We work from a social change model of philanthropy having a dedicated focus on advancing equity for the most disadvantaged LGBTQIA+ Australians. With an evidence-based approach we advocate for enduring systemic change.
For more information see: https://www.reichstein.org.au/our-work/ ‘Change Not Charity’
A national advisory committee has been initiated, with work in this area being directed towards the development of LGBTIQA+ inclusive training for organisations and service providers who work with refugees and asylum seekers, and to raising awareness of the issue within all levels of government. We are funding peer-led support groups situated in different states and territories around Australia.
From 2021 an annual grant will be made to support LGBTIQIA+ visual, literary, and performing arts. The program is under development and will likely provide support to only one of these important fields on an annual, rotating basis. An advisory group is being established and co-funding from like-minded philanthropic funds is being sought. Please contact us if you would like to join our advisory committee or co-fund with us.
These priorities were chosen by the Pride Foundation Board based on existing evidence of needs and gaps. We also discuss needs within the LGBTQIA+ community with our supporters, our research collaborators and leaders in the community. Individual donors can also propose other priority areas for the Board to consider.
An expert advisory committee supported several areas of work including a submission to the Victorian Government Disability Action Plan and advocacy with the NDIA for LGBTQIA+ inclusion. A research project at Deakin University investigated the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ people living with disabilities. Several large grants in LGBTQIA+ disability were funded in collaboration with the Sidney Myer Fund, and some of these have enabled further Government-funded projects. We are supporting the establishment of a Victorian disability self-advocacy group, as well as a national peak consumer group.
This work was informed by consumer advisory groups and an expert advisory committee. It was led by a team at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with researchers at Swinburne University of Technology. The team partnered with the LGBTI Health Alliance, Council to Homeless Persons (Victoria), Drummond Street Services, Launch Housing, Vincent Care, Family Access Network, Uniting and several other providers of homelessness services. The work culminated in the development of a national guide on LGBTQIA+ inclusion for the housing and homelessness sectors, and training initiatives continue to be developed using this guide.
We funded several mainstream groups to improve their LGBTQIA+ inclusive practice. We also assisted LGBTI specific groups to reach out and support older LGBTQIA+ Australians. We chose to move on from this priority once it was clear that Governments and NGOs around Australia were becoming more committed to funding this area.
This area will continue to be a priority for the Pride Foundation, as long as mental health inequalities for various LGBTQIA+ subgroups remain.
This area will also be an ongoing priority as needs arise.
We determine our areas of interest to those with the greatest unmet needs by:
When a new priority area is chosen, we begin by identifying current knowledge in the area, the unmet need, gaps in services and barriers to change. We do this in collaboration with an advisory committee we appoint for this purpose. We then apply and fine tune our theory of change strategy.
If new evidence is deemed necessary to bring about change we commission researchers in collaboration with stakeholders and LGBTQIA+ people with lived experience to build the evidence in the Australian context.
We work closely with LGBTQIA+ community groups and agencies to find the early adopters for change, whom we then support and empower. To bring about social change we often need to identify ‘gatekeepers’ and create an ‘authorising environment’, as well as work with existing or emerging leaders.
We then focus on building community capacity by supporting grass roots advocacy, and inclusion in mainstream and LGBTQIA+ organisations. This leaves a legacy of capability within LGBTQIA+ and allied groups for ongoing and sustainable change.
We are committed to collaboration and co-designed projects with key stakeholders and always engage an expert advisory committee from the sectors and communities to guide our work. This includes LGBTQIA+ people with experience of the particular issue as well as professionals with expertise in the field; while appreciating that there is often overlap between the two. We then seek external collaborators and supporters.
In each of these steps we either commission projects (usually limited to evidence building research) or publicly call for proposals to create change in our target area. Proposals are evaluated by an independent selection committee, which includes representatives from any co-funders and our advisory committee. When a grant is made we monitor the progress and asses the project acquittal report that grantees must provide at the project end. These processes ensure we gain the best possible value from our donors’ donations to us.
We seek formal feedback from grant recipients via the acquittal report. We are interested in not just what was achieved, but whether there were any constraints during the project and how these were dealt with. Measuring sustainable change is a much larger project that involves reviewing the program of work in each area over the longer term. This is measured in part by the commitment to ongoing work within the sector.
Since 2005 Pride Foundation Australia (formerly GALFA) has granted almost $400,000 for over 40 large grants and over 70 small grants. We have leveraged over $1 million in co-funding to increase philanthropy for our LGBTQIA+ communities.
Pride Foundation Australia is committed to increasing the proportion of philanthropic funds that are dedicated to LGBTQIA+ causes. We seek to increase the practice and culture of philanthropy in the LGBTQIA+ and allied communities. We do this using a number of methods:
Pride Foundation Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, in so-called Australia. We acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that it always was, and always will be Aboriginal land. We pay our respects to the Elders past and present.
Pride Foundation Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate, in so-called Australia. We acknowledge that sovereignty has not been ceded to First Nations and remains stolen. We pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.
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