Youth voices ‘add authenticity’ to VFFF’s grantmaking

The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation (VFFF) is a multi-generational family foundation focused on its strategy of Backing Young People. Here, we explore the foundation’s establishment of an advisory group to assess if grant applications pass the ‘youth pub test’. The initiative puts participatory grantmaking into lively practice in a bid to deliver better outcomes by incorporating community voices into the funding process.

This is an article originally published in Inspiring Stories of Giving Vol 2 in August 2024.

Harrison Garlick didn’t know much about philanthropy a few years ago. A high school student in country Victoria, he was passionate about the environment, surfing and hiking, and looking forward to university.

Fast forward to 2024, and Harrison is in his second year of studies and as a Youth Advisory Group member at the Foundation, has added philanthropy to his list of passions, and is even thinking about starting his own not-for-profit one day.

VFFF’s Backing the Future initiative began in 2022. The program supports individual changemakers to pilot, test and accelerate early-stage initiatives focused on rural and regional young people in New South Wales and Queensland.

“Our focus on young people aligns with the history and values of the Foundation,” VFFF CEO Jenny Wheatley said. “When we launched the Backing Young Peoplestrategy, we committed to finding ways to actively listen and respond to the voices of young people.”

The foundation established the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) to incorporate young people into the decision-making process for Backing the Future.  When setting up the group, the foundation established three key principles:

•  YAG members would be paid for their time and insights
•  VFFF would provide professional development to build members’ capacity as advisers
• the YAG should have a clear role and set responsibilities that genuinely influence the foundation’s work.

The first YAG, made up of seven young people, was selected through an open call-out for candidates aged 18 to 30 living in or connected to regional Australia. The foundation is now in its second YAG iteration.

The key role of the YAG is to shortlist Backing the Future applications, drawing on their experiences as young people from the bush. The group’s shortlist and comments are passed on to the VFFF Grants Committee, which decides on the final grant recipients. Across their two-year term, YAG members also help to design, monitor and improve the foundation’s approach to Backing Young People.

“The committee takes the YAG’s comments seriously,” said Program Manager Natalie Buckett. “In a way, the YAG provides a ‘youth pub test’ for applications, considering whether projects genuinely resonate with young people.”

Harrison grew up in South Gippsland in Victoria on the doorstep of the stunning Wilsons Promontory National Park.

As a child and teenager, he developed a connection to and an appreciation for rural Australia – and saw the disadvantages and opportunities for youth in the regions compared to those who live in the cities.

Harrison, who is now studying a Bachelor of Natural Environment and Wilderness at the University of Tasmania, first learnt about the YAG as a high school student and decided to put up his hand.

“It has shown me a different way to look at things,” Harrison said. “All the YAG members have different experiences, so we consider grant applications from a range of perspectives. We know that VFFF values the group and respects our perspectives.

“It has made me think about how cool it would be to start a small not-for-profit one day, something that benefits youth.”

NSW music producer Bevis Masson-Leach, also known as Papertoy, was one of VFFF’s Cohort One Backing the Futuregrant recipients. He received grant funding for he and Sadini Handunnetti’s project, called Hometown, which was a pilot series of hip-hop writing and production workshops held in four regional towns.

“Having young people involved in assessing the grants gives it true authenticity,” Papertoy said. “They could see that the workshops were something young people could really benefit from, both from a creative perspective or just to have some fun and meet like-minded people.”

The first workshops, which featured homegrown artists, were so successful that Papertoy has now received NSW Government funding for a second series.

“The workshops let participants express themselves in inspiring creative sessions, and sometimes that has almost been therapy for them, especially for young people who have come from difficult situations,” Papertoy said.

Natalie said that VFFF had recently held a YAG reflection meeting as some members were nearing the end of their term. “We asked them to look back on their journey so we could gather their feedback and make our next group even stronger,” she said. “Members reflected on how the experience has shaped their ongoing interest in the community and philanthropic sectors.

“One great insight was from a group member who said that being in the YAG helped him realise that change-making could be about supporting others as well as running an organisation himself.

“He had learned about the different levers of change in the nonprofit world – and that was really lovely to hear.”