Twelve months ago, South Australia’s first state-wide community foundation, Foundation SA, launched with a little help from The Wyatt Trust and back-end support from Australian Communities Foundation as implementation partner and trustee.

Annual Report 2021/22
Progress On Our Strategy

Annual Report 2021/22
Progress On Our Strategy
Creating a fairer Australia
In 2021/22, the Foundation took significant steps forward across the five pillars of our strategy for a fairer and more sustainable Australia.
Activating a nation of givers

One of our key roles at Australian Communities Foundation is to introduce individuals, families and groups to the joys of giving and to help them support the causes they care about most.
Over the past 12 months, we welcomed 100+ givers to our community through the establishment of 74 new funds and foundations.
We’re continuing to help grow giving in Australia by making philanthropy easy and accessible.
Go back to Our Community to learn more about the people who give through Australian Communities Foundation.


Advancing social, environmental and cultural justice

Together with our giving community, partners and the broader philanthropic sector, we play a key role in helping to create a fairer and more sustainable Australia.
In 2021/22, we continued to contribute to progress in Australia across our five key focus areas. We saw significant growth for our largest focus area with $10.2 million going towards Tackling Inequality (up from $6.1 million in 2020/21). Our support for the environment, Indigenous communities, democracy, and arts and culture were all up from last year as well.
Across the year, over 350 people attended our calendar of events and Learning Circles to hear from organisations leading work across our focus areas.
With 2022 being the fifth anniversary of the Impact Fund, we published our first report on the achievements of the Fund, Making Change Together, and raised another $1.6 million for changemakers working on the biggest issues facing Australians.
Go back to Our Impact to learn more about our giving in 2021/22.
Investing for impact
After successfully transitioning 100 per cent of our portfolio to responsible investments in 2021, we have continued to demonstrate the value of taking a whole-of-organisation view around impact.
In recognition of our work in this space, we were the only public charitable foundation named a Responsible Investment Leader 2021 by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA). We have since been named an RIAA Leader for the second year running.
We measure the impact of our portfolio by assessing whether our investments: Act to Avoid Harm (A), Benefit Society (B) or Contribute to Solutions (C). Take a look at how our portfolio has transitioned since 2020 to deliver greater impact.


IMPACT INVESTMENTS
As part of our ethical approach to investing, the Foundation actively contributes to positive social and environmental outcomes through impact investments aligned with our Impact Areas. Learn more
Side by Side Social Impact Bond
IMPACT: INEQUALITY/INDIGENOUS
Investing in educational programs to improve the engagement and learning outcomes of young students.
Infradebt Ethical Fund
IMPACT: ENVIRONMENT
Investing in new solar and wind energy infrastructure.
Conscious Social Housing Fund
IMPACT: INEQUALITY
Investing in social and affordable housing for Victorians in need.
Investible Climate-Tech Fund
IMPACT: ENVIRONMENT
Investing in climate technology for a low-carbon future. FY23 investment.

Supporting, enabling and amplifying impact

As one of Australia’s largest charitable foundations, we continued to leverage our infrastructure this year through our Foundation Support Services.
Following our partnership with The Wyatt Trust to design and establish Foundation SA, the new community foundation has exceeded all expectations in its first 12 months with Australian Communities Foundation providing backend support for its 20+ sub-funds.
Read a recap of Foundation SA’s first year
Another key highlight this year has been our support of the Paul Ramsay Foundation’s Covid Response Surge Funding program.
Go to Our Community to learn more
Building ACF culture, capability and sustainability

This year saw our Melbourne-based team return to the office after nearly two years of working remotely through the pandemic.
Like many organisations, we have adjusted to more flexible working arrangements and our team enjoys a strong culture of trust and connectedness. In the past year, our team has developed this culture through team activities including a staff inservice in the Yarra Ranges and a cultural education session at the Koorie Heritage Trust.
Following the launch of a new integrated system from Foundant Technologies in 2021, we continued to develop and embed the system this year, building the organisation’s capability and sustainability into the future.

Growing Giving
Foundation SA’s first birthday
In the space of just 12 months, Foundation SA has exceeded all expectations and is home to 18 sub-funds with a corpus exceeding $1.1 million.
“We set three priorities for Foundation SA in our first 12 months,” explains Sophie Doyle, Foundation SA Philanthropy & Engagement Manager.
“They were to grow our corpus, consult with community to develop our strategy, and distribute funds through a grant round – and this is exactly what we’ve done.”
The community foundation model, which offers all the joy of giving minus the administrative headaches, appeals to a wide cross-section of donors, Sophie says.
“Our donors can immediately see the benefits of structuring their donations through Foundation SA,” she explains.
“The efficiency created by outsourcing the admin and reporting and the ability to have their money ethically invested for long-term growth without them having to worry about engaging an investment manager were the key benefits.
“Having all their giving centralised in a securely accessible online portal also makes life much easier at tax time when you’re trying to find your donation receipts!”
Australian Communities Foundation CEO, Maree Sidey, says the rapid growth of Foundation SA in its first year demonstrates the intrinsic value of community foundations as a way of growing giving in Australia.
“We’ve been thrilled to walk alongside Foundation SA throughout this process and share the knowledge, policies, processes and products we’ve developed over the last 25 years,” Maree says.
“We believe there is enormous potential for community philanthropy to help grow a culture of giving in Australia.
“The success of Foundation SA in its first 12 months is testament to the appeal of the model and we’d love to see even more community foundations launched across the country.”
The ease of getting started and the flexibility to tailor giving solutions to individual needs is a critical part of Foundation SA’s success, says Stacey Thomas, CEO of The Wyatt Trust which continues to provide valuable ongoing support.
“We have been thrilled to see how many South Australians have jumped on board with Foundation SA in its first year,” Stacey says.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE FUNDS ARE FIERCE IN THEIR DETERMINATION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
“Foundation SA is developing our own community, one of generous South Australians who are coming together with a shared purpose of helping a cause close to their hearts.
“We have been so delighted to see the way the community has embraced this model of giving. Whether it has been the collective giving of individuals to enable an art or literary award, or the passion of a family to support First Nations Peoples and women into further education, the people behind the funds are fierce in their determination to make a difference within the community.”
The backgrounds and philanthropic priorities of the families, individuals, giving circles and businesses that have joined the Foundation SA giving community vary, but they are united by a common goal, to “achieve long-term impact on the causes they are passionate about.”
“We have individuals who’ve set up Gumnut Accounts which help them get started with just $2,000; we have families set up a sub-fund to help engage their children in their giving; we have generous people wanting to establish a legacy through a bequest in their Will; and we also have businesses that have established corporate funds to increase staff engagement through workplace giving,” Sophie says.
The issue areas Foundation SA fund holders have chosen to support span arts and culture, empowering women, education, Indigenous youth, animal welfare, food insecurity, neonatal health, international aid, housing and more.
All giving is personal and the motivations for getting started are equally as diverse, Sophie explains.
“One of my favourite memories from the last year was receiving a call from a donor who’d read about Foundation SA in The Advertiser but who was halfway through the paperwork to establish a private foundation for his business,” she says.
“After asking a few questions he said, ‘We’d like to sign up!’ and within a week we had their sub-fund set up and they now donate a percentage of turnover into it each month and it has grown to over $50,000.
WE HAVE BEEN SO DELIGHTED TO SEE THE WAY THE COMMUNITY HAS EMBRACED THIS MODEL OF GIVING
“We’ve also had the pleasure of working with a lovely elderly couple in their 80s, who have no children and would like to support animal welfare in the Will by leaving their entire estate which includes an incredible antiques collection, to Foundation SA.
“This incredible generosity is something we should all be proud of as community members.”
Keeping it local
Providing support from, and for, local SA communities is the guiding principle upon which Foundation SA has been built. The last two years in particular, Sophie says, have brought the need for local support into sharp focus.
“We have a population of 1.7 million people in SA, and because of our size, we are connected and know how to work together to get things done,” she says. “Our communities have really come together to support each other.
“The projects we saw in our recent Neighborhood Grants round demonstrated that with grants covering social connection groups and empowerment programs for women escaping family violence, engagement programs for at risk youth in Elizabeth, household energy saving education in community housing and a choir for women in the Western suburbs.
“As a community foundation we can raise the profile of small community organisations doing important local work and our donors are learning about these grassroots groups they might not have encountered before.
“We are introducing and connecting people to create long-term relationships where support flows not just through dollars, but in other meaningful ways such as volunteering time, business connections and pro-bono work.”
Setting new goals to grow giving
In the year ahead, along with the granting of its giving community, Foundation SA will distribute $135,000 in matched funding through the Matching program with the SA Department of Human Services.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for our sub-fund holders who can apply to have a donation to their fund matched by the DHS,” Sophie explains.
“I’d like to see our donor community and our corpus double in the next year which, based on the enthusiasm we’ve seen from South Australians over the past 12 months, seems very achievable.”