The Paul Ramsay Foundation and Philanthropy Australia have today announced the ten organisations that will participate in the final round of an innovative form of peer to peer philanthropy where organisations work together on projects and successful grantees are determined by the applicants themselves.

This has been developed in collaboration with our partners, the Social Impact Hub, who ran the Solve It Australia Masterclasses that preceded this program. The masterclasses presented the problem solving framework to develop these projects.

In an Australian-first, Creating Partnerships for Potential – A Peer to Peer Initiative will bring together ten organisations with ten new well-formed ideas to help break the cycle of disadvantage. The participating organisations are:

  1. Asthma Australia
  2. Burnet Institute
  3. Campbell Page Limited
  4. Fitzroy Legal Service
  5. Good Cycles Limited
  6. Hand Up Mallee
  7. Neami National
  8. Star Health
  9. The Benevolent Society
  10. The Smith Family

After a two day residential program during which they will collectively develop and evaluate each proposal, the organisations themselves will determine the five ideas that receive funding.

Proposals cover a diverse range of communities and systems of disadvantage including:

  • Building the capacity of health professionals to decrease hospitalisations from asthma
  • Parental, mental health related and youth employment issues
  • Early childhood development factors including single parenting, socioeconomic disadvantage and out of home care
  • Supporting the legal decision making of people with disabilities
  • Improving culturally relevant approaches for education access for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students

Chief Capabilities Officer Jo Taylor said; “We know that we don’t have all the answers here at the Foundation.

“We are experimenting with new ways of working; enabling the Paul Ramsay Foundation initiatives to be led by the expertise of the individuals and organisations working deep in communities all over Australia.”

This new initiative enables leaders with ‘hands on experience’ to be at the centre of decision making in this initiative.

CEO of Philanthropy Australia, Sarah Davies said; “We are thrilled to have the support of the Paul Ramsay Foundation to deliver this pioneering approach to philanthropy.”

“We will continue to look for ways to make philanthropy in Australia as inclusive, collaborative and effective as possible.”

All organisations and their proposals have undergone rigorous pre-assessment to ensure the highest standards. The peer to peer evaluation process is based on an evidence based methodology built over ten years by US pioneers Village Capital.