The Seahorse Issue 43 May 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Building Capacity

InApril 2021,The Ian Potter Foundation commissioned an independent Grantee and DeclinedApplicant Perception Report. This was the second survey completed by The Centre for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), and followed the inaugural survey conducted by CEPfor the Foundation in 2015.

As part of this process, CEP provided the Foundation with several recommendations based on grantee and applicant feedback. In line with our commitment to transparency, I am pleased to share a detailed response and plan of action outlining these recommendations and the Foundation’s plans to address them.

In summary, key learnings from the CEP Survey were:

The importance of the clarity of messaging on any public websites or other external material.

The benefit to applicants of streamlined application, reporting and acquittal processes.

The value of providing considered, non-monetary support to grantee organisations, extending our influence as funders beyond the provision of monetary support.

The importance of transparency by funders.

The importance to grantee organisations of capacity building funding, that is unrestricted and multi-year (our own duration for such grants is five years).

The Foundation's management team are working on each of these areas. Most significantly, the Board of The Ian Potter Foundation has approved a recommendation to increase the number of capacity-building grants as a proportion of the Foundation’s overall portfolio of approved grants.

This is already evident in the proportion of approved grants at theApril 2022 Board meeting awarded as multi-year, capacity-building grants.

By sharing the lessons learned as part of our regular CEP survey, and providing some detail for interested parties to consider, we hope that other funders might contemplate these issues through their own philanthropic lens.

It is with a degree of sadness that I advise two of our staff members are moving on to new challenges. Subhadra Mistry, our formerArts Program Manager, has accepted an opportunity to work with a local council, supporting the development of an exciting arts program in one of Melbourne’s fastest growing and culturally diverse local government areas.

I wish Subhadra well in her new role and anticipate a newArts Program manager being appointed no later thanAugust 2022.

Dr Squirrel Main has accepted a new role with the Paul Ramsay Foundation. After seven years excelling in her role as the Foundation’s Research & Evaluation Manager, Squirrel felt the time was right for her to pursue this next exciting step in her professional career We wish Squirrel and also our friends at The Paul Ramsay Foundation all the best – as we know that they will all benefit from Squirrel’s expertise and enthusiasm for all things research and evaluation.

In addition to recruiting a newArts Program Manager and a Research & Evaluation Manager, I am pleased to share with you that the Foundation team will increase from 15 staff members to 18. In December 2021, the Board approved the appointment of three new staff members:

1. AProgram Officer, to support the program management team

2. AResearch & Evaluation Officer, to support the Research & Evaluation Manager

3. AMajor Grant Development Manager

This third position is a brand-new position and represents an exciting development for the Foundation. This role will develop “Flagship Grant” opportunities for the Board to consider that tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the nation for the benefit of the Australian community and align with the Foundation’s Funding Pillars. I am hopeful that this investment will elevate the impact the Foundation achieves in assisting to create a fair, healthy, sustainable, and vibrantAustralia.

Craig Connelly

GRANTS ROUND UP

$19 million across 38 grants

In the latest funding round, $18,961,327 was awarded comprising seven Major grants ($12,010,000), 23 program area grants, three grants funded by TheAlec Prentice Sewell Gift, three impact enhancement grants ($54,000), one sector support grant ($125,000) and $213,827 to The Ian Potter Cultural Trust

Program area grants totalled $4,908,500 and were awarded in the following areas: Arts, Community Wellbeing, Early Childhood Development, Medical Research and Public Health Research

Read more

Artist impression of the new Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD) showing the planned state-of-the-art facility on the St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne campus in Fitzroy AMCD was awarded a $2.5M Major grant in this round.

Landmarks & milestones

NGV Contemporary milestones

The Victorian Government and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) have announced the winning design for NGV Contemporary -Australia’s soon-to-be largest gallery dedicated to contemporary art and design.Amultidisciplinary team led byAustralian architectAngelo Candalepas andAssociates will create this new Victorian landmark that will have more than 13,000 square metres of display space for art and design, including exhibition galleries and an expansive rooftop terrace and sculpture garden with stunning vistas of Melbourne.

In December 2020, the Foundation announced its support for NGV’s ambitious $200 million philanthropic fundraising effort for NGV Contemporary with a $20 million Major grant.The hope was that this early commitment would galvanize further funding commitments from a variety of community members and philanthropic foundations who share our desire to further expand Melbourne andAustralia’s culturally vibrant and diverse arts sector

Therefore, the Foundation was pleased to hear the recent announcement from the Fox

Daytime render of winning concept design for The Fox: NGV Contemporary by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, and public green space, facing south. Render by Darcstudio.

Education Benalla celebrates 10 years

TomorrowToday has just published a report to mark the First 10Years of the Education Benalla Program which tracks the progress and achievements of this “whole of community” effort.

Together with other funders, The Ian Potter Foundation was an early supporter of Education Benalla. Philanthropy could easily have looked the other way in 2009 and 2010 whenTomorrowToday applied for funds to start rolling out the Education Benalla Program. However, this program’s approach was different to what had been seen elsewhere. It was multi-faceted and well researched. It was also compelling particularly because it was a local community organisation proposing a local solution that potentially could be an example to benefit many other disadvantaged areas.

Education Benalla was recently the subject ofABC Radio’sThe Conversation Hour which featured Liz Chapman OAM, former Education Benalla Convenor, explaining the program’s background, its challenges and successes.

Play & Learn Together launched

Play & Learn Together is a new portal created to satisfy a need for quality, evidencebased early childhood learning resources, available freely and online. Developed by Early Start at the University of Wollongong with partners Early ChildhoodAustralia and PlaygroupAustralia, the platform was launched in March and was supported by an Early Childhood Development grant from the Foundation in 2020.

Play & Learn Together features curated content designed to support families and carers with young children’s learning in the home environment, with a focus on evidenceinformed, play-based learning and the family’s role in early development.

Early Start CEOAnita Kumar states, “Resilience is needed now more than ever, and play can be an integral pathway to support children’s wellbeing and development. Through this free platform we hope to support children, families and educators in creating fun, home learning environments focused on play-based learning.All the activities are underpinned by the latest research, and connect to the Early Years Learning Framework and WHO guidelines.”

See more

PROGRAM AREAS & FUNDING ROUNDS

Arts round deferred

Arts program next open in October 2022

The nextArts round is being deferred to Round 1 2023. This is due to the recent departure of ourArts program manager Subhadra Mistry

We anticipate a newArts Program manager will be appointed no later thanAugust 2022.This deferment will allow sufficient time to recruit for this role and ensure the new person is fully involved in all aspects of the nextArts funding cycle.

Check dates

OUTREACH Sector engagement

Image courtesy of Dancenorth. Image by Amber Haines.

New website launched

We recently launched our new website which includes some new features to assist grantseekers.These include:

Eligibility quizzes to help organisations check if their projects may be eligible for a grant

Clearer information for universities and research bodies on our EOI process Information sessions for grantseekers prior to funding rounds

Phone call bookings with program managers

Improved accessibility

As always, we welcome user feedback which can be sent to our Comms team

Information Sessions

This year, we have also started holding Information Sessions prior to the opening of funding rounds.These sessions will be specific to program areas.

The first of these was held onApril 20 for the Public Health Research program area due to open for Expressions of Interest on 6 June 2022 (Round 2 2002). There is a recording of this session available to view on the Public Health Research page on our website.

Dates and links to register for upcoming Information Sessions will be shared via the program area pages on the website. Information Sessions will be held 4-6 weeks prior to funding rounds.

Habitat for Humanity's first South Australian ReStore outlet is now trading.

ReStore is a home improvement store that accepts and resells new and gently used building materials and products, including furniture.

Donations of surplus materials by businesses and the general public, that may otherwise have gone to landfill, will generally be sold for less than half their retail price.

Profits generated by ReStore will support Habitat’s locally based activities of home building and maintenance as well as disaster recovery.

The newAdelaide ReStore is located at 102 Port Road,Alberton. Open Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm and Saturday 10 am to 4 pm.

Grantee news SEWF22

The Social Enterprise World Forum 2022 (SEWF) is being held from 28 to 29 September in Brisbane The conference is being hosted by White Box Enterprises and is a hybrid in-person/virtual event.

SEWF is the flagship event for the global social enterprise community, providing space for purpose-led people, policymakers, philanthropists, intermediaries and entrepreneurs to connect, learn and be inspired. Themes for 2002 include Indigenous Social Enterprise, Climate Solutions, Excellence & Failure, and Policy & Systems.

Early bird registrations close on 31 May. Staff

Alberto Furlan visiting the new ReStore in Adelaide.

Grantee news ReStore

Earlier this month, we were sorry to say goodbye to our colleague Subhadra Mistry

Subhadra is soon to take up an incredibly exciting opportunity at Bunjil Place in the City of Casey, driving a new arts and cultural strategy following the delivery of its $125 million infrastructure investment.

Also soon to take up an exciting new opportunity, Dr Squirrel Main will be joining the Paul Ramsay Foundation in a similar evaluation role to the one she established atThe Ian Potter Foundation.

Both Squirrel and Subhadra will be missed by everyone at the Foundation but we wish them both well as they embark on the next stage of their professional lives.

The staff at the Foundation got behind the recent #hoodies4homelessness awareness-raising campaign initiated by HoMie and Whitelion

The campaign encouraged the public to buy a hoodie and wear it onApril 20WorldYouth HomelessnessAwareness

Day The goal was to see 28,000 Australians wearing a hoodie reflecting the number of young people experiencing homelessness on any given night in our country. Interest in the campaign was so high on 19April that the registration site unfortunately crashed.

During the campaign, HoMie sold over 2200 hoodies which exceeded expectations.All profits will support young people affected by homelessness or hardship by equipping them with the skills, confidence, and experiences to be more work-ready and better prepared for their future.

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 theTraditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to