Our Strategy

The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) was formed in 2000, at the instigation of the Sidney Myer Fund and the Federal Government. Our founders believed that philanthropy could help local leaders respond to economic and social decline being experienced in many remote, rural and regional areas.

Twenty years on, we are still the only national foundation specifically focused on ensuring social and economic strength in remote, rural and regional Australia.

We do this by connecting goodwill, with good purpose and aligning government, philanthropic and local community purpose and investment.

We focus this investment at the intersection of People, Place, and Disaster Resilience & Climate Solutions. This is where we believe the core conditions for community resilience lie, and where resourcing, investment, and policy-settings can be best-focused.

We do this because we believe that the ability to be a healthy, prosperous and equitable nation depends on the strength of our social networks, our ability to deliver services across large distances in hard to reach places, and our ability to respond to threats at all levels of society and governments. We also recognise and work with the natural interdependencies of systems rather than create solutions that are siloed or which have unintended consequences on other parts of the system.

Our Strategy

Our approach

Because every place is different and at a different point in the development cycle, we so strongly support community-led approaches and provide support that’s more than money. We work with local networks to amplify funding into longer term capabilities, momentum and resilience. We do this using three levers:

1. Granting and Development – Funding for not-for-profit community organisations to implement local solutions to local problems;

2. Leveraging and Brokering – Partnering with non-DGR not-for-profit organisations to fundraise, receiving funds on their behalf for an agreed purpose, and activating our networks to offer support; and / or

3. Sharing Insights and Learnings – Sharing knowledge and making connections to advocate for remote and rural communities.

We apply these tools separately, and together to allow communities to:

  • Seed & Strengthen – support and resource core social and physical infrastructure;
  • Adapt & Evolve – build adaptive capacity across communities and enhance their ability to cope and adjust to disruption; and/or
  • Innovate & Renew – test, scale and embed game-changing initiatives.

We believe that doing these things, in this way, will help to create vibrant, adaptive and sustainable remote, rural and regional communities.

Our strategy in action

To learn more about how we implemented this strategy during this financial year, click on the buttons below.