Annual Review 2024

Investing in collaboration with others

It’s not possible for any one organisation or government to create positive, intergenerational change on their own. For PRF, working alongside peers, partners, and together with government on initiatives such at the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children, is necessary to ensure a future where people and places have what they need to thrive.

The Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children is a 10-year collaboration between government and philanthropy to improve the wellbeing of children, young people, and their families, by working with communities to make long-term, intergenerational change.

The first Investment Dialogue roundtable in December 2023 signalled a new way of working, and saw the Australian Government meet with 20 Australian philanthropies, including PRF, to sign the Working Together Agreement. It supports a more aligned and targeted approach by coordinating investments from philanthropy and government, while working with communities and existing organisations on a range of projects and systems reforms that place children and young people at the centre.

The Investment Dialogue is a unique opportunity to make a real difference with innovation across sectors, and in partnership with communities. At the time of the roundtable Treasurer the Hon. Dr Jim Chalmers MP said, “Aligning government efforts with the substantial investments of the philanthropic community is crucial if we’re going to make progress on addressing disadvantage.”

Since the initial meeting, First Nations and Community Leadership Councils have been established as guiding and advisory bodies. The Leadership Councils help to amplify the voices and perspectives of First Nations peoples and community members, creating a platform for meaningful contributions that ensure the Investment Dialogue considers the nuanced needs of communities.

In November this year, the Dialogue met for the second time, and together committed to a range of outcomes, including collaborating with up to 50 communities by 2030, to better support community-led change that achieves tangible outcomes for children, young people and their families. The Dialogue will coordinate philanthropic and government engagement with the communities, involve local leaders in decision-making and allocate funding according to community aspirations, helping to reduce the burden of seeking support and investment.

This collaboration will include partnering with three place-based community partners to co-design innovation zones. These zones will provide an opportunity for established place-based approaches to design the enabling reforms needed to break through major barriers for achieving intergenerational change.

Philanthropy also announced more than $47 million in co-investments in organisations working within the Dialogue’s priority outcome areas, such as the Cornelia Program, that provides pregnant women who are experiencing homelessness or insecure housing with a pathway to safe housing, social and community supports, and individualised health care.

“We are only at the start of what’s possible with the Investment Dialogue,” said Head of Children Hannah Barber. “PRF has so far committed more than $38 million to Investment Dialogue initiatives that will support children, families and communities have what they need to thrive. The return on that investment can only be greater if we listen to the needs of communities, from the voices in communities, and work in partnership with others to respond.”

Investing in unique talent
‍

Before Blake Morrison found employment with Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA), he struggled to find supportive and long-term work. After gaining invaluable geospatial skills from ASA’s on-the-job training, ASA helped him transition his employment to a multi-year contract at the University of New England’s Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre as a Spatial Analyst.

“When I was at ASA, I loved the variety of work, and applying my brainpower and having it potentially benefit ASA and client projects,” says Blake. “I felt freed from the shame cycle of Centrelink and feel like ASA has allowed me to maintain and enhance my job prospects.”

There are more than 100 young neurodivergent adults employed by ASA, one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing work-integrated social enterprises which provides career pathways in the geospatial and engineering professions – industries with critical skills shortages. Team members use their unique cognitive talents, such as attention to detail, pattern recognition and memory retention, to deliver professional ‘big data’ services for multiple industries and all levels of government. ASA’s aim is to be a career starting point for young neurodivergent adults so that they can eventually transition their employment to other inclusive organisations.

In mid-2023, PRF invested $5 million in ASA through a blended finance arrangement – half the funds as a grant, and half as an impact investment – for the social enterprise to scale its operations and provide more employment opportunities for young neurodivergent people, who face an unemployment rate of 34 per cent – 10 times the national average.

More than one year on, ASA CEO Geoff Smith says the finance has helped the organisation to increase its impact.

“This blended finance partnership was monumental for ASA,” he says. “It shows that with some tailored support, social enterprises like ASA can mature past the grant cycle and create systemic impact over the long term. The capital has allowed ASA to scale its impact across Australia and facilitated the employment of 40 new young autistic and neurodiverse adults in the first year.”

PRF Chief Impact Officer, Ben Gales says that investing PRF’s resources in innovative ways can help unlock sustained impact across the sector.

“We know that many for-purpose organisations are keen to become more sustainable and less reliant on grants but can struggle to access traditional finance. PRF’s blended finance investment in ASA, in which the grant component funds the social impact (employment support for young neurodivergent people) and patient capital for expanding its commercial operations – has given ASA the capacity and freedom to scale, and provide employment and support to young neurodivergent people for the long-term.”

Geoff Smith was named the 2025 Queensland Australian of the Year, and in the next year, ASA anticipates it will support more than 50 people into new and sustainable employment.

Investing in self determination

According to Supply Nation, for every dollar of revenue, Indigenous businesses create $4.41 of economic and social value, yet many First Nations entrepreneurs face barriers to accessing the appropriate capital needed to start and scale their businesses. Access to commercial lending can be challenging for First Nations businesses due to low intergenerational wealth transfer, lower rates of home ownership, and difficulty satisfying commercial lending criteria.

PRF partner First Australians Capital (FAC), an Indigenous-led organisation providing capacity building services and access to capital for Indigenous businesses, is trying to address these barriers. FAC is focused on economic independence and self-determination for First Nations entrepreneurs, helping to address racial inequity in Australia’s finance sector.

PRF first supported FAC in 2020 with a small impact investment in a pilot fund, and since then has provided a range of support including $10 million in grant funding, non-financial technical assistance, and more than $5 million repayable finance to FAC’s Catalytic Impact Fund, which connects investment markets with the Indigenous economy, offering accessible, patient debt finance to support Indigenous businesses.

Ben Smith, PRF’s Head of Impact Investing, says PRF’s support of FAC is part of a larger effort to invest in community-led funds, a strategic focus for PRF’s impact investing team since 2023.

“We believe that those with lived experience of societal and environmental challenges are best placed to disburse capital to the communities they serve.

“By enabling communities to hold their own capital, power dynamics can be redressed, and funds can flow to those who can create the greatest impact.”

The Catalytic Impact Fund, which launched earlier this year, has already issued $8 million in funding to Indigenous-led businesses, enabling entrepreneurs the opportunity to thrive and contribute to larger scale economic development. In the two years since FAC started raising funds for what would eventually become the Catalytic Impact Fund, more than 200 businesses were supported creating more than 1,800 economic participants through employment, business ownership and supply chain enabling within the Indigenous economy.

Ben says that by seeding and supporting community-led funds owned and driven by those with deep sector knowledge and lived experience, PRF can help “increase the market of sustainable impact funds and attract capital from new and diverse sources.”

The Chair of FAC’s Board, Jocelyn King, says that PRF’s support has empowered the organisation to decide how to approach its strategy to better support First Nations businesses and entrepreneurs and create more opportunities for Indigenous peoples.

“PRF’s commitment to FAC is allowing us to unlock innovation and self-determination for hundreds of Indigenous businesses and founders,” she says.

“FAC is building a community of investors and investees premised on overcoming systemic barriers to finance, driving a new economy and building economic independence for Indigenous people and communities.

“Big social change occurs when we all work together.”

Building tools and coalitions to break the NFP ‘starvation cycle’

When it comes to funding the work of not for profits, there's a critical yet often overlooked aspect: indirect costs. These ‘invisible’ expenses—ranging from IT and marketing to staff training—are essential for delivering impactful programs and enduring outcomes. And yet, they often go underfunded, leaving NFPs struggling to effectively achieve their purpose.

2022 research by Social Ventures Australia and Centre for Social Impact, ‘Paying what it takes: funding indirect costs to create long-term impact’ (PWIT Research), revealed that NFPs in Australia experience chronic underfunding of indirect costs, perpetually receiving less funding than what is required to deliver programs. There has also been a perception from funders, donors, and charities themselves, that lower overheads are markers of an efficient and effective organisation. All of this leads to lower capability and effectiveness across the sector, and a ‘starvation cycle’ where NFPs underinvest in their core operational and infrastructure needs to keep overheads low.

The Pay What It Takes (PWIT) initiative in Australia is a growing response to this research and comprises individuals, philanthropic funders and for-purpose organisations committed to understanding what it actually takes to create impact and paying for it. It aims to ensure that for-purpose partners have access to the resources, connections and support required to create impact now, and over the long term.

Inspired by the PWIT Research, in addition to implementing its own PWIT policy, PRF has been supporting a diverse team of experts to co-design PWIT principles and guidelines to translate the research into action. The team of experts soft-launched the suite of tools, which reflect the knowledge, experience and perspectives of diverse actors across the for-purpose sector, at the 2024 Philanthropy Australia Conference. Complementing this work, PRF also supported the ‘Reframe Overheads’ campaign, led by a committed group of NFP fundraisers who are supporting NFPs to apply PWIT insights with practical guides on reframing the narrative about indirect costs to communicate better about overheads with boards and funders.  

Collaboration between these two groups, stewarded by PRF, has strengthened the work, enabling stronger sector alignment. The full set of tools, principles and guidelines will be launched early in 2025.

“Studies have shown no correlation between overhead ratio and cost-effectiveness,” says Jo Taylor, previous Chair of the PWIT Steering Committee.

“Indeed, there is clear evidence that insufficient spending on indirect costs can potentially reduce overall effectiveness.

“Our goal is to encourage a shift in mindset - to ignite conversations about how to ensure that the organisations we fund really do have a solid base from which they can contribute to change, and how we can plug some of those gaps that exist because of the way that funding is distributed, and the way organisations are viewed and judged.”

PRF’s Chief Alliances Officer Liz Yeo has firsthand experience managing a charitable organisation and understands the pressure from funders to underestimate indirect costs and continually do more with less.

“We need to stop praising charities for their ability to deliver impact on the smell of an oily rag,” says Liz, “and instead properly fund them to do the complex and innovative work required to create long-term social change.”

Building our understanding of domestic and family violence in Australia

Since 2020, PRF has granted approximately $23 million directly into work to address domestic and family violence (DFV) in Australia and published six stand-alone reports. PRF’s engagement with the DFV sector has been deliberate, prioritising depth of understanding over speed. This has enabled us to build connections in the sector, build evidence about the realities confronting frontline services, as well as build internal understanding and knowledge about the DFV landscape in Australia.

“As newcomers to funding this sector, we were mindful not to rush, nor ignore the work and advocacy done by many players over many years to keep Australian families free from harm,” says PRF Head of Families Jackie Ruddock, who has led PRF’s DFV work for the past five years. “There has been a groundswell of recognition of DFV in Australia but the existing, collective response has not lessened its prevalence and impact, and services do not have the resources to meet increased demand.”  

PRF began its work in DFV against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing relief to 70 women’s shelters with almost $3 million in funding. We took an action learning approach to understand the specialist needs of the sector and heard that short term, program-based government funding does not match the complex nature of the work, nor enable organisations to undertake early intervention and prevention.

Building on these lessons, PRF held an open grant round for specialist DFV services in 2023, awarding $13.6 million to 58 organisations (including $6.3 million to First Nations community-controlled organisations), again bringing the grant recipients together for collective learning.

“Early research showed that knowledge and practice in the sector remains trapped in a locality as mechanisms for sharing aren’t obvious or available,” continues Jackie, “so we were keen to create a network of our partners to share insights and learnings, build relationships, and inform PRF’s future work to help tackle DFV in Australia.”

Evidence gathered by ResearchCrowd from the network of community-controlled organisations, highlights the need to understand what family violence looks like for First Nations people from a First Nations perspective, and to foreground self-determination in the unique response required to address DFV in First Nations communities. Acknowledging the importance of backing First Nations-led approaches will continue to be a priority in PRF’s future investment in the DFV space.

“It has also become clear from other specialist services that early intervention with children, young people and the whole family represents huge promise in terms of supporting healing and breaking intergenerational cycles of violence,” says Jackie.

She says the pattern of funding, followed by considered learning has been critical to planning PRF’s future investment.

“We’ve used what we’ve learned from research and conversations with people in the DFV field to find critical intervention points that, for whatever reason, have traditionally received less focus and funding. It’s about using our investment in a way that we can start to shift the conditions that trap people in cycles of violence, so that all families are stable.”

Influencing the conversation about justice

Building relationships, influencing conversations, and shifting narratives. It’s not what most would think of as the first line of defence against a failing justice system, but for PRF partner Justice Reform Initiative (JRI), an advocacy organisation working to reduce the number of people in Australian prisons, these three elements are key to building a sustained shift in public political narratives away from 'tough on crime' approaches and towards evidence-based justice policy.

“We know that jailing is failing,” says JRI Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri, “and that the over-use of incarceration causes enormous harm, is ineffective at addressing the drivers of crime, and is a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

“Too many people are ‘managed’ in prison settings, instead of having access to critical resources, supports and care in the community.  For example, without appropriate housing, healthcare and job opportunities there is a much higher chance people will come into contact with the justice system. The majority of people entering prison have experienced multiple and intersecting disadvantage, and prisons operate to exacerbate and entrench this disadvantage.”

Prisons cost the Australian economy $6.3 billion annually, yet the evidence shows that prison does little to address the drivers of incarceration or reduce crime, and in fact increases the likelihood of a person reoffending. Regardless of historically low crime rates in most of the major offence categories, almost all Australian jurisdictions are investing in new prisons or prison infrastructure.

In 2024 the Northern Territory and Queensland elections were fought on political commitments to reduce crime, and despite the evidence that imprisonment has no significant impact on crime rates, prison is still centred as the main response.

Together with an alliance of people who share long-standing professional experience, lived experience and/or expert knowledge of the justice system, JRI has been focused on building relationships, engendering commitments to move away from law-and-order politics and policy making and towards cross-party evidence-based approaches to justice.

In 2020 PRF provided $500K seed funding to establish JRI, and in 2021 provided $3.2 million to enable JRI to advocate key reforms to state criminal justice systems. In the three years since, JRI has built a reputation as a trusted voice on justice system reforms, publishing 23 reports and discussion papers, and attracted significant media engagement to bring evidence more sharply into the conversation about justice.

“Influencing conversations and shifting narratives takes time,” says PRF Head of Community Wellbeing & Justice Dominique Bigras, “but by working collaboratively with other advocates in this space, JRI has been able to help raise awareness of the failures of our prison system and start to build the case for prison reform and support for investment in community-led prevention.”

In October this year PRF granted JRI a further $6.8 million over five years to drive a national public facing advocacy campaign to highlight the failure of incarceration and mobilise communities and parliaments around Australia to shift from a political and policy preference for imprisonment to more effective and economically sustainable justice approaches.

Elevating community voices

Blacktown lies 34 kilometres northwest of the Sydney CBD on the traditional lands of the Darug people. With nearly 400,000 residents, Blacktown is the most populous LGA in NSW, and the fourth largest in the country. By 2036, its population is expected to exceed that of Tasmania and annual regional economic activity is forecast to exceed $26 billion.

Blacktown is also one of the most culturally diverse areas in the country with half the people in the LGA born overseas and residents hailing from 76 countries.  

When investing in communities, the evidence shows that better outcomes are achieved when the voices of those affected are heard. With so many diverse voices in the community, how do you paint a picture of the challenges and opportunities that exist within a place?

Over six months in 2022 and 2023, UTS Impact Studios, supported by PRF, conducted almost 100 interviews with people connected to Blacktown, exploring and investigating the question of how communities thrive. The project sought to learn about Blacktown’s many and varied communities, together with the innovative and inspired social change work that is happening there.

The result is Welcome to Blacktown, a place-based audio project that launched in September this year.

The Impact Studios team listened to people tell stories of their lives, on their own terms: their families, their passions, their work and what motivates them to do it, their challenges and achievements. From this process, two audio works were created: We are Blacktown and Sink or Swim.

“We are proud to showcase place-based audio storytelling,” says UTS Interim Pro Vice Chancellor, Social Justice and Inclusion Amy Persson, “as a way to listen to, document and make accessible individual and community stories as critical evidence that can guide place-based approaches to policy and social change.”

Welcome to Blacktown Executive Producer Olivia Rosenman says, “In being listened to, and heard, this project enhances community belonging, empowers active citizenship and connects Blacktown’s residents to a shared story, supporting the way they imagine and enact a thriving future.”

PRF Chief Alliances Officer Liz Yeo says, “It’s so important to listen to and capture voices on the ground, to hear first-hand about the experiences of residents – what they love about the area and the challenges of living there.

“The range of stories elevate community voices and provide a wonderful exploration into some of the more surprising elements of living in a community, elements which might otherwise go unnoticed.”

The audio project is part of a greater investment in the Blacktown area. In October this year, PRF opened expressions of interest for grants to support community networks working in Mt Druitt, in the Blacktown LGA.

“We believe that strong community networks are necessary for places to imagine and lead their own futures,” continues Liz, “and this funding opportunity will help organisations already doing good work together in Mt Druitt to be better connected and resourced for their work.”

Maw lives with his mum and eight siblings in the Western suburbs of Melbourne. He says that growing up he always loved basketball because it gave him a sense of peace.

“It took my mind off a lot of things,” says Maw. “The things I was going through at home, the things I was going through at school.

“I just wanted to play. But not everything could be paid for.”

When Maw was 14 his family had to move house, and the family couldn’t find a school in their new area that would accept his enrolment. So, he stopped going.

“As a young person, when you don’t have school or anything to do during the week - you start doing different things to kill time and make money,” he says.

“I was young, I couldn’t work. I started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Started stealing from shops, then it went to stealing cars.”

Eventually, Maw spent just over two years in youth detention.

Anoushka Jeronimus from community legal centre WEstjustice says stories like Maw’s are not uncommon.

"Crime prevention is not just the job of criminal justice system and not just the job of the young person and their family," she says.

"It requires the whole of the community. TARGET ZER0 provides us with the opportunity to do just that: bring the whole of the community together in Melton, Brimbank and Wyndham."

In 2022, WEstjustice was awarded $500,000 seed funding from PRF to establish TARGET ZER0, together with Centre for Multicultural Youth. TARGET ZER0 is a ten-year justice reinvestment plan working towards ending both the overrepresentation and criminalisation of young people in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The initiative takes a collective impact approach, bringing together a coalition of stakeholders to address the common overlapping systemic and structural factors that can cause young people to have contact with the justice system, such as access to education, health services, employment, and housing.

"TARGET ZER0 is not only bringing together the whole community around its twin goals but critically, enabling a shared focus on their root causes across multiple systems to help young people like Maw and his family thrive in our community."

‍

Earlier this year, PRF provided an additional $7.45 million to scale TARGET ZER0, and PRF Head of Community Wellbeing & Justice Dominique Bigras says the investment in this targeted approach will help divert young people from the justice system.

‍

“When young people don’t have access to what they need to thrive, their risk of contact with the justice system increases,” she says. “TARGET ZER0 will help better coordinate and target services so young people don’t fall through the gaps.”

‍

Maw says by having the right support he’s been able to develop a routine, begin working towards something, and has become a totally different man.

‍

“When you get out of detention, especially for a young person, if they have no one around to support them, they're just going to go back to the same stuff,” says Maw.

‍

“I was able to get that support from a lot of people. And that really helped me turn my life around.”