auDA Foundation Review – Discussion Paper

Posted by Leonie Dunbar on 30 November 2011

The auDA Foundation is a charitable trust that was established by auDA in 2005. Its general objectives are to promote and encourage education and research activities that will enhance the utility of the Internet for the benefit of the Australian community.  There have been five grant rounds since 2006, totalling $1,286,338 in funding to 72 projects.

We are currently conducting a review of the auDA Foundation to evaluate the effectiveness and reach of the grants and the auDA Foundation’s operations as well as to provide recommendations to the auDA Board about what changes (if any) should be made to the auDA Foundation charter and the operations.  We have just released a Discussion Paper that sets out the current situation and welcome your comments and suggestions for change.

The discussion paper includes a summary of the auDA Foundation Grants given to date, including the types of grant recipients, projects funded and main target areas that benefited from the projects funded.  These summaries suggest that the Foundation has been successful in funding projects that align with the general objectives, funding preferences and the selection criteria.

In preparing this discussion paper, we invited all of the 263 grant applicants over the 5 funding rounds to provide us feedback via an online survey which we conducted in October, 2011.  We’re very thankful for the high proportion of grant applicants that responded to the survey and the feedback from successful grant applicants tells us there has been a high rate of successful projects and that the Foundation’s funding made a significant difference to the likelihood of their projects’ success.

Other feedback from those that responded to the survey includes some suggestions on changes/clarifications to the general objectives, the application process, grant amount and the reporting requirements.

Additional research conducted in preparing the discussion paper includes:

  • General ad-hoc feedback the Foundation has received over the 5 funding rounds since 2006
  • Comparative study of other relevant philanthropic organisations
  • Results from 2011 Grants in Australia Survey conducted on grant seekers by the Australian Institute of Grants Management
  • Results from Philanthropy Australia Member Survey 2010 conducted on grant givers

The research findings gives rise to some other questions/issues regarding the Foundation grants, the charter and the operations that we are inviting your comments and suggestions on.

The closing date for submissions is Monday 16 January 2012.

For more information on the auDA Foundation Review, the discussion paper and on how to submit your comments on the issues raised in the paper, please go to: http://www.auda.org.au/about/foundationreview