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The Forum, conducted each year in locations around Australia, is the annual event for Community Foundation practitioners, Board members, staff and volunteers to come together to discuss, learn and expand the capacity of Community Foundations in Australia. It’s also the perfect venue for those people from communities seeking to learn about the movement and what it can achieve for their community. We also invite those in Government and public service to attend to find out what Community Foundations can do, are achieving and hope to achieve for the Australian community in the years ahead.

All CF delegates are requested to bring along a poster to represent and provide a talking point on your projects, achievements and future plans.

Feedback is invited on major topics of interest to be included in the Programme - please email Andrew Lawson, Philanthropy Australia’s Community Foundation Development Officer, at ajlawson@bigpond.com with your suggestions.

Found at http://www.wings-community-foundation-report.com/gsr_2010/gsr_home/home.cfm, the Report tracks the growth and development of community foundations worldwide and is an important guide to increasing philanthropic activity in countries across the globe.

Globally, the number of community foundations has almost doubled over the past ten years from 905 in 2000 to 1,680 in 2010, with spectacular growth in community philanthropy across Europe in particular.

The Fleurieu Community Foundation will act across the three Council areas of the Fleurieu Peninsula including Alexandrina, Victor Harbor and Yankalilla. The Foundation will seek to identify and bridge gaps in the funding and resources available to community projects, organisations and families on the Fleurieu.

The Fleurieu Community Foundation will raise money through grants, fundraising, bequests and donations to benefit those in the local community. Some of this funding will be directly distributed to causes within the community, and some will be invested, with the interest earned then distributed in the form of grants. This will build a permanent savings fund for the area.

The Fleurieu Community Foundation’s website is www.fleurieucommunityfoundation.org.au. Interested persons are welcome to contact Deputy Chair, Brad Butler.

In this issue: November 2010

TCFN Activities:
GCPI Webinar
Global Status Report Webinar
September 2010 Peer Exchange

TCFN Particpants:
Scottish Community Foundation
Community Foundation for South Sinai
Odorheiu Secuiesc Community Foundation
Victoria Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Greater Milwaukee Foundation

Other Community Foundation News:
News from the Global Fund for Community Foundations

Events:
- WINGS: WINGSForum 2010 Innovation and Impact: The Role of Grantmaker Associations in Changing Society, 18-20 November 2010 (Lake Como, Italy)
- Global Community Philanthropy Initiative: Launch and International Meeting Held in conjunction with CFC 2011 Conference, 15-16 May 2011 (Vancouver, Canada)

Publications:
WINGS - Community Foundation 2010 Global Status Report

Regional Focus:
Brazil

Other News:
News from CIVICUS
Russia - A Lifetime Tour
WINGS announces new Executive Director

Download Bruce Bonyhady’s speech here

» Further details are available on the Forum 2010 page

Date:
Tuesday 19 to Thursday 21 October, 2010

Location:
Best Western Melbourne Airport Conference Centre, Melbourne, Victoria

Registrations now open!
» Download the Registration Form here

» Download the preliminary Programme here

This Forum is for:

• Community Foundation practitioners
• Board members
• Community Foundation staff
• Volunteers

It is also the perfect venue for those people from communities seeking to learn about the Community Foundation movement and what it can achieve for their community.

Any community or group seeking to investigate the idea of a Community Foundation should have representatives attend this Forum.

It is also an ideal Forum for those in Government and the public service to learn what Community Foundations can do, are achieving and hope to achieve for the Australian community in the years ahead.

The full newsletter can be downloaded here, or visit the TCFN website.

Regional Focus – Australia

Background and History

Community foundation development started in Australia with the Victorian Community Foundation established in 1983. It was a decade before others followed - the Tasmanian Community Foundation formally starting in 1995 and the Melbourne Community Foundation in 1997. For the last ten years, Philanthropy Australia, the membership association for the country’s trusts and foundations, has provided development support and now numbers 24 community foundations among its members, while yet more areas are working on community foundation formation.

A key actor in the field’s development has been the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), supported by the Australian Government and the Sidney Myer Fund, ANZ Bank and The Pratt Foundation, with the remit of helping establish community foundations in rural and regional Australia. Much development has been driven by a commitment in rural areas to allowing local people to take more control over their own resources and priorities, rather than letting the bigger centres of population and state or federal government set the agenda.

There have been legislative and fiscal impediments to full community foundation functioning – ways of coping with these have been found and the foundations are working hard on creating their own sustainability.

To get a sense of the support offered by Philanthropy Australia and FRRR and the stages of development of different foundations, see the Community Foundations Gateway, managed by Philanthropy Australia. The Australia National Community Foundation Forum 2010 will be held from 19-21 October, 2010 in Melbourne and fuller details should be available soon on Philanthropy Australia.

Two perspectives which follow on the field start to give a flavour of development and we shall be pleased to follow up with more contributions from Australia in future issues.

New State government initiative in Victoria

Andrew Lawson, Community Foundation Development Officer, Philanthropy Australia writes to tell us about a new programme for supporting community foundation development in his state, Victoria. Like community foundation practitioners in many countries, he has studied the way the UK government has over the years got involved in flowing funds through community foundations for grantmaking and for endowment matches: he sees the great advantages in this – and the risks.

Over the past ten years in Australia, Federal Government support in the form of limited funds to assist the start up of community foundations has come from grants made by the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal. These grants are restricted to foundations in rural and regional areas and in the past two years, a new programme has been put into place, aimed at assisting with limited amounts of administration funding and tightly targeted. It includes an element of match funding over a three year period.

In the past year, the Victorian State Government’s Department of Planning and Community Development has introduced a new initiative for community foundations. The Department recognises that community foundations enable local people with philanthropic interests to support local priorities and initiatives more easily and effectively than can government. One of the strengths of community foundations, their ability to establish a sustainable funding stream for the community which is independent of government funding, is understood. One of the Victorian Government’s Action Plans is to “Strengthen Community Organisations”. One part of this initiative is for grants to 12 community foundations in areas where there is the right mix of community interest and need. The funding investment is intended to boost the prosperity of communities and increase business and community involvement in community life. The funds invested can help create a sustainable base for activities and the intention is to invest this in areas where government has already supported community development programmes and where the groundwork for success is already in place.

The way in which the decisions to fund are taken, has made for a successful and well received programme. Andrew says, “It is giving a very strong impetus for the foundations involved in developing their local community funding as well as lifting their community profiles. The important component of the programme is ensuring that community foundations have to be active in local community fund development and they cannot rely on a stream of government funding which could sap independent development activity.”

This article can be read in full here.

A new start – Fremantle Foundation

Dylan Smith (dylan@fremantlefoundation.com) of the emerging Fremantle Foundation has sent some thoughts and updates. He says the mood at the moment in Australian Philanthropic circles is “a feeling of emergence”. The culture of giving has traditionally been confined to a few wealthy families with their own foundations. Melbourne Community Foundation is the exception and its size and experience offer leadership to others. There is now, though, a sense that things are starting to blossom, typified by the topic of this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference Philanthropy at the tipping point? to be held 31 August – 1 September in Melbourne.

The Fremantle Foundation is in its formative stages with a launch planned for October this year and a focus very much on internal matters at the moment - setting up the correct structures and operating environment.

Nonetheless they have worked carefully on priorities, especially in

• Approaches to alleviate poverty: their initial focus area is women’s homelessness, in particular the women’s refuges that operate in Fremantle and they are debating how best to assist, without taking on the responsibility that state government should provide
• Supporting collaboration and partnerships in the community has been the active area to date, as establishing operational partnerships and sponsorships has been essential. They have close links to local government, universities and government agencies. This is highlighted by the support of the Fremantle Ports – a crucial element of the Fremantle economy so that “to have their support is wonderful”.

Grant guidelines will recognise the link between health and community participation, and focus on tackling isolation, powerlessness and lack of community engagement.

Those involved in the Foundation are proud of the mix of people involved. Their interests reflect the full gamut from professional sport to crisis accommodation, and from arts to business.

The full newsletter can be downloaded here, or visit the TCFN website.

In this issue: July 2010

TCFN Activities:
2010 Peer Exchanges
2010 Webinars
TCFN Plenary - Global Community Philanthropy Initiative

TCFN Particpants:
Valmiera Area Community Foundation
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation

Other Community Foundation News:
The Seattle Foundation

Events:
- Council on Foundations: 210 Council on Foundations Fall Conference for Community Foundations: Powering Communities, 13-15 Sept 2010 (Charlotte, USA)
- WINGS: WINGSForum 2010 Innovation and Impact: The Role of Grantmaker Assocations in Changing Society, 18-20 November 2010 (Lake Como, Italy)

Publications:
After the Flood: some options for foundations

Regional Focus:
Australia

Other News:
The Philips Livable Cities Award
European Peer-2-Peer Community Foundation Network
Invitation to apply to become a Synergos Senior Fellow

The Future of Global Community Philanthropy
Network Participants
Philanthropy News & Resources

To read the bulletin in full, go to the WINGS Global Fund for Community Foundations website.

Date:
Tuesday 19 to Thursday 21 October, 2010

Location:
Best Western Melbourne Airport Conference Centre, Melbourne, Victoria

Programme and details available early July 2010