For Social Innovation Grants, the Telstra Foundation is specifically looking for initiatives that focus on the education, health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Our priorities across all funding programs are:
Social Innovation
Supporting organisations to apply great ideas and timely solutions to challenges that impact on the life chances of children and young people
Social innovation is about ideas and imagination. It is about advancing individual and community wellbeing by changing traditional perceptions and practices and introducing new and different ways of thinking, understanding, creating, adapting, influencing, organising and working together.
The Community Development Fund gives priority to community-based initiatives that engage individuals and communities, as well as academic, industry, government and non-government organisations to identify and implement solutions that are socially innovative and sustainable.
Capacity Building
Supporting initiatives that build the capacity of organisations and communities to provide children and young people with opportunities to develop skills, self esteem and resilience
The Community Development Fund aims to help strengthen the capabilities of organisations and groups so they can define and achieve their social improvement goals to enhance the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Priority is given to community-based initiatives that aim to transfer new skills and capabilities to organisations, communities and individuals.
Information and Communication Technologies
Supporting initiatives that use information and communication technologies to stimulate connections between children and young people and address social problems
Increasingly, we are living in a digital world that offers a wealth of opportunities. Through the Community Development Fund we seek to ensure that Australia's children and young people are part of these opportunities and not excluded by social, cultural, economic, educational or material factors.
Additionally, we seek to support community-based initiatives that explore or demonstrate creative use of information and communication technologies to improve the health and wellbeing of Australian children and young people.
Measurable Impact
Supporting projects that have measurable short and long-term objectives with evidence of sound planning and evaluation
In order for our contribution to our community to be worthwhile, we need to understand the social impact of the projects we support.
Though it can be complex and challenging, measuring the impact of projects is vital as it informs future directions and strategies. By tracking the progress and impact of projects, organisations will also assist the Telstra Foundation to measure its own progress in terms of fulfilling its purpose, while accurately reporting on the improvements in the wellbeing of the children and young people targeted by our funded projects.
The Telstra Foundation gives priority to projects that plan rigorous evaluation methodologies to measure the success of their objectives.