Community Foundations Australia acknowledges that the 2024 Forum Week will take place on the traditional lands of the Arakwal, Minjungbal, Widjabul Wia-bal, Nyangbal, and Ngandowal peoples of the Bundjalung Nation.
We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
Horizons
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Expanding on the National Community Foundations Forum (NCFF) that CFA has been hosting for more than 15 years, our first ever Forum Week aims to bring together member community foundations with each other, with allied organisations, and with international thought leaders in the community philanthropy space. Inspired by this year’s Northern Rivers location – and specifically, Cape Byron, the first place on the continent to be illuminated by the morning sun – Forum Week will revolve around the theme of Horizons.
Addressing crucial themes such as crisis response, recovery and rebuilding, it will provide an important opportunity for the network to come together to share stories and lessons learnt, to inspire and challenge each other, and to build the relationships and trust that will fuel the future of community philanthropy in Australia.
The Program
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#ShiftThePower Summit, co-hosted with the Global Fund for Community Foundations:
From 5pm Friday, 22/11 to 11am Sunday, 24/11 at the Newrybar Community Hall (13/15 Old Pacific Highway, Newrybar NSW 2479)
National Community Foundations Forum, co-hosted with the Northern Rivers Community Foundation:
From 4pm Sunday, 24/11 to 4pm Tuesday, 26/11, at the Bangalow A&I Hall (3 Station St, Bangalow NSW, 2479)
Leadership Wellbeing Retreat, co-hosted with the Wasan Project:
From 5pm Tuesday, 26/11 to 3pm Thursday, 28/11, at the Sēlah Valley Estate (110 Youngs Rd, Limpinwood NSW, 2484)
Forum Week
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Building on the strong foundations and long history of the NCFF, Forum Week offers an expanded platform for inspiration, education and connection. It’s an opportunity to share and learn, network, build collective voice and impact, and reconnect with the inspiration and motivation at the heart of community philanthropy.
We welcome stakeholders from within and beyond the community philanthropy ecosystem to come together, explore common challenges and partner for shared solutions.
We also invite leaders including policy makers, funders and philanthropists to attend, and to strengthen their commitment and practical support for community foundations and community philanthropy in Australia and beyond.
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A Place-Based Gathering
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Each of Forum Week’s events is being co-hosted with another organisation. Like the NCFF, Forum Week will be held in a different place each year, in partnership with a community foundation local to the area.
This allows delegates to experience first-hand the impact of a local community foundation in the community it serves, with the host foundations able to showcase how they address local issues with local action.
Forum Week brings visitors and income to regional host communities, and wherever possible, will engage local providers of goods and services to assist in running the conference.
In 2024, Forum Week will be held across three communities in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, on Bundjalung Country.
Our Co-Hosts
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The Northern Rivers Community Foundation
From its establishment in 2003, the NRCF has grown to support a network of over 350 community organisations dedicated to addressing crucial issues such as disaster recovery and resilience, animal welfare and conservation, and women’s empowerment.
The NRCF was on the frontline in the aftermath of the 2022 New South Wales floods, distributing close to $1 million in emergency grants supporting clean-up and rebuilding, replanting, and counselling.
The Global Fund for Community Foundations
The GFCF is the only organisation working globally to build people-led, community philanthropy. Headquartered in Johannesburg, it has been working with the global community philanthropy field since 2006 – and is the source of the #ShiftThePower hashtag.
First introduced in 2016, #ShiftThePower is a rallying cry for those who want to engage in serious conversation about ways of moving away from top-heavy, top-down systems of community development and towards flatter, more equitable and inclusive paradigms.
What started as a one-off gathering – on Canada’s Wasan Island, in 2019 – has become an ongoing community driven by a shared interest in the power of relationships to advance social transformation.
The Wasan Network is co-created by a growing group of diverse and experienced practitioners from across Europe, North America, the UK, and South America, who have been examining questions of relational practice for decades within the social impact space, philanthropy, academia, civil society and beyond.
Bundjalung Country
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The Northern Rivers of NSW is a region known for the strong community orientation of its people as much as for their environmental conscientiousness. And what a special environment it is: the lush, sub-tropical landscape is distinguished by its beautiful rivers and world-class beaches.
The three areas of the region that Forum Week participants will spend time in – Bangalow, Newrybar, and the Tweed Valley – are located on the unceded lands of the Bundjalung peoples, as is Byron Bay, another key Forum Week location. Stretching from Grafton in northern NSW up to Beaudesert in southern QLD, the Bundjalung Nation comprises 15 tribal groups, with a history spanning at least 40,000 years. Prior to colonisation, the region is thought to have been one of the contintent’s best fishing and hunting grounds.
Our media partner is Alliance Magazine.
Alliance is a not-for-profit publication that provides independent opinion, expert debate, and trusted insight into the many challenges and intersections of the global philanthropic sector.
We are grateful for the support of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation.
Forum Week is made possible in part thanks to the The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Australia’s largest community foundation.
© 2024 Community Foundations Australia