Liz: I mean, there were a couple of things happening at the time in PRF. One was that Glyn had brought in Genevieve Timmons to do some work with PRF around partnerships with peers in philanthropy. And the other thing that was happening around that time was, I understand there was obviously a lot happening around the country in terms of drought. And then, of course, no one will forget 2019/20 in terms of bushfires, then COVID, then floods. So yeah. So my understanding of the beginning is that it was, it was around, I guess, both of those things, working with peers, and also ability of FRRR to be able to channel resources to those communities that are obviously often very much at the front line of these disasters.

Natalie: So, yeah, certainly the drought started to really bite in New South Wales and other parts of Australia. And had, you know, been pretty isolated to Queensland before that, and then, you know, we really got into those very dry times. And FRRR had a program that was sort of running and received a relatively major grant from the federal government and a lot of other philanthropy, started to think about what they could be doing to support those regions as well, and particularly foundations who had had a connection to rural Australia in some way. And our understanding is that Paul Ramsey, had had had a pretty strong connection in the Southern Highlands region, and there was a sort of care for the country from that perspective as well.

In thinking about collaborations that you’ve been involved in, or the PRF is or has been involved in, where would you where would you say that the complementary strengths are? And you know what’s make, what makes the collaboration with PRF and FRRR for all acronyms together to work so well.

Liz: Look, I think there’s obviously big complementary strengths around our purpose, which is always a good a good starting point, and we want to see people and places thrive around Australia, and we’re really mindful of those places that experience the greatest impacts of, you know, all forms of disadvantage, obviously, in terms of rural and regional Australia, that’s often where the the impact of these disasters is most intensely felt. I think we would come from a similar kind of mindset in how we see those places, not places to be saved by outsiders, but places to hopefully from our perspective, try, what can we bring, in terms of resources, in terms of influence, what are the things that we can bring that will enable those places to, or help enable those places to, you know, use the strengths that they they clearly have, and demonstrate, I think we saw FRRR, and would see FRRR as having that deep understanding, you know, that understanding of rural and regional and remote communities and strong connection to those places being located in a regional area. Yeah. So just that deep knowledge, like a lot of a lot of our funding, until more recent times, has been a lot on the Eastern Seaboard, for example. So you know, often we we need to partner with people who know other places better than, better than we do. I think, I think the other thing is that we would both, I would say, share a view that we want to be listening to people in communities about what it is that matters to them, what they want to do about it and how can we back them.

Natalie: I’d be interested in your reflections on, you know, how our respective goals and objectives have evolved with the partnership, and how you know what your observations of that have been, yeah. Got any thoughts?

Liz: So I suppose, in terms of PRF’s strategy and again, this is not that dissimilar, in some ways, a future where people and places have what they need to thrive. But I guess a big thing that has shifted when we talked about the beginning of the relationship is PRF was doing a lot more of that kind of disaster relief funding at the time when this relationship started. Now, we would hold a view that if we’re going to work with alongside people and places, to shift the kind of conditions that lead to disadvantage, we want to have a more long-term approach. We want to have we want to work with people and places in terms of, how can we help build their resilience for a long term, And I think the the power of a small grant to catalyse things that we we might not be able to even anticipate, is really interesting, yeah, really working with communities to re-imagine different future scenarios and fund things that are about developing new capabilities and new insights is, yeah, it’s full of potential learning and potential innovation.Liz:

And I think even just that recognition that so often, as you know, well, after a disaster, that’s when all the money flows is well, like people give in response to disasters,  but they don’t often give to think about a long-term, yeah, capability building or capacity building?

Natalie: Yeah, that’s right, and I think the data would still say that most disaster giving is still in that response phase. There’s increasing advocacy and evidence, you know, to shift that balance towards more preparedness and resilience.

PRF has a lot of impactful partnerships and probably a growing portfolio by the year as PRF embeds its strategy. What did you look for in the not-for-profits that you partner with and what does success look like?

Liz: The obvious one, that’s one that we started talking about in this relationship, is, is shared purpose. So focused on purpose. We also, though, definitely look for not-for-profits, and any partners, partners like FRRR that know how to and are good at collaborating, and ideally, people who can collaborate across sectors as well. So that’s increasingly a focus for PRF is, yeah, how do we work with government at all levels? How do we work with peers? How do we work with partners, with communities? One of our excellent board members says all the time, you know, so what difference will this make for a real person somewhere? So I think, I think especially when you’re in the space of trying to think about system shifting and conditions and everything, it’s still trying to always draw that link between you, trying to make this you know, you want to focus on and try to influence macro conditions, and you want to make sure that the stuff that you’re doing and talking about and involved in is actually making a difference for a real person somewhere. As someone who’s come from the community sector and has often applied, you know, sought funding for things the number of times in the days when I was doing that, where I felt like you’ve got to come up with something that’s innovative, sustainable, creative, you can do it in six months, you can’t pay any staff, you can’t pay any overheads, DELIVER! You know, it’s like, if we’re not using that money in a way that it might change the way say government funding flows into communities, then it’s still a drop in the ocean relative to the the level of funding that governments pour into communities, the way it flows, as we often know, is not necessarily the most effective way. Is not the way that the community has a has a has a solid enough say over how resources might flow differently within that community. I would rather that we’re starting a conversation with people who have an ability to change some policy levers or funding levers at the beginning of that, you know, ideally not six months long, but you know, ideally at the beginning of that sort of initiative or set of initiatives, so that there’s a chance that they might be prepared to go on the journey of like, what can we learn about this, and how could we potentially back this in somewhere else? So I think understanding what what role we can play as philanthropy, which is sometimes we can back in things that government can’t, as you know, easily back in but maybe they can five or 10 years down the track, if we’ve been able to, if we’ve been able to prove something up, but not, not on a fantasy of like one day, government will just adopt this.

Natalie: FRRR is 25 this year, so we’re thinking about what the future for rural, regional, remote Australia should look like, what the future aspirations might be in, say, 2050, you know, what would, what would good look like? What would better look like? What would a thriving regional Australia look like, and what’s it going to take to get us there? So I’d be really curious to hear about from PRF’s perspective. You know, what would a thriving rural, regional, remote Australia look like in 2050?

Liz: Places and communities are connected and leading and imagining their futures. You’ve gotta connect with people in order to be able to lead and imagine different futures. And you’ve gotta be able to connect across the differences that we were talking about, the different paradigms, the different perspectives, the different backgrounds, all of that stuff I think you do need. Yeah, so I would, I would love to see more communities thriving, because they’ve been able to, in a way, maybe rediscover some of that connection and some of that imagination about the future. And I think it’s we really need at the moment, because I think there’s a lot that is that people are understanding, understandably feeling pretty overwhelmed by terms of the direction of what’s happening in the climate, what’s happening in global politics, all of those things, but, but I think there are stories where there’s and hopefully through something like the Climate Solutions grants, you know, there will be amazing stories of things that people are doing, great ideas, great creativity, great collaboration, great possibility, getting shared, getting learnt from, and yeah, that we, that the broader Australian society can see this is what’s possible.

Natalie: For many communities, just being seen and heard is really important, because they can feel like they’re not seen and heard and they don’t matter a lot of the time. And in regional Australia, there’s a lot of lot of stuff contributing to the broader country and nation that can can be a bit invisible, unless it’s a crisis. And then, yeah, that’s so yeah, I completely agree with what you described and I think the word hope is really important, yeah, really important. Yeah. Well, I would just close by saying it’s really brilliant to work with PRF and the team, and it is a partnership that’s evolved over time, and it’s been, it will continue to evolve, which good partnerships should. But yeah, the comments you made about, you know, the sort of some of the shared perspective and starting place about what we think the world needs is really important. And, yeah,I think we can continue to contribute with our respective strengths, and, you know, bring collaboration to communities, and you know, hopefully to continue to demonstrate what good collaboration can look like.

When the bushfires hit in Victoria, trustees really wanted to help the communities and to make a difference. But we understood that an immediate grant may not be the best response, and that communities, while they were dealing with the immediate trauma of the fires might not be best placed to understand their future path. And so through FRRR and with the Sidney Myer Fund, we held hands, and we navigated to the Bushfire Recovery Fund, which is about enabling FRRR to work deeply with bushfire affected communities to understand their needs, and their readiness to receive funds to create a better future for those communities.

What does the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and co-funder the Sidney Myer Fund see as the strengths of the partnership?

Some of the highlights of the Bushfire Recovery Fund and working so closely with FRRR and the Sidney Myer Fund on this project has been understanding community voices through FRRR and from the community directly.

FRRR plays an amazing role – really working deeply with communities to understand needs, and I credit them with the work that they do on the ground with communities to help them navigate – often complex – granting regimes that we impose as funders, and to understand how we can practically make a difference.

We’ve had the opportunity at Helen Macpherson Smith Trust to meet some of those fantastic community members along the way. We’ve traveled to Mallacoota and met the community health team there we traveled to Sarsfield out of Bairnsdale to see and meet with the community organisation there. And those people are changing their communities – they’re the coalface and they’re making lives better for their community members, and it’s so inspiring to see them. We couldn’t do that without the support of FRRR and without FRRR working on the ground. So we’re really grateful. That’s been absolutely a program highlight for me.

We’re a really tiny team at Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and we’re based in Melbourne. So one of the great things about FRRR is that there’s people on the ground in rural and regional communities – not just around Victoria but around Australia, and we really see the benefit of that. We feel we can get scale across Victoria through partners like FRRR because of the really deep work that’s happening on the ground. I think that’s one of the rich and wonderful things about FRRR.

Through our education focus area we’re funding some really fantastic place-based organisations. We’re funding the Mornington Peninsula Foundation for the education work they’re doing. We’re funding Tomorrow Today Foundation, which is a community foundation in Benalla, again, we’re seeing education outcomes through that project. And we’re also supporting Ganbina in Shepparton – a place-based education project working with Indigenous partners in Shepparton and the region.

Do you have any advice for any philanthropic organisations or other individuals, when choosing who to partner with?

I think the most important thing, when looking at partners to support is the relationships. And we’ve really got a strong relationship with FRRR. We have a long standing relationship with FRRR, and we’re really seeing the benefits of that, and holding hands on the journey, and learning as we go. I see FRRR absolutely as a partner in this – not as a grantor -grantee relationship. We are partners, and I think we’ve really achieved a lot through this project.