Strategic grants

We’re funding the work of Food Frontier – Australia and New Zealand’s think tank and expert advisor on alternative proteins – to help diversify protein supply with safe and sustainable alternatives.

Global authorities continue to urge for a significant reduction in our reliance on industrial livestock farming and fishing due to their widespread impacts on the environment and public health, as a leading cause of climate change, biodiversity loss, antimicrobial resistance and more. Plant-based meat and cultivated meat play a critical role in overcoming these challenges by offering consumers the foods they desire without the same impacts on people, the planet and animals.

To grow and galvanise the market for alternative proteins across our region, Food Frontier advises and connects businesses, innovators and policymakers, helping them navigate and participate in the emerging alternative proteins industries. Through research reports, conversations and events, Food Frontier provides data and insights on alternative proteins and their economic, environmental and public health benefits.

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We’re working with Mimal Land Management Aboriginal Corporation and the Karrkad Kanjdji Trust (KKT) to support Indigenous women rangers in West and Central Arnhem Land.

KKT works with Indigenous Ranger groups in one Australia’s most culturally rich and biodiverse regions - West and Central Arnhem Land. KKT brings together ranger groups, communities and philanthropists to address some of our nation’s most pressing issues, including environmental conservation, education and employment. The work we are supporting is 100 percent community driven, from concept to implementation.

KKT's six areas of focus are:

• Biodiversity - native species conservation
• Women - meaningful ranger employment
• Culture - management of heritage
• Education - on country, bicultural programs
• Community - sustainability of remote ranger bases
• Climate - carbon abatement and traditional burning

The Karrkad Kanjdji Trust (KKT) was established by the Traditional Owners of Warddeken and Djelk Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) in 2010. Their name, Karrkad Kanjdji (pronounced gar-gut gun-jee), refers to the stone country highlands and savanna lowlands of Arnhem Land that we work together to protect.

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Pollinate Group empowers women from neglected communities in India and Nepal as entrepreneurs and leaders for change. They recruit, train and support a network of women entrepreneurs to deliver clean, sustainable energy solutions to the communities they live in.

We support Pollinate Group’s work in Nepal as they upskill and support local women to sell products and services that improve quality of life in their communities and ultimately help to lead their communities out of poverty by sourcing high-performing, durable products that reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life.

In eight years they have empowered over 650 women and reached more than 650,000 individuals with impactful products like solar lanterns, clean and efficient cooking appliances and sanitary products.

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We’re working with Living Goods to reliably deliver lifesaving, critical medicines to the doorsteps of millions in Kenya and Uganda, at an affordable price. Living Goods recruits, trains, equips, and manages networks of Community Health Workers (CHW’s) who provide their communities with health education, accurate diagnoses, essential medicines, and health products that save and improve lives.

Living Goods addresses two fundamental barriers to accessing health care in the developing world:

1. The significant shortage of frontline health workers; and
2. The inadequate distribution of health products and knowledge. 

Living Goods works with governments and partners to ensure community health workers have access to the digital technology, medical treatments, supervision and compensation to cost-effectively deliver high quality, impactful health services. At the end of 2019, Living Goods was supporting more than 10,000 CHWs to deliver care to more than 7 million people.

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We support the Wilderness Society to protect forests at risk of deforestation.

Across Australia the Wilderness Society works to restore and protect nature and wildlife, to sustain ecosystems and build resilient communities. They're building a grassroots movement pushing to change the destructive thinking of the past for the modern vision we need. One that’s better for all Australians — and for all life on Earth.

Protecting native forests and their carbon stocks from logging and clearing remains a key feature of their overarching campaigns and community organising plan.

We’re supporting the Wilderness Society to train and work with Victorian and Tasmanian communities to protect forests under threat of deforestation. Utilising local training programs, communities and individuals are empowered to campaign for the safe protection of Australia's old growth forests and be better equipped to drive change.

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The Orangutan Project is striving for a world where all of Indonesia’s wild species roam safe and free in their protected, natural habitat. To get there, they employ a holistic approach to conservation, supporting the entire ecosystem in which Critically Endangered orangutans live, addressing all the deeply complex issues that have contributed to them becoming Critically Endangered.

The Orangutan Project’s holistic strategy covers four key areas:

• Legally protecting forests
• Securing, restoring and patrolling those forests
• Rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing displaced, orphaned and formerly captive orangutans
• Educating and empowering local communities to protect their areas

We’ve been working with The Orangutan Project since 2015 to support the work of the Wildlife Protection Units, safeguarding 495,00 acres of forest regions in the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem, Sumatra, for orangutans, tigers and elephants. Locally employed Wildlife Protection Unit’s aim to stop further destruction and depletion of the globally important flora and fauna of the Bukit Tigapuluh ecosystem through habitat protection and monitoring, anti-poaching patrols, wildlife monitoring and human-wildlife conflict mitigation.

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The Medical Advances Without Animals Trust’s aim is to advance medical science without using animals or animal products for biomedical research. 

The MAWA Trust works in partnership with The Australian National University and provides support and funding to universities and medical research institutions throughout Australia. As the only organisation in Australia providing funding to researchers and students in the rapidly developing field of animal replacement in scientific research, MAWA has successfully stimulated broad interest in animal-free alternative approaches within the medical research community.

We’re funding organ-on-chip research work with MAWA at The University of Sydney, specifically the development of lung disease-on-chip. These models will be vital for testing the efficacy of new generation therapeutics to regenerate lungs damaged by disease, including COVID-19. To validate the models, the researchers will investigate the effects of stem cells and stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles on lung structure and functionality. It is expected that this lung disease model will provide accurate representations of physiological responses and allow for testing of lung regeneration thereby replacing the traditional use of animals in this research.

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Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world and then directs advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. They partner with organisations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims

We’re working with Human Rights Watch to fund an investigative research and advocacy campaign focused on women’s sexual harassment and the institutional and cultural barriers preventing women from seeking justice in India. We will be profiling more of this work in 2020. 

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We’re working with ygap to fund their yher program, ygap’s female-focussed accelerator program. Operating regionally in Africa and the Pacific Islands, the program provides an effective solution to the lack of support for female entrepreneurs in these emerging markets.

The yher program has a proven curriculum to help women refine and scale their business. ygap ensure that yher provides the psychological safety and support to develop the strategies, confidence and business acumen they need to grow their ventures. The program finds the best early-stage female-led social businesses, accelerates them through a proven week-long training program designed for women, by women, and supports them for 6 months post-program with mentorship, small grants, and strategic support.

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