Major

In this round, the Board awarded three grants to projects identified through the Foundation's participation in the Investment Dialogue for Australia's Children (IDAC), Australia's largest partnership between philanthropy and government. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to reducing intergenerational disadvantage and building an inclusive and equitable Australia where children and families can thrive.

IDAC comprises three portfolios of work: Place, Early Years and Young People, through which funders support community-led initiatives improving the lives of Australian children. The Place portfolio aims to support community-led approaches in the places where children and families experience the greatest disadvantage, recognising that lasting change is shaped locally.

The Reily Foundation

Growing Futures: Extending Holistic Support for Young Parents Across the First 1,000 Days

$1,250,000 over 5 years

The Reily Foundation is an independent South Australian association offering free education, practical support and advocacy to parents and families navigating the Child Protection System. By helping parents overcome barriers to caring for their children, it works to strengthen parenting capacity, maintain family connections and support reunification.

Growing Futures will strengthen parenting skills, support healthy parent-child relationships and reduce factors that can lead to child protection involvement. Delivered with the Department of Human Services and Relationships Australia South Australia, it will focus on Adelaide’s northern suburbs, where developmental vulnerability, young parenthood and contact with support systems are substantially above average.

Peer workers will work alongside practitioners, providing mentoring, practical assistance and help navigating services through flexible, individualised support. The project will test whether an evidence-informed, relationship-based approach extending from infancy to age three can improve outcomes. Its long-term model integrates parenting support, mental health services, social connection, and pathways to education and employment.

The Foundation’s funding will support peer mentor and caseworker salaries over five years, as well as program delivery and evaluation.

The Reily Foundation is well placed to lead the peer workforce, drawing on extensive experience supporting young parents and strong service-system relationships. Embedded evaluation will build evidence for future policy and service delivery and inform potential scaling if the model proves effective.

First Steps Count Inc

Building the Conditions for Children and Families to Thrive in Taree

$1 million over 5 years

First Steps Count is a community-led child and family hub in Taree, NSW, established in response to concerns about child wellbeing and the difficulty families face navigating fragmented services. Developed over more than a decade by community members, service providers, government agencies and philanthropic partners, it offers families a welcoming place to access support, connection and early intervention.

Serving families with children aged 0–12, the hub brings health, wellbeing, parenting and community services together under one roof. Families can engage without referrals or eligibility requirements and at their own pace. This accessible model aims to reduce barriers, strengthen family connections and improve coordination between services.

First Steps Count also works to strengthen the wider child and family service system across the NSW mid-coast through research, community engagement and collaboration with local organisations.

Identified through IDAC, this project combines immediate action with longer-term reform. It will strengthen service collaboration and community-led governance; embed relational and culturally safe practice; improve coordination around families; and build evidence for broader systems change.

This grant supports the employment of a Relational Partnership Lead, community engagement, program activities and evaluation.

Mounty Aboriginal Youth Community Services Ltd

Building the Conditions for Children and Families to Thrive in Mt Druitt

$1 million over 5 years

Mounty Aboriginal Youth & Community Services (MAYCS) is a youth-led, community-controlled organisation based in Mount Druitt, NSW. Founded by Aboriginal young people for Aboriginal young people, MAYCS was established to create opportunities for healing and leadership, and drive positive change for Aboriginal young people, families and community. 

This initiative aims to strengthen support for children, young people and families in Mount Druitt by building a more coordinated, community-led approach to early intervention. Led by MAYCS, the project is grounded in Aboriginal community leadership and builds on existing local strengths and relationships.

The project has three interconnected components:

• ·     to support the establishment of a community governance group that brings together children, families, community members and service providers to identify priorities, shape local responses and guide collective action to create a stronger foundation for shared decision-making with government, funders and other partners.
• to establish a community-based caseworker model that provides practical, relationship-based support to families before challenges escalate into crisis. Unlike many services that are constrained by eligibility criteria or short-term support periods, the caseworker will work alongside families for as long as needed, helping them navigate services, access practical support, strengthen connections to education, housing, health and culture, and address issues early. 
• to evaluate the program to gather evidence, support adaptation and scalability and identify opportunities to support systems change.

The requested funding will support a Senior Community Caseworker and a Community Learning Lead, providing flexible and practical support for families. This grant is subject to some further funding being raised.

Early Childhood Development

Parenting Research Centre Inc

Collaborative approach to scaling support for the early home learning environment (EHLE) (Phase 2)

$1 million over 4 years

The Parenting Research Centre (PRC) is a national not-for-profit organisation that works with government and community partners to design, implement and evaluate evidence-informed parenting and family support. Its programs include smalltalk, MyTime and the Raising Children Network, a widely used digital parenting platform.

The proposed Early Home Learning Environment (EHLE) Network will strengthen the programs, partnerships and systems supporting children’s learning at home. Following the Foundation’s support for Phase 1, which established its evidence base and relationships, this grant will fund Phase 2: the formal establishment and operation of the network.

Led by PRC with Playgroup Victoria and Our Place, the network will connect program leaders, researchers, policymakers and practitioners to finalise and implement a scaling strategy, exchange knowledge and coordinate action across a fragmented field. It aims to expand the quality, reach and effectiveness of home learning support, improve children's development and create more equitable opportunities for families most likely to benefit.

Brotherhood of St Laurence

Early Years Integrated Approach

$1,083,265 over 5 years

The Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL) is a nationally respected social justice organisation working to prevent and alleviate poverty through research, policy reform, community partnerships and service delivery.

BSL’s Early Years Integrated Approach combines BSL Grow and Enhanced Early Supports to improve how children and families access early childhood, health and developmental services. Demonstration sites in Sunshine, Mernda and Seymour will test integrated, prevention-focused delivery and identify what is needed to sustain and scale the model.

This grant supports the engagement of Family Coaches and Community Connectors to work directly with children and families, alongside research, evaluation and policy engagement. Learnings from these pilot sites will inform service design, implementation and reform, helping build more connected early years systems across Victoria.

Arts

The Bell Shakespeare Company Limited

National Artists in Education Initiative

$796,000 over 4 years

Bell Shakespeare is a national theatre company that has performed works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries across Australia since 1990. Its mission is to make Shakespeare accessible to all Australians, regardless of age, location or socio-economic circumstance. Alongside its mainstage productions, the company established a national education program in 1991 to bring classical theatre experiences to young people in every state and territory. 

This grant supports an expanded national Artists in Education initiative to build capacity to meet existing school demand and expand access to its arts education programs across Australia. Based in NSW, Bell Shakespeare aims to increase its face-to-face reach from 80,000 to 100,000 students and extend access across regional and remote areas in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland.

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Pty Limited

Australian Composers' School (ACS): Introduction of a dedicated orchestral arrangement module

$508,000 over 4 years

The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) broadens access to music and develops emerging orchestral leaders through initiatives including the Australian Composers School.

A 2025 survey of Australia’s state orchestras found growing demand for high-quality orchestral arrangements, including adapting contemporary music for full orchestra and reducing symphonic works for smaller ensembles. It also identified a shortage of Australian composers with professional arranging skills.

The Foundation’s grant will support a dedicated orchestral arranging module within the School, covering commercial and cross-genre work for film, live performance, events and contemporary programming. Mentoring by leading Australian composers and arrangers will equip participants with practical skills and industry knowledge currently underrepresented in composer training.

Flinders Quartet Inc

The Flinders Fellowship Quartet Program: establishing a residency and development model for emerging professional string quartets

$480,000 over 3 years

Flinders Quartet Inc is a long-established Australian chamber music organisation whose purpose is to uphold and evolve the art of the string quartet in 21st-century Australia. Flinders Quartet also delivers a broad program of performance, composer development, mentoring, touring and digital engagement, with its artistic identity centred on composer development streams that nurture emerging and established Australian composers and contribute new works to the ensemble's permanent repertoire.

This grant supports the establishment of the Flinders Fellowship Quartet Program, Australia's first dedicated residency and professional development model for emerging professional string quartets and a replicable national model for chamber ensemble development. The initiative responds to a significant gap in the national classical music sector by providing a structured pathway between advanced tertiary training and sustainable professional ensemble practice.