We’ve come a long way since 2007…
We funded the first project in 2011. In 2015 we co-funded for the first time with The Sidney Myer Foundation to offer a grant round, and this collaboration continues over two grant rounds per year. In 2016 our first bequest enabled further expansion of our grants program.
We have 2 major targeted grant rounds per year in collaboration with the Sidney Myer Fund with a total amount of $40,000 of which PFA contributes $20,000 per year. We measure success in a number of ways including the grant round traction, the application success rate, the national reach and the geographical reach.
Pictured: Refugee Advice & Casework Service, recipient of a PFA & Sidney Myer Grant in 2020
Families, Individual commission
Youth, Families and Ageing
Ageing, with Sidney Myer Fund
Disability, with Sidney Myer Fund
Suicide, individual commission; donor preference
Refugee and Asylum Seekers, with Sidney Myer Fund
Since 2016, we’ve funded major grant rounds of up to $25,000 towards systemic change for the betterment of LGBTQIA+ communities.
Since July 2017 we have had 4 small grant rounds per year for a total of $10,000, with most rounds resulting in 4 to 5 small grants awarded of $500 each. These grants have been increasingly popular amongst individuals and tiny grass roots LGBTQIA+ organisations. A total of 156 applications have been received to December 2020 resulting in 67 small grants receiving a total of $27,500.
The Small Grants program fills a gap that has existed in philanthropic support for small community groups, especially in regional and rural areas and for emerging activist and community groups. We understand that it is often difficult for these groups to access our large grants or mainstream philanthropy due to the requirement for legal status such as incorporation, and DGR status or finding an auspice that has DGR status.
Notably, a higher proportion of rural and regional applications have been successful than in the larger grant rounds with 28 of the 56 successful applicants (50%) being rural or regional compared with 17% of the large grant applicants.
AllOut social group, Blacktown NSW, Small grant recipient round 2, 2019 for low-risk social events within a safe space, and by establishing and promoting positive representations of queer people in Blacktown
“We were able to comfortably resource a number of events across a four month period. Examples of these events included a pizza and games night, (non-alcoholic) paint-n-sip event, and an end of year dinner event. We saw an estimate of 80 young people attending one or more of the events across the four month period.
We were unexpectedly contacted by a NDIS support worker youth service. At two of our events (paint-n-sip, end of year dinner) we hosted multiple LGBTIQ+ young people from this service. This was a benefit as it allowed us to develop connections with other services and become more inclusive as a service ourselves.”
Our Small Grants Program has been running since 2017. We are the only philanthropic organisation providing small funds to grassroots community organisations that improve the resources and connection for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Pictured: Mellem speaking at our Disability Forum in Feb 2019
Source of funds 20/21 financial year
Hover over graph to view % of funds by source
Expenditure to December 2020
Hover over graph to view % of expenditure by focus
Hover over graph to view the $ amounts of expenditure by focus area
We aim to be financially efficient keeping administrative costs as low as possible and spending a significant proportion of funds raised on a mix of small and larger grants and commissioned projects.
Our income increased significantly in 2018, as the result of a Victorian Government community capacity development grant. This enabled us to engage a marketing consultant to develop our marketing strategy resulting in a rebranding of the organisation, formerly GALFA, to Pride Foundation of Australia. This role ended in March 2019 and was replaced by a part-time marketing and communications manager role that is now ongoing. This position is currently funded by a Snow Foundation grant.
As our fund raising has accelerated, particularly since 2016, this has enabled a proportionate growth in projects funded in a given year. Since the organisation began granting in 2011, the average proportion of our income used to fund projects has been 46%; however this has significantly increased over the last 2 years to 72%. We have an ongoing target of 75% of all income raised to be used to support projects, with no more than 25% for essential administrative spending including attending community events, promotions, meeting costs and financial audit (part pro-bono).
We know that it is essential to spend money on marketing and communications to attract more donations. Some of our funds raised are also invested ethically to build our corpus, which is essential to ensure the future sustainability of Pride Foundation Australia. To date, we have invested $100,000.
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 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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