already demonstrated how generosity and richness of materials and detail can heighten the joy of participation in

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learning." This is the latest of several Translate architecture awards won by John Wardle Architects for this project.

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Grantee awards

Fruit2Work

Just last week, Fruit2Work was awarded Social Traders' 2020 Social Enterprise of the Year – Small.

IPF News

Fruit2Work were recognised for actively responding to social procurement opportunities, which made up 40% of their revenue in 2019.

The Foundation's office will be closed from Monday 21 December and re-open on Monday 11 January 2021.

However, when COVID-19 hit earlier this year, this social enterprise innovated to adapt to changes in demand. Fruit2Work

We wish all our grantees, partners and colleagues in the philanthropic sector a restful and COVID-safe holiday season.

joined Moving Feast, packing 1500 boxes of fruit and veg in 48 hours and earning them a reputation of being an agile and responsive logistics and distribution force.

This kept their employees engaged and maintained their record of zero recidivism.

Christmas closure

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Staff news

Fruit2Work is a social enterprise working to reduce recidivism through providing employment opportunities for exoffenders.

CEO Rob Brown explains how Fruit2Work impacts the lives of its employees in tangible ways in this short video.

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Nicole Bortone, Program Manager for Childhood Development, will be on maternity leave from 17 December through to August 2021. During Nicole's absence, existing grants will be managed by the program management team.

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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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