Strategic Initiatives

Through research and collaboration with the broader community, not-for-profit, philanthropic and government sectors, Australian Communities Foundation identifies strategic funding priorities which become a key focus of its future grantmaking for a defined period of time.

Development and implementation of these strategic initiatives is based on Australian Communities Foundation's commitment to:

building a quality understanding of community needs and issues based on research and expert input
developing partnerships with like minded people and organisations
raising a pool of funds from a range of donors to meet those needs.

With the Foundation’s change to a national focus in July 2011, it remains committed to continuing to build partnerships and collaborations to meet the needs of diverse communities across Australia.

To date, the following initiatives have been undertaken or are being planned for the future

Australian National Developmental Index – ANDI (commencing in 2013)

The Australian National Development Index (ANDI) is a major initiative that aims to create a new national model of progress, moving from one which focuses solely on increasing economic production and wealth, to one which tracks progress towards equitable and sustainable wellbeing for all Australians.

ANDI is based on the development of a new system of community based measures of well-being, and will involve major data collection and community consultation activities. In the process, it aims to promote a national conversation and a shared vision about “What kind of Australia do we want?” and thereby help to strengthen democracy.

The Australian Communities Foundation is currently developing a partnership with ANDI to assist it to scale up its activities. Utilising the Foundation’s expertise and experience, it will work with ANDI to increase its profile and the resources needed to commence the community consultation component of the Index across Australia.

To develop ANDI’s approach it will seek community views about what constitutes national progress, wellbeing and sustainability. Through engagement with at least 500,000 citizens it will ensure that communities have the opportunity to highlight what wellbeing means to them and the type of future directions that Australia should pursue to move towards this. Extensive research and data collection will then provide information about the extent to which progress is being made in each of the identified areas of wellbeing. Further information about ANDI can be found on its website.

MacroMelbourne (2005 - 2011 although some projects are still continuing)
MacroMelbourne was the second major initiative to be implemented as part of the Foundation's strategic funding focus. Its purpose was to find ways to contribute to Melbourne being a liveable city as it faces the challenges of growth over the next 25 years.

Indigenous Education and Capacity building (ongoing)
Support for Indigenous issues is a key concern for a number of Australian Communities Foundation donors, with a particular focus on education. The Foundation's role is to support and promote a range of initiatives and projects with which donors, Board and staff are involved, to the broader donor community and beyond.

Youth at Risk (2005-09)
Youth at Risk was the first of the Foundation's strategic initiatives, with the aim of expanding opportunities for disadvantaged young people in danger of dropping out of the education system and therefore limiting access to vocational training and employment.