About the Redan Foundation

The Redan Foundation is a charitable institution which was established in 2017. We look to identify collaboration partners who can deliver projects that are within our investment philosophy and meet our social investment criteria.

We work with partners to achieve our objective of achieving meaningful social impact in Australia.

Our logo represents the coming together, by way of solution to a puzzle, with the various organisations with which we will work. A Redan is an arrow shaped embankment forming part of an overall fortification, not in itself a solution to adversity, but an important part of an overall solution. Our values and identity are of simplicity, with a bias to action.

Our collaboration partners and the projects and programs which they bring forward must align with our investment philosophy and must meet our standards for governance and delivery capability.

Investment philosophy

The Foundation’s investment philosophy is to fund organisations, projects and activities that have meaningful social impact in Australia and that ultimately relieve poverty or distress (which includes sickness, disability, destitution, suffering, misfortune or helplessness).

We are unlikely to provide funding of recurrent expenditure or overhead of an overall organisation or charity and we look for projects and activities where our funding can have a multiplier effect – where every dollar socially invested by the Foundation delivers returns and measurable outcomes which translate into multiples of the financial input of the Foundation.

We like to think of our funds as “social seed capital”.

We seek to:

Enable projects to move into implementation which could not otherwise do so;
Enable the subsequent sourcing of additional and permanent funding; and
Enable the obtaining of matching funds from other government or non-government organisations to bring a project to fruition.

In some cases, this will be early stage funding which enables a project or focus area to achieve permanent grant funding or ongoing funding from Government.

We are non-discriminatory on grounds of religion, race or gender but this does not prevent the Foundation from investing in organisations which are sponsored, associated with or funded by religious institutions.

Our preference is that the programs in which the Foundation participates are available without fear or favour to all people in need and that participation or benefiting is not determined or influenced by their religion, race or gender (except where that may be an integral part of the program such as funding for domestic violence against women).

Programs and projects

We have a preference for projects and activities which have measurable social outcomes.

Examples of this would include: the number of people assisted; the amount of funds that have been attracted to the project as a result of the Foundation’s investment; or the amount of cost, harm or suffering avoided by our investment.

Our preference is to fund programs that create opportunities for people to achieve their aspirations and deliver their goals for the benefit of society as a whole, or a defined segment of society, rather than funding equipment, real property or other tangible assets (except where that is ancillary to the wider objective of the project).

We ensure that some of our current collaborations focus on younger people allowing them to achieve their aspirations.

Our progress and objectives

Our initial period of operation has seen the Foundation achieving a strong operational rhythm and the establishment of a track record of funding quality organisations on a repeat, multi-year basis. The programs we have funded have been adjusted after meaningful engagement with those organisations in relation to their own objectives and aspirations. We continue to focus on the organisations with which we currently collaborate.

In the long term, the Board will endeavour to build up a significant pool of funds to enable it to not only continue to provide meaningful assistance to the organisations with which we currently collaborate, but to provide even greater assistance to them as well as to the best in class of likeminded organisations that provide similar support to those in need.

To achieve these objectives, the Foundation has adopted the following strategies:

continued and regular engagement with our collaborating organisations;
securing continued funding from our existing donors; and
focusing on obtaining substantial long-term funding.