Thank you to IFIP for being interested in elevating information on the philanthropic space in Australia. I’m sharing this today as a perspective of a non-Indigenous person who is passionate about ensuring more funding is flowing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander controlled organisations (herein ACOs), with increased geographic equity across the continent. This article intends to introduce this place to a global audience.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are represented by hundreds of Nations and language groups (Image 1), across this continent which is the sixth largest in the world. There are ~800,000 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people representing 3.2% of the total Australian population (source: Australian census 2021), noting in some areas that extends up to 80% of an regions’ population. There are thousands of ACOs across this continent, 900 alone in the state of Western Australia where I live. However, it is only ever the same few ACOS (~20 orgs) that often promoted within philanthropic spaces. This motivates me to ask how do we increase the equity of access to philanthropy to more ACOs?
The non-Indigenous population, and primary sources of philanthropic funding, is centred in capital cities (Image 2 – left), with the majority of structured philanthropic entities located in Melbourne and Sydney. By comparing Image 1 and 2, you can see the geographic obstacles for many Nations/ACOs to have access to philanthropic funding or to build relationships to funders. It is anticipated that this inequity of proximity will grow in coming years due to the concentrated transfer of wealth projected to occur in these capital cities (Image 2 – right). This motivates me to ask how do we increase the geographic equity of access to philanthropy to more ACOs from all Nations? I ran some analysis on data from Foundation Maps on the Philanthropy Australia website up to 2019. It is estimated only 0.5% of private philanthropy in Australia is going to ACOs, yet 7% goes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (ie non-Indigenous organisations fundraising to service Aboriginal people). Is this discrepancy attributed to racism; to non-Indigenous organisations having access and connections to funders; or, as occurs in Indigenous giving around the world, the holistic nature of ACOs is often overlooked by the silo approach of traditional philanthropic funding? As our peak body Philanthropy Australia pushes to double philanthropic giving by 2030, it leaves me thinking how do we increase the proportion of funds flowing to ACOs at a substantially higher rate as funding increases overall? How do we get that funding flowing more equitably to all Nations?
One mechanism to grow funding to all Nations across our continent will be the growth of Indigenous Led Funds (https://cairns.dev/ourwork/indigenous-led-funds-working-group/). At present I’m connected to about eight funds, and the number will continue to grow. Hopefully soon we will have ILFs all over the continent at the geographic scale and on focal funding areas that suit those involved. I look forward to IFIP elevating these ILFs, and providing a mechanism for more funders in Australia, and hopefully some international funders, to be able to easily shift more funds to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – if you are inclined.
There are some wonderful philanthropic funders that are collaborating in this place/space to drive change to have a different type of philanthropic sector in this continent, with more First Nations people driving the narrative going forward. Thank you to IFIP for coming here to assist in speeding up that change.
Images & Captions
Image 1: AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia
This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. It used published resources from the eighteenth century-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims. David R Horton (creator), © AIATSIS, 1996. No reproduction without permission. To purchase a print version visit: https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/.
Image 2: Location of philanthropic funding centred in capital cities (left) and concentration of projected wealth transfer (right)
(source Philanthropy Australia blueprint)
