Issue 54, September 2025 View this email in your browser
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Since our last newsletter, our team and Chair have been travelling across the country, visiting current and prospective grant partners.
In late July, I accompanied theAustralian Environment Grantmakers Network CEO, Claire O'Rourke, and around 12 other private environmental funders on a week-long field trip in the NorthernTerritory. During the week, we met with a range of environmental advocates, First Nations organisations and Indigenous ranger groups. The trip extended my knowledge and understanding of issues around water licence allocations, land erosion and degradation from feral species, and the opportunities for renewable energy projects to support remote communities.
Our Chair, Craig Drummond, has also ventured to the Northern Territory in July, visiting Children's Ground, a long-time grant partner of the Foundation.Accompanied byAlberto Furlan, our Senior Program Manager – Community Wellbeing, he visited Children's Ground
Dr Alberto Furlan, IPF Senior Program Manager - Community Wellbeing; Jane Vadiveloo, CEO Children's Ground; William Tilmouth, Chair of Children's Ground; and Craig Drummond, IPF Chair in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), (L-R).
inAlice Springs, participated in a TruthTelling workshop, attended an ‘on country' education session at Simpson's Gap with children and parents from Larapinta Town Camp, and enjoyed a family night of campfire cooking at Emily's Gap, approximately 20 km outside ofAlice Springs.
Children's Ground consistently delivers outcomes for children and families, and unprecedented employment outcomes for local staff; however, the trip highlighted the challenges Children's Ground faces in delivering effective whole-of-community programs; notably, a lack of infrastructure and crippling housing overcrowding.
More recently, we were also invited to participate in the Commonwealth Government Roundtable on the ‘Role of the Not-for-Profit Sector in Boosting Productivity’. The event was jointly hosted by the Hon Tanya Plibersek (Minister for Social Services) and the Hon Andrew Leigh (Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities & Treasury) and attended by around 40 selected leaders from the not-for-profit sector, philanthropy, and various peak bodies.
The purpose of the Roundtable was to generate ideas to boost productivity in the charity and not-for-profit sectors and in the communities they serve. In particular, there was a focus on four key areas:
Embedding rigorous evaluation without overburdening charities
Potential innovations to help charities do more with less Streamlining reporting to be less onerous for grant recipients and more meaningful for funders, and
Potential funding reforms to unlock better productivity in service delivery
PhilanthropyAustralia's website provides an overview of this roundtable and the philanthropic sector’s position on these proposed changes.
Lastly, I wish to welcome our newly appointed Board member, Professor Kathryn NorthAC. Professor North is the Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne.
Professor North is a paediatric physician, neurologist, and clinical geneticist. She received a doctorate in neurogenetics in 1994 from the University of Sydney and later completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Genetics Program at Harvard Medical School.
She was elected a Fellow of theAustralianAcademy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2014 and promoted to Companion of the Order ofAustralia (AC) in 2019 for 'eminent service to genomic medicine nationally and internationally, to medical research in the fields of genetics, neurology and child health, and as a mentor and role model'.
We are delighted Professor North has agreed to join our Board of Governors to share her incredible expertise in the fields of medical research, public health and early childhood development.
Paul Conroy
Dr Aaron Eger wins Eureka Prize
Eger to Kelp
Earlier this month, DrAaron Eger was honoured with the Emerging Leader in Science Prize forAustralia in the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.
Dr Eger champions one of Earth's most vital yet overlooked ecosystems: underwater kelp forests. He founded the Kelp ForestAlliance, uniting 340 organisations across 25 countries from science, community and policy. His leadership informs a global ambition to protect and restore 4 million hectares of kelp forests by 2040.
The Ian Potter Foundation is currently funding a 3-year project to restore 10 critical new sites on the Sydney coastline, re-establish cray weed populations, connect cray weed forests, and enhance the biodiversity they support in partnership with the Kelp Forest Alliance.
GRANTS ROUND UP
$7.2 million in grants
Eureka Prize winners
Program Manager - Early Childhood Development,
Development
This month, the Foundation awarded $7.2 million in grants across itsArts, Early Childhood Development and Medical Research program areas.
In Early Childhood Development, $3,959,000 across 5 grants, and 9 Medical Research grants totalling $1,368,863 were also awarded.
In theArts, $1,910,365 was awarded to 7 arts organisations, including funding to The Ian Potter CulturalTrust to support 45 emerging artists’grants.
FUNDING ROUNDS
Dates for 2026 Read
Senior
Nicole Bortone and Research & Evaluation and Major Grants
Officer, Ximena Avalos-Mendez from The Ian Potter Foundation visited SEED Futures in Tasmania.
The funding rounds dates for 2026 are now available for all program areas except Public Health (to be announced later).
Early Childhood Development will be closed to Expression of Interest in 2026.
Please check the dates on our website before each round. Round ProgramAreas Timing 1
EOI stage 5 November - 11 December 2025
Applications open 2 February 2026
Applications close 26 March 2026
Grants announced late June 2026 2
EOI stage 17 February 2026 - 12 March 2026
Applications close 4 June 2026
Grants announced late September 2026
3 2026 Community Wellbeing EOI stage 16 June 2026 - 2 July 2026
Applications close 3 September 2026
Grants announced mid-December 2026
Funding Round dates
SECTOR ENGAGEMENT
Meet you in Meanjin
Next IPF Welcome Workshops
Our new grantees are invited to one of two in-person Welcome Workshops:
Friday 10 October 10.30 am – Brisbane
Wednesday 15 October 9.30 am – Melbourne
This event is an opportunity for you to:
Connect with staff from IPF
Network with like-minded active grantees
Discuss IPF's expectations on reporting and engagement throughout the life of the grant.
Key grant contacts will have received an email inviting them and one other colleague to attend either of these workshops.
Additional Mini Workshops Offered
To support our grant partners, we are also providing additional one-hour mini-workshops on the following topics:
Perfecting your pitch!
Storytelling
Engaging a Consultant
There's more than one type of evaluation?
In Brisbane, these workshops will be held the day before the Welcome Workshop (Thursday, 9 October in the afternoon), and in Melbourne, they will be held after the Welcome Workshop on Wednesday, 15 October.
New staff of current grant partners are also welcome to attend any of the above workshops. Please contact your program manager or Ximena Avalos Mendez to arrange an invite.
ANNIVERSARY HoMie hits 10!
HoMie has been celebrating its 10th anniversary in style.
RECOGNITION
Cosmos Prize
Professor David Keith joins Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall as a recipient of the prestigious award, recognised for his work advancing a future where humanity and nature can thrive together.
UNSW Sydney’s Professor David Keith has been awarded the 2025 International Cosmos Prize, one of the world’s most esteemed honours in environmental and ecological research.
This year’s Hoodies for Homelessness campaign went big and bold, asking the question: How Much Good Could a Good Hood Do if a Good Hood Could Do Good?
The HoMie team also released its HoMie x AFLjerseys range (in time for the big day!). Lastly, HoMie have just announced it will be opening a new flagship store in Melbourne’s Emporium.
Congratulations to HoMie on reaching this milestone.The Foundation is proud to continue its support with a grant this year to establish the new store and a paid training employment program.
Awarded annually by the Expo ’90 Foundation in Osaka, Japan, the recognition celebrates individuals whose work embodies the theme ‘The harmonious coexistence of nature and humankind’. Winners are also awarded 40 million yen (approximately $400,000).
Professor Keith is co-lead of UNSW's 'Tracking ecosystems and adapting management to change' project, which is currently supported by a $1.2 million Environment grant from the Foundation.
GRANT LEVERAGE
Lotterywest backs PEAT
AWARD
Dancenorth, Wayfinder
Dancenorth Company Producer Eloise Grace accepting its IMPACT award at the Australian Performing Arts Exchange.
DancenorthAustralia was recently recognised with its second IMPACT
In late July, the University of Western Australia announced that PEAT: Protecting peatland ecosystems and addressing threats in Southwestern Australia will receive $3.3 million from Lotterywest.
The Lotterywest funds will support the full scope of PEAT outcomes, enabling a significant expansion of activities across the South West and South Coast regions of WesternAustralia.
The Foundation is delighted to see its four-year grant for PEAT (awarded in 2023) successfully leveraged.
Shop HoMie
Award for the 2024 national tour of Wayfinder—a landmark achievement in scale, ambition, and community connection.
Company Producer Eloise Grace accepted the award at a ceremony in Garramilla (Darwin) inAugust as part of theAustralian PerformingArts Exchange (APAX).
Dancenorth’s commitment to growing and strengthening dance audiences across the country and to challenging the conventional touring model through meaningful, place-based engagement has meant they have met each community with generosity, rigour, and joy.
The Foundation is a proud supporter of Dancenorth, currently funding Dancenorth's program to mentor independent contemporary dancers from acrossAustralia.
STAFF NEWS
Welcome Abigail Whyte
Please meet our newest staff member, Abigail Whyte, who joined our finance team in September 2025.
Abigail is a Certified PractisingAccountant with more than twenty years’experience in various roles in both industry and public practice. She has also volunteered with a range of educational, sporting, and special interest groups.
We produce this quarterly e-newsletter to keep our friends and associates up to date with all the news and recent grants made by The Ian Potter Foundation.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.
