In supporting 80 social purpose organisations funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) through the challenges of 2020, PRF and SVA learnt how funding, capability, and agility affect how organisations respond to crises. A key lesson is not surprisingly that significant investment is needed to strengthen the sector for the future.

As the pandemic hit, the PRF, Australia’s largest philanthropic foundation, quickly moved to support the portfolio of social purpose organisations they fund (known as partners). An internal group was formed, the Sustaining Our Partners Taskforce, made up of Board members and senior management to support partners survive and thrive through Covid-19. The Taskforce was charged with ensuring partners remain financially viable and build their resilience, and, where possible, supporting them to capture new opportunities for impact arising from the unprecedented context of the pandemic.

At the start, the Taskforce focused on ensuring none of PRF’s partners were at immediate risk of going under. This involved a rapid financial health check across the entire portfolio, and a deeper investigation into a smaller number of partners that were feared to be at genuine risk. Thankfully, the expansion of JobKeeper to charities meant that far fewer organisations were at risk of insolvency in the short term than had been projected, though some emergency support was still provided.

Once the immediate risk had passed, the Taskforce broadened its approach, working directly with partners to identify how they had been affected financially, operationally, and strategically. As the pandemic progressed, the Taskforce’s approach became significantly more tailored to the needs of individual partners.

Through this approach, PRF and SVA gained a deep understanding of what resilience and vulnerability means for the social sector in the face of disruption, and the supports social purpose organisations need to ensure ongoing positive social impact.