Four Victorian philanthropic organisations have joined forces in an exciting $5 million partnership with the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) that will strengthen the capacity and resilience of communities over the next five years.

Three Victorian communities will be named later this year, following a detailed process involving needs analysis, mapping key issues, causes of disruption and the funding landscape, and an exploration of community readiness for the investment. 

The partnership comprises the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, The Ross Trust, and William Buckland Foundation. FRRR will deliver the program, following the success of its similar Investing in Rural Communities Futures program (IRCF) in NSW over the past five years.

The funding will enable local not-for-profits (NFPs) to become more confident and collaborative in their approach to improving and sustaining the vibrancy, resilience, and liveability of their communities, ultimately enabling them to thrive, not just survive, especially during times of natural disasters.

“Investing in and strengthening the social and economic fabric of Victorian rural communities fosters long-term resilience,” says the CEO of FRRR, Natalie Egleton. “We know that our model can deliver these outcomes, and the multi-year model builds a whole-of-community approach.”

The $5 million funding will be used to employ local facilitators, deliver capacity building activities for the local NFPs such as governance training, volunteer development, marketing and fundraising support, and events. Funds will also be allocated to the three communities via grants for priorities and for organisational capacity building. Evaluation is central to the program.

The NSW program

The NSW program started in 2018 after FRRR recognised that many grassroots organisations were ‘locked out’ of philanthropy and often unable to access opportunities to invest in their own organisational capacity due to their size, distance, financial capacity, and lack of staffing.

“Most of the NFP work that happens in small towns is volunteer run and there just isn’t any money or resources to help them be sustainable,” Natalie said. “Local leaders know what is going to make the biggest difference in their community and we knew that supporting local solutions would be key.”

The program commenced in Junee, Leeton, and Nambucca Valley with the support of Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation. The Snow Foundation and Bendigo Bank then joined to enable FRRR to take the program to Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Nowra, and Bay & Basin. The Australian Government provided additional funding to expand the program in the Shoalhaven region and launch the program in Bega through their Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Program.

Evolution of the Victorian partnership

The plan to bring a similar program to Victoria began in late 2022 after The Ross Trust began discussions with FRRR and the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust. Conversations then began with the Jack Brockhoff Foundation and William Buckland Foundation. Importantly, the leaders in all these organisations had strong existing relationships and numerous granting collaborations with each other, as well as with FRRR.

“I could see that this program was about building the skills, resources and capacity of local not-for-profits – and that it was working,” said Sarah Hardy, the CEO of The Ross Trust. “It was also clear that any Victorian partnership would need a commitment of $5 million to get off the ground. That is a lot of money for any one mid-sized philanthropic, when we all have ongoing projects.”

Sarah said the positive and trusting relationships between the five organisations meant they were able to openly discuss whether it was a project that their trustees and directors would support.

The CEO at the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, Debra Morgan, said the early conversations and resulting partnership benefited from like-minded organisations working together.

“We realised early that we couldn’t do anything this significant alone, and that working together would help us to affect better and longer-term change,” Debra said. “This collaboration sets a new bar in how we work together, and it’s certainly the longest-term project we have funded under our new strategy.”

Louise Kuramoto, the CEO of the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, said that it was the first time, other than a commemorative grant, the foundation had made a five-year commitment to a project.

“The philosophy behind this program is not unusual, but the amount and duration are,” Louise said. “The solid track record of FRRR gave all four funders the confidence to invest at such a scale. It’s wonderful that we can come together to support communities and the people in them.”

For the Grants Lead of William Buckland Foundation, Ferdi Hepworth, the program perfectly aligns with her organisation’s long commitment to country Victorians.

“We have had a long partnership with FRRR and more recently we’ve been funding a program where FRRR distributes small grants to communities, and we had already been talking about how we could better support them,” Ferdi said. “It was very easy to say yes to being part of this partnership.

“We often see governments and big business leading change, but it’s the people in the community who best know the ingredients required to help that community thrive. This project supports those people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to work together to achieve change.”

After many emails, online and in-person meetings, visits to NSW communities, and discussions with their trustees and directors, the four funders set themselves a deadline of June this year to see if they could raise the $5 million to commence the program in July 2025. By April, they had done it.

“For four mid-sized philanthropic organisations to raise $5 million when we already have current commitments shocked us all, but in a good way,” Sarah said.

How the program will work in Victoria

FRRR will study past granting trends and community profiles and will map issues and disruptions occurring or on the horizon, as well as the funding landscape, to select the three communities. The process will also include community consultation, with a shortlisting process that will invite expressions of interest. Given the program is grounded in deep collaboration and co-design with each community, it is vital that there is a sense of readiness to embark on the five-year partnership.

Once communities are selected, a locally based community facilitator will work with the local NFP sector to scope priorities, gaps and opportunities that will be collated into a sector roadmap. The roadmap, which will be refreshed annually, will be the framework for activating capacity building activities and funding, and for monitoring progress, celebrating change, and adjusting priorities as needed.

Natalie from FRRR said she was confident many Victorian communities would be enthusiastic about the opportunity, adding that, like in NSW, it was likely the communities would be at very different starting points.

“Success is turning out to be different in each community, which is fine because the indicators we are interested in all focus on changes in mindset and sector collaboration to drive new and better opportunities for their communities – and that has been a major success,” Natalie said.

FRRR will employ a program manager who lives in Victoria and is familiar with key concerns and issues in the state. Local facilitators will also be employed in each community. Over time, it is expected that more than 20 people will be employed in the program. Staff and volunteers will benefit from training and professional development and possibly partnerships with councils, TAFEs and universities.

Deb Samuels is the People Portfolio Lead at FRRR and will oversee the Victorian project.

“We now have five years of NSW evaluation data and interviews and the recurring theme is that people in the communities feel much more empowered to make decisions and collaborate,” Deb said. “If they know a large grant opportunity is coming up, they know who to call to say, ‘let’s pool our efforts to apply’.”

Deb cited examples of success that could be replicated in Victoria, such as one NFP leader rallying to halt the closure of a local bank branch that was relied upon by vulnerable residents, and another leader now running for mayor.

“Local leaders involved in the IRCF program have shared they would not have had the confidence to do things like that in the past,” Deb said. Young people can also engage with the program and see themselves as an important part of the NFP sector.

“One of the best things somebody said to me is that ‘the funders believed in us and invested in us, and now we believe in ourselves and what we can do’.”

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.

Jaithmathang TABOO is an Indigenous organisation working on Country in North East Victoria to support regeneration in the landscape’s recovery following the 2019/20 bushfires, and to support cultural healing. 

They were awarded a $120,000 grant in April 2022 (to be paid over three years) from FRRR through the Bushfire Recovery Fund, which is supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and the Sidney Myer Fund. The funding was for a program of annual cool burns and to work with key environment and government stakeholders to share learnings.

The project, titled ‘Beginning the journey to cultural healing on Jaithmathang Country’, specifically aimed to build the capacity of the organisation by contributing to the cost of employing a Jaithmathang descendant for three years to project manage the cool burning program in the Falls Creek region. It also aimed to help in establishing ongoing partnerships and engagement with key stakeholder organisations that can support Jaithmathang to operate sustainably into the future as custodians on Country.

The organisation recently submitted an interim report about what they did in the first year of funding. FRRR’s Program Manager, Danielle Griffin, says the group should be really proud of what they’ve achieved in the first year.

“In year one, Jaithmathang has successfully engaged with the targeted government, First Nations and subject matter expert stakeholders to support their foundational return to Jaithmathang Country. As the Jaithmathang Elders belong to the stolen generation and were removed from Country, it is a privilege to be involved in this significant work to build their capacity for returning to Country and participate in local recovery through disaster management and the intrinsic healing practices that will support Indigenous land and people. The tripartite partnership is a great outcome for year one of this grant,” she said.

The following is an extract from the report, which provides more detail on the background and the partnerships created to date.

The countryside of Bimble is our age-old family tree and it reflects in its rich and diverse lands, the history and heritage of the Jaithmathang Original Peoples. It is our most ancient landscape and it is beautiful and life giving. Mung, Tyer and Buller and all creatures and living things created by Bunjilla are respected and form part of the interconnected ecosystem where each is essential to one another. Our women, men and children are connected through birth right to our Bunjilla Dreaming Bimble, where we reconnect with our spiritual origins and renew our sense of belonging and meaning.

Cultural burning, or the use of fire as a tool for managing landscapes, was an intrinsic part of the connection to country for many Indigenous cultures. Cultural burning is a deeply cultural and spiritual practice that played an important role in the relationship between Indigenous people and our land. It was a tool for managing the land, communicating with the spirits, and maintaining a strong connection to country.

Despite the worsening severity of bushfire activity in Australia, the recognition and adoption of meaningful cultural cool burning as part of a defensive strategy is still in its infancy in current land management practices. We have developed strong partnerships with private landholders and government to achieve the access, consent and participation from all stakeholders required to build an effective approach to fire management, underpinned by traditional knowledge and practices. However, resistance to the introduction of more traditional fire management practice is problematic and will require ongoing work, coordination and support.

Jaithmathang TABOO, Nallawilli Bunjil and CSIRO have creating a tripartite working group to reintroduce traditional cultural burning practices and Indigenous fire knowledge into modern fire management. Nallawilli Bunjil is a commercial drone surveillance and data modelling organisation led by Jaithmathang Elder Roderick McCleod, which provides expertise in virtual modelling to capture real time data about a landscape, including temperature, weather conditions, and for the purposes of fire management, fuel hazard. All parties aim to enhance the health of the land and its Indigenous people.

The outlined project supports developing Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER), contributing directly to the Victorian Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Strategy. Jaithmathang TABOO has agreed to work closely with neighbouring nations, including Gunaikurnai Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation. The project will coordinate with the Department of Environment, Energy Climate Action, Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporation, Country Fire Authority and Parks Victoria as priority stakeholders of the project.

CSIRO has developed a bushfire model called Spark, an end-to-end interactive 3D processing tool to predict fire behaviour, based on existing fire spread models. The system has been developed with the capability to be customised for use in risk management, planning, fire spread, research, prescribe burns and fire response.

Spark ingests fuel availability, load, topography and gridded weather based on an ignition point or ignition pattern. It then simulates the temporal and spatial extent of the fire, providing mitigation and contaminate strategies for ongoing bushfires. The project will pilot MER to help start building an accurate cultural burn model for eucalypt forests, undertaking fundamental field observations pre, during and post, documenting on country and operational cool burning methodology.

In reducing the occurrence, intensity and severity of wildfires, cultural burning has an array of interconnected objectives. These include cultural asset protection, habitat protection, biodiversity recovery, fuel reduction, waterway restoration and bush regeneration.

The important role that cultural burning can play in healing and improving the long-term health of country is increasingly being understood, and resources that support cultural burning such as the Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Strategy, support the expansion of cultural burning in Victoria.

The third phase will be to plan and conduct Cultural mosaic burns within the pilot area, sampling major vegetation, typography, weather /moisture and escape risk assessment. A project report will be compiled by CSIRO comparing cultural cool burn management to standard practices today, outlining the potential benefits of Indigenous Fire Practitioners.