News

September 2024 marked the end of a five-year partnership with the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) to pilot the Investing in Rural Communities Futures (IRCF) program across three small rural communities in NSW - Junee, Leeton and Nambucca Heads.

FRRR CEO, Nat Egleton says “the goal of the program was to help these organisations ‘fit their oxygen masks first’ so they can maintain their critical community work well into the future. We worked alongside amazing not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) using a highly relational and deeply considered place-based approach to strengthening their capability.”

The IRCF pilot set out to develop and trial a model that would work with local NFPs bringing them together to learn, identify strengths and common challenges and then work collaboratively to lift up each organisation for the benefit of each community. It involved a mix of on-the-ground support, coupled with a rigorous, regular ‘roadmapping’ process through which local NFPs agreed gaps and opportunities, and prioritised activities to address them as a group. While some grants were provided to individual organisations, there was also ‘toolbox’ funding available for projects that benefited multiple organisations on common areas of capacity needs such as governance.

Running alongside the work was a robust evaluation program, to track learnings. The evaluation confirmed that providing flexible support and funding targeted at the capacity and capability of NFP organisations leads to capable, collaborative and resilient organisations that can more effectively advocate for themselves. It also reinforced that time, collaboration and the right local leaders are essential ingredients for a success.