International Women's Day 2023: The Ballarat Foundation new fund for equity

The Ballarat Foundation is launching Ballarat Women's Fund as a targeted approach to promote equality and female focused crisis support. To launch on International Women's Day is about turning actions into words.

The foundation is calling on groups and organisations to buy in to a participatory philanthropy model: a membership to the trust and an annual say on where to direct funding, based on a shortlist of presentations from not-for-profits working across the region.

Foundation board member Rochelle Kirkham, a former social justice reporter for The Courier, said this allowed flexibility to tackle the most pressing issues facing women in Ballarat.

The foundation's Vital Signs report shows the rate of family violence common assault in Ballarat was 12 per cent higher than the state average and this peaked in 2018. The foundation has also pointed to Grattan Institute findings that women have been hit by a "triple whammy" during the COVID-19 pandemic of being more likely to lose their jobs, more likely to do more unpaid work and less likely to receive government support.

"The statistics are shocking and really, once you know you can't just ignore and do nothing," Ms Kirkham said. "...There are also still gender pay gap issues. It's systemic and things haven't changed."

Loreto College has signed on as the first member to Ballarat Women's Fund, one year out from the first pitch-up from charities for funding.

The aim is to raise $50,000 in the program's first year with half the funding to be held in perpetuity as a trust to grow the program's impact.

Loreto College principal Michelle Brodrick said supporting projects that had a positive impact for women in the Ballarat region was an important part of the school's outlook.

Ms Brodrick said Ballarat Women's Fund also fit in line with the school's history in promoting change.

"Education plays an essential role in promoting respectful relationships and gender equity," Ms Brodrick said. "The founder of the Loreto sister was Mary Ward, a woman who challenged gendered roles 400 years ago. It is fitting that we commit to responding to the needs of women in our time."

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Foundation board members say research was important, and critical to have a baseline to measure change, but true empowerment was in community raising money and impacting change rather than merely going to governments with hands out.

The Ballarat Women's Fund model works with $500 donations, from organisations or individuals or even a group of friends, with half the money to be directed into an annual grant. Three shortlisted applicants will have the chance to present their case and members will vote for their preferred cause.

Winning applicants will receive $20,000, while the finalists receive $2500 each and project development support from within the member network.

The design is that money directed into the trust will grow in time and be able to deliver greater, sustainable impacts.

Flexibility in the model means the fund could support a range of female empowerment programs, from educational scholarships to vulnerable girls and social enterprises helping women to move forward after fleeing family violence.

Ms Kirkham said there was a range of ways such programs could help break cycles of intergenerational trauma.

Foundation board member Jacki Whitwell said the fund's launch on Wednesday also fit the International Women's Day theme of innovation and the chance to foster talent in new sectors across the community.

"It's exciting Ballarat is heading in this direction," Ms Whitwell said.

The Foundation's Vital Signs report, released in November, is the most comprehensive snapshot of the city's health outcomes in more than a decade. Verified insights backed by Seer Data and Analytics, allow for accurate dynamic updates and measures of change over time.

Foundation board members Catherine Ross and Emily Sweet said for Ballarat Women's Fund, this could help channel a more targeted response for positive change and a chance for the community to better "own" the data.

Ballarat Women's Fund would also be open to one-off donations to be evenly split between grants and the trust. Ms Ross said all ages and demographics could contribute to the "giving circle" of funding to drive lasting community change.

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