Impact Fund
Collective giving for the boldest solutions to Australia’s biggest issues
Making change together
The Impact Fund is a way for you to get involved in best-practice collective giving. Backed by a growing community of funders and changemakers, the Impact Fund supports the boldest solutions to the biggest issues facing Australia.
The Impact Fund is the heartland of the 600+ Funds and Foundations that make up the giving community at Australian Communities Foundation.
Explore our impact
Making Change Together: Five years of the Impact Fund celebrates some of the Impact Fund’s key achievements and demonstrates how we are shaping a future we can all be proud to hand on to the next generation.
Meet our Impact Partners
Meet some of our incredible Impact Partners and hear their reflections on what we’ve been able to achieve together across the Impact Fund’s first five years.
Get involved
Interested in becoming an Impact Funder or continuing your support? We invite you to join us because smart changemakers need wise backers who understand that change takes time.
Impact Areas
Tackling Inequality
Impact Funders support people working to increase opportunity across social, economic, political, and cultural arenas.
Strengthening Democracy
Impact Funders support work that strengthens Australia’s democracy.
Supporting First Nations Self-Determination
Impact Funders support projects and organisations that are led by First Nations peoples – the best people to improve outcomes for their communities.
Safeguarding the Environment
Impact Funders protect Australia’s natural ecosystems by supporting people working towards a safe and stable climate.
Impact Partners
The power of giving together
$9+
million raised
150+
funders giving together
45+
civil society partners supported
15+
positive policy reforms
10+
social infrastructure groups and initiatives established
4x
funding leveraged
Figures last updated December 2023
Frequently asked questions
1. Supporting the work
Your donation to the Impact Fund is pooled with others. All donations are responsibly invested and income from investments helps grow the Fund. This is just one way you can show your support. You can also contribute directly to the work of Impact Partners (co-funding) or support the work behind the Fund.
2. Identifying opportunities for change
Australian Communities Foundation works with the Impact Fund community and civil society experts to identify priority issues and windows of opportunity for change across four Impact Areas: inequality, democracy, Indigenous self-determination, and the environment.
3. Making change together
Once we identify an organisation or project working on a priority issue, Australian Communities Foundation commits funding from the Impact Fund, which is pooled with contributions from Impact Funders towards the Impact Partner’s work.
Large Grants: Impact Funders join forces annually to give meaningful support to community organisations. These grants are often over several years, which gives our Partners much-needed stability, and usually range from $50,000 to $250,000.
Agile Grants: Impact Funders often step in to give rapid agile funding to urgent needs. We work hard to get agile funds out the door quickly so we can make full use of unexpected opportunities to advance a fairer and more sustainable Australia.
The Impact Fund community’s strongest focus to date has been on building public awareness of issues and advocating for policy change. This is closely followed by the community’s focus on building and strengthening social infrastructure. In addition, a quarter of work supported has focused on collaboration between different civil society groups.
Invited applicants are shortlisted based on the Impact Fund’s five key selection criteria:
- Alignment with impact area
- Timeliness/urgency of opportunity
- Potential for systemic impact
- Evidence base
- Potential to influence change
Support the Impact Fund
Interested in becoming an Impact Funder or continuing your support? We invite you to join us because smart changemakers need wise backers who understand that change takes time.
THANK YOU
Thank you to Joan and David McLennan, Joan Nelson, Ruth Dixon, Dianne Lesley Young and Lydia M MacMichael, whose bequests enabled Australian Communities Foundation to establish the Impact Fund.