The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal has significantly increased its year-on-year grant making to communities in regional Australia, in recognition of the challenges being posed by natural disasters and COVID-19 alike.
As reported in its just-released 2020/21 annual review, in the last financial year FRRR awarded nearly $20 million through 917 grants, an increase of around a third on the year before.
A significant portion, $4.1 million, went toward 203 recovery projects in communities impacted by the Black Summer bushfires.
FRRR supports small not-for-profit organisations across rural Australia through a mix of grant funding and capacity building activities.
Despite it being a tough year, everyday Australians and the philanthropic sector in particular continued to give, enabling FRRR to reach some of the smallest and most remote communities.
One of those is Thallon, where the Progress Association has done so much work to 'bring the town back from the brink', expanding economic opportunities with creative tourism initiatives and community infrastructure enhancements.
FRRR CEO Natalie Egleton said while many grants to community groups are project-based, last year, in response to community needs, the organisation adapted its approach to also support more operational costs.
"The places we support are really small communities - sometimes just tens or hundreds of people - and so very few volunteers carry a lot of the load," she said.
"Between the impacts of bushfires, drought, floods and COVID-19 restrictions, traditional fundraising was simply not possible.
"We were able to step in and support projects in more than 540 different postcodes across the country."
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Ms Egleton said that because communities were very resourceful, most projects didn't need a lot of funding.
The median grant was $13,000.
While that figure has increased over time, FRRR still awards many grants that are just a few thousand dollars, Ms Egleton said.
"It's surprising just how big an impact can be created with relatively little, especially when people come together and given collaboratively, as they have this year," she said.
"While it's been a tough 12 months, thanks to the support of our corporate and philanthropic partners, and hundreds of individual donors, we are proud to have been able to sustain and indeed strengthen many rural communities.
"And we'll continue to do so, as the vitality of these remote, rural and regional communities is critical to the growth and prosperity of Australia."
The latest results were made possible thanks to government, philanthropy, business and private funders, including the Waislitz Family Foundation in partnership with Australian Community Media, News Corp Australia, Origin Energy Foundation, Sidney Myer Fund, Stockland Care Foundation, unicef, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Kellogg Australia Charitable Foundation.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
