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Making a difference

Impact Fund

Impact highlights

Since its establishment in 2017, the Impact Fund has distributed nearly $2 million to over 30 national projects that are working on some of the boldest solutions to our country’s biggest issues.

Here’s a snapshot of what they’ve achieved so far. 

 

Gun safety

Grantee partner: Australian Gun Safety Alliance

Impact area: Strengthening Democracy

 

$70,000 (2017 – 2019)

 

With funding received in 2017, the Alannah and Madeline Foundation successfully established Australia’s first coalition for gun law reform, the Australian Gun Safety Alliance (AGSA). Funding from the Impact Fund supported recruitment, campaigning, and the development of a new website.

 

AGSA is currently seeking funding to continue its united effort in holding governments to account for the existing National Firearms Agreement.

 

Read more: Australian Gun Safety Alliance funding opportunity

 

Public interest journalism

Grantee partner: Public Interest Journalism Initiative

Impact area: Strengthening Democracy

 

$200,000 (2018 – 2022)

 

Since receiving seed funding from the Impact Fund in 2018, the Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) has been busy in its efforts to inform policy development and public discussion on independent public interest journalism in Australia.

 

PIJI has now established itself as credible actor in the media research and policy space, playing a key role in demonstrating the current decline of the news media industry, which has been further exacerbated by Covid-19. PIJI is also the only organisation currently consulting all key stakeholders in relation to the Government’s decision to establish a Code of Conduct between digital platforms and news media companies, and is now actively engaged in the negotiations for the introduction of the Code.

 

Read more: PIJI’s Australian Newsroom Mapping Project

 

Disclosure: Eric Beecher, Chair of Australian Communities Foundation, is also on the Board of Public Interest Journalism Initiative.

 

Reproductive rights

Grantee partner: Human Rights Law Centre

Impact area: Tackling Inequality

 

$90,000 (2018 – 2019)

 

Since receiving support the Impact Fund in 2018, the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) successfully intervened in the High Court in defence of Victoria and Tasmania’s safe access zone laws. This win will ensure women and staff can access abortion clinics free from harassment and abuse.

 

HRLC was also deeply involved in advocating for the decriminalisation of abortion in both Queensland and New South Wales. Both states have since decriminalised abortion, respecting a woman’s right to choice.

 

Read more: ‘Abortion no longer a crime in NSW’ – Human Rights Law Centre

 

Saving the reef

Grantee partner: Australian Marine Conservation Society

Impact area: Safeguarding the Environment

 

$60,000 (2017 – 2019)

 

Things have changed since the Impact Fund first supported the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s (AMCS) ‘Fight for our Reef’ campaign in 2017. What started as a tense relationship between the Cairns tourism industry and the climate movement has turned into a successful collaboration of reef tourism operators and local environment groups who are able to talk about the link between the fossil fuel industry, climate change and coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef, thanks to AMCS.

 

AMCS is currently seeking funding to continue the fight to save the Reef through regional conservation tourism.

 

Read more: Australian Marine Conservation Society funding opportunity

 

Marriage equality

Grantee partner: Human Rights Law Centre

Impact area: Tackling Inequality

 

$25,000 (2017)

 

In 2017, the Impact Fund gave $25,000 in support of the Human Right Law Centre’s (HRLC) work with the Equality Campaign and LGBTIQ+ community organisations to campaign for a Yes vote in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey.

 

HRLC played a pivotal role in protecting LGBTIQ+ people in Australia from amendments aimed at winding back long-standing anti-discrimination protections and in ensuring the passage of legislation to deliver marriage equality.

 

Read more: ‘History is made as Australia says YES to marriage equality’ – Human Rights Law Centre

 

 

Poker machine reform

Grantee partner: Alliance for Gambling Reform

Impact area: Tackling Inequality

 

$60,000 (2017 – 2020)

 

The Alliance for Gambling Reform has achieved significant progress in its campaign for divestment from poker machines. Since receiving funding from the Impact Fund in 2017, the Alliance has played a central role in changing industry practice related to pokies in the AFL, as well as in divestment announcements from both Woolworths and Coles.

 

The Alliance is currently seeking funding to leverage the Covid-19 shutdown of poker machines in their campaign for reform.

 

Read more: Alliance for Gambling Reform funding opportunity

 

Jobs on country

Grantee partner: Country Needs People

Impact area: Supporting Indigenous Self-Determination / Safeguarding the Environment

 

$150,000 (2017 – 2019)

 

The Country Needs People (CNP) campaign fights for the growth and security of opportunities for land and sea country management by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 2017, the Impact Fund provided $150,000 to CNP to create an ‘advocacy travel fund’ to get Indigenous rangers to Canberra and decision-makers out to managed lands, and to support Indigenous women rangers’ leadership and role in land and sea management.

 

Since then, the campaign has secured 30 million hectares of new Indigenous Protected Areas under development, and over $700 million in federal funding to support Indigenous rangers until 2028 ($102 million annually, indexed per year to 2027). Country Needs People is currently seeking funding as it expands from a campaign to an independent organisation.

 

Read more: Country Needs People funding opportunity

Impact Fund: Reimagining Australia

Join us in supporting the work of our country’s leading changemakers for a fairer and more sustainable Australia.