In a world grappling with disruption, fragility, and inequality, philanthropy can’t afford to be passive. Now more than ever, we need to move from generosity to purposeful, strategic giving.
Reactive giving, while often well-intentioned, is like putting out fires without asking why they keep starting. If we want to shift systems and create lasting change, we need to look deeper. That’s where strategic lenses come in. These lenses help us:
- Understand the root causes of the issues we care about.
- Make decisions that are values-aligned and evidence-informed.
- Ensure our giving is not just generous, but transformative.
No matter what cause speaks to you, whether it’s education, arts, health, the environment, or community resilience, applying a lens helps you give with greater clarity, confidence, and impact.
Australian Communities Foundation is here to support you in exploring these lenses and shaping a giving approach that reflects your values and aspirations.
Systems Lens: Fund the Fix, Not Just the Band-Aid
A systems lens helps you look upstream, beyond symptoms, to the root causes of social and environmental challenges. It helps us to focus on shifting the underlying systems – policies, practices, relationships, and power dynamics – that produce social problems.
Action: Fund advocacy, movement-building, and policy change.
Tool: Growing the mindsets and practices that enable systems change – TACSI
Equity Lens: Fund Fairness
An equity lens means redistributing power and resources to communities historically excluded. It’s about fairness in outcomes, making sure everyone has what they need to thrive.
Action: Prioritise First Nations-led, gender justice, LGBTQIA+ and racial equity initiatives.
Tools: Gender Wise Toolkit – Australians Investing In Women (AIIW), Grantmaking with A Racial Justice Lens – Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, Rainbow Resources: Understanding funding needs of LGBTIQ+ community sector
Climate Lens: Fund for the Future
Climate change touches everything – from health to housing to justice. A climate lens ensures your giving builds resilience and drives advocacy.
Action: Embed climate into all your giving, not just environmental grants.
Tool: The Climate Lens – Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network
Intersectionality Lens: Fund the Whole Story
People don’t live single-issue lives. Focused on people and power, this lens assists in understanding complexity and how overlapping identities (e.g. race, gender, class, ability, sexuality) shape experiences of privilege and oppression.
Action: Fund initiatives led by those most affected, working across movements.
Tool: 7 steps to apply an intersectional lens to your grantmaking
Take Action: Reflect, Refocus, Reimagine
Every dollar you give is a chance to shape the future. So ask yourself:
- What lenses are guiding my giving?
- Where can I go deeper?
- Who am I missing?
Use the tools above and ACF’s Good Giving Toolkit to reflect and realign your giving with your values and the world’s needs. Prefer a conversation? Call us on 03 9412 9412 or email [email protected].
We’ll help you explore which lenses could strengthen your giving and connect you with the people and organisations successfully driving change in your areas of focus.
