Insights

The best way to lead is through listening, learning and knowing the facts

After 20 years, we’ve learnt a lot about rural communities, about their challenges and the opportunities. Reading around 2,000 applications for support each year helps us keep our finger on the pulse of the needs of remote, rural and regional communities.

We also know each situation is different, and each community is different. That’s why we prioritise spending time in communities, and speaking with local leaders.

Through these conversations, we gain direct insights that inform our work, improve our practice, and influence more targeted and relevant support for communities. We share this feedback with policymakers, with other communities, and funders, so they too have ideas, knowledge and the benefit of lived experience. Wherever we can, we bring the voices of remote, rural and regional Australia to the table.

Further, we believe that it’s critical to look back on our past performance, and to be as transparent as we can about the impact of our work. To that end, we regularly publish reports, which you can find below, and publish details of each grant we make.

If you would like to stay up to date with our published Insights, follow our page on LinkedIn.

INSIGHTS FROM THE BUSH

In the course of our work, the FRRR team speaks with hundreds of community leaders. Each quarter, our staff share their observations from speaking with these leaders from across the country, either in person, or on the phone. Here are a few insights from the last reporting quarter.

OUR YEAR AT A GLANCE

Backing Rural Communities
FY23 Annual Review

REPORTS, EVALUATIONS & SUBMISSIONS

FRRR is pleased to share what we learn and observe through our work on what are often complex intersecting challenges. In this section, you can find reports, program reviews, evaluations, and policy submissions. These highlight best practice approaches to philanthropy, natural disaster recovery, the role of arts in rural communities, sustaining local service systems, and economic resilience, as just a few.

INSPIRATION

FRRR funds projects right across Australia, helping local communities create even better places to live and work. Sometimes our grants kick-start a project, and other times, they help a community finish the job.

Whatever that is – from accessible toilets or a new kitchen in a local hall, to a bus to get kids to school, arts programs to help people recover after a disaster, or an event that brings people together and more money into the region … we’ll fund it, because it’s what locals tell us they need.

NEWS

Find out more about what’s happening, from details of the grants we have awarded, to our new partnerships and stories about the wonderful things communities achieve with philanthropic support. You’ll also find articles and our thoughts on key issues facing remote, rural and regional communities.

ANNUAL REVIEWS

Looking back on some of the wonderful things that rural communities can achieve, with support and encouragement from philanthropy, all our past Annual Reviews can be found here.