As one of Australia’s largest and leading community foundations, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation is evolving to make Greater Melbourne and its region a fairer place for all people that call it home.
Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation has released a new strategic plan, Strategy 2030, that seeks to address some of our community’s most pressing issues and centres social justice and equity at the heart of all decision-making.
Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Chief Executive Officer Peter Walton said Greater Melbourne was experiencing a time of great change and despite its reputation as being one of the most liveable cities in the world, not everyone shared in the benefits or opportunities of living there.
“You don’t have to go far to see great disadvantage, growing inequity and huge vulnerability on the doorstep of incredible wealth and opportunity,” he said.
“It’s not always a fair city and we want it to be one.”
Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation’s role in supporting the city and its regions with targeted grant making and support has a distinguished history over the past 100 years but the future strategy outlines the need for the Foundation to think differently about philanthropy.
A new set of values is shifting the way the Foundation supports its community and grant partners. The values include being ambitious, courageous, curious and acting with humility.
Mr Walton said acting with humility, particularly resonated with the Foundation’s future goals.
“The communities and partners we support know far more about their issues and their needs than we ever will,” he said.
“By acting with humility, we can better recognise where we’re best placed and when we’re not and how best to focus our support.”
The new strategic plan also identifies funding intersections between the Foundation’s three key areas of impact: housing justice, climate justice and economic justice.
Frequently seen as very separate issues, the Foundation knows it’s areas of impact frequently and increasingly overlap.
“You can’t talk about one, without talking about the others,” Mr Walton said.
“The world is not that siloed and the social problems that we’re seeking to help address, both short-term and long-term, they’re complex.
“What we're trying to do is not just look at those areas, but the intersection between those areas.”
For example, Mr Walton explained, “In Greater Melbourne we see housing developments where there is little to no canopy cover to ensure that housing is cool or better able to withstand the climate change impacts. We are about to partner with the Centre for Just Places to consider how we best support the interconnected challenges and opportunities in Melbourne’s west."
Mr Walton said the strategy supported the concept of a ‘wellbeing economy’, a concept that places people and planet at the heart of good decision making.
“The whole strategy is an approach around prioritising an economy where the ‘success’ measures aren’t just productivity, profit, employment or continuous growth, but also about the wellbeing of its citizens and protecting our environment,” he said.
“I'm pleased that the strategy is pushing us in that direction and forcing us to think about what is going to help maximise positive impact, especially for some of the communities of Greater Melbourne that aren't always thriving in the way that we think they should.”
Mr Walton said the five-year strategic plan balanced addressing the immediate needs of Melbourne communities with supporting longer-term systemic changes.
“There's a conscious choice between how much we do to address the immediate needs versus the effort in broader systems change,” he said.
“We see the immediate issues and we need to be doing something in that space, but if we constantly just treat or respond to the immediate needs, it can come at the expense of the need for urgent, long-term systematic change.
“I'd like to see in five years a real, hand on heart, confidence that the choices that we've made are really making a difference both in the short term but also shifting the needle in areas where we feel we have influence.
“I want Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation to become a really positive force for good around social justice, equity and more effective philanthropy. And indeed, pushing the idea of people, planet, social justice, equity, wellbeing in the dialogue about the future of Greater Melbourne.” Article written by Mackenzie Archer.