
Annual Report 2020/21
Impact Fund
Our 2020 Reimagining Australia grantee partners: Everybody’s Home, Economic Media Centre, Dhadjowa Foundation, and 350.org Australia.

Annual Report 2020/21
Impact Fund
Making change together
In 2020/21, the Impact Fund raised over $1 million.
Established as our flagship fund for collective giving, the Impact Fund supports the boldest solutions to our country’s biggest issues.
Since inception in 2017, the Impact Fund has mobilised a total of $4 million to support 40 civil society partners with contributions from over 90 funders.
Impact Fund Grants 2020/21
Large Grants: Reimagining Australia
Learn more about our Large Grants 2020 on the Impact Fund’s Reimagining Austalia website

INEQUALITY
Everybody’s Home
Council to Homeless Persons
$136,000

DEMOCRACY
Economic Media Centre
Australian Progress
$112,000

INDIGENOUS
Dhadjowa Foundation
$365,000

ENVIRONMENT
Jobs, Climate, Justice campaign
350.org Australia
$100,000
Agile granting
An additional $300,000 was raised through the Impact Fund’s agile granting, including Covid-19 support for existing partners like Country Needs People and new campaigns such as the #OurDemocracy alliance.
Get involved
Your game-changing support for the Impact Fund

As we approach the five-year anniversary of this ground-breaking collective giving vehicle, we are asking you to consider supporting the Impact Fund so that together we can continue to tackle Australia’s most urgent issues.
Your support means we can give more than just funds, like mentoring to Apryl Day from the Dhadjowa Foundation.
“Just as we are there for families from the moment of sorry business all the way through to coronial hearings, ACF has been there for us, connecting us with other Impact Fund Grant Partners who have been able to help us with training for families who suddenly have to speak to media. There is no other organisation that has offered us that amount of wraparound support.” – Apryl Day, Founder, Dhadjowa Foundation.
Three ways to get involved
- Incredible people like Apryl Day call our support ‘game changing’. You can help us to keep giving this kind of support to Impact Fund Partners day in and day out by donating to ACF and the Impact Fund’s work.
- Contribute directly to the Fund to help grow the pool of available funding.
- Support an existing Impact Fund Grant Partner.
To get involved, contact Anna Demant, Head of Impact on 03 9412 0412 or email anna@communityfoundation.org.au

Jake, Bec and Adam Milgrom from the Tripple Fund a range of projects through the Impact Fund, including the Dhadjowa Foundation, the Economic Media Centre and the Our Islands Our Home campaign.
COUNTRY NEEDS PEOPLE
KEEPING ONE ANOTHER HEALTHY
“Country needs people, and people need country,” says Patrick O’Leary, Executive Director at Country Needs People (CNP). “The two are inextricably linked together to keep one another healthy.”
First supported by the ACF Impact Fund in 2017, CNP partners with over 40 Indigenous land and sea management organisations to support on-Country work protecting nature and benefiting communities.
“To manage land well and to protect biodiversity and nature, we need the people who have managed this continent for over 60,000 years,” says Patrick.
While Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) were introduced nearly 25 years ago, the lack of a coherent policy or funding framework meant communities long struggled to secure enough long-term funding to support land and sea management.
Over the past five years, CNP has worked with partners to help change the story. By building cross-partisan support to maintain and increase funding for Indigenous land and sea management, CNP helped secure:
- a commitment of $746 million in 2020 to support over 80 community-led Indigenous ranger groups between 2021 and 2028.
- a $12 million commitment from the Northern Territory Government to extend the Aboriginal Ranger Grants program.
- a doubling of the number of Indigenous ranger jobs funded through Queensland’s Indigenous land and Sea Ranger Program.
- an increase of $50 million for Western Australia’s Aboriginal Ranger Program.
- $11 million for 9 new marine Indigenous protected areas.
CNP continues to make the case that demonstrates a clear benefit to Indigenous communities and wellbeing from working on country.
“Traditional land contemporary land management practices combined reinforce communities’ connection to land and culture, and provide a source of employment and wellbeing,” says Patrick.
The CNP model is now being adapted internationally with the Land Needs Guardians movement in Canada seeking to achieve the same recognition of the benefits of traditional land management for both country and people.
#OURDEMOCRACY
A NEW ALLIANCE CAMPAIGN TO STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY
Members of the Hands Off Our Charities Alliance, another campaign led by the Australian Democracy Network, meet at Parliament House.
A new alliance campaign involving over 30 nonprofits, including five ACF Impact Fund partners, is facilitating collective action for a stronger democracy.
In March 2020, as Australia grappled with its first Covid-19 outbreak and the underlying inequalities it brought to the fore, a new project working for a fairer democracy was born: the Australian Democracy Network (ADN).
A joint project from the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Human Rights Law Centre and the Australian Council of Social Service, ADN’s mission is to bring together civil society organisations and enhance communication and connectedness across the social change sector for a thriving democracy.
In early 2021, Australian Communities Foundation provided funding for ADN to hire a Campaigns Director to lead four campaigns, including #OurDemocracy – an alliance advocating for stronger laws that regulate political donations and lobbying to reduce the impact of corporate capture.
“This new alliance brings together a powerful group of allies, working in different areas but with a shared vision of tipping the scales back in favour of people and planet,” says Margaret Quixley from the Alliance for Gambling Reform, one of the participating organisations.
Since launching, the campaign has generated significant awareness of the issue of corporate capture, largely through a partnership with the Big Deal documentary – an ACF Impact Fund partner.
“It’s been an incredible opportunity for us to bring new people into our movement,” says Saffron Zomer, Executive Director, ADN.
“The 24 hours after the documentary aired on the ABC saw 2,500 contacts join our list. This is an incredible start to our campaign.”