Mannifera is a collective of philanthropic funders with a focus on supporting a stronger democracy and a fairer Australia. Since its 2019 inception, Mannifera has granted just over $3million to 45 civil society advocacy and First Nations-led organisations in line with its mission to invest in the systems-level advocacy needed to strengthen Australia’s democracy and build a fairer economy.

Civil society is rarely the sole thematic focus area of foundations here in Australia. Bringing a funding collective together around this, as Mannifera has, provides the opportunity for civil society organisations to access the investment required to pursue change in highly important and complex spaces while also enabling funders to accelerate their collective learning.

- Niall Fay, Chief Executive, Fay Fuller Foundation

Across our involvement we have seen the collective mature - cultivating power sharing relationships across sectors, furthering its granting practices and now focussing on evaluating its impact.

To-date, Mannifera has granted just over $3million across 73 grants to 45 partners. Of these funds:

• 72% went to smaller organisations or projects that were in some way “new” to civil society.

• 43% were for core costs, 29% for campaigns and 28% for initiatives.

• 61% went to multi-year partnerships.

• 44% supported projects focused on fair, open and accountable government. This is also an area where there has been significant systems-level wins over the last couple of years, including the ‘integrity election’ and the legislation of a national integrity commission.

• $425,000 has been awarded to nine projects through our First Nations-led philanthropic practice.*

*Mannifera Early Insights: Impact Report, February 2023

Mannifera’s contribution has been the most significant in terms of progress towards systemic change when their funding has been awarded to smaller, newer campaigns and initiatives and/or they have been the first funders. 

A key determinant of a healthy democracy is a robust and vibrant civil society advocacy ecosystem. We are proud to have resourced and empowered new and underfunded civil society advocacy organisations to win key democratic and economic reforms and successfully ‘hold the line’ in defence of democracy. 

- Harriet McCallum, Executive Officer, Mannifera

Mannifera also creates an important space for Philanthropic organisations of different sizes, from different states and with different thematic focus areas to convene. This convening enables conversations directly with partners, and space to challenge ways in which philanthropy has traditionally operated to further philanthropic practice. Within Mannifera this looks like the devolution of decision-making power, for example through the Indigenous Advisory Committee and providing grants for core organisational funding, especially to smaller or newer organisations.  

Mannifera’s granting practices are focussed on creating impact and making good collective decisions under a model that does not apportion power or responsibility based on the size of a foundation - but instead encourages engagement and a willingness to listen and learn. 

- Niall Fay, Chief Executive, Fay Fuller Foundation

Since our initial commitment, and similarly to Mannifera, the Foundation has been on a journey of change and growth. This resulted in our current strategy with a focus on First Nations-led funding, preventative mental health and wellbeing, practice and collaboration and a continued focus on the majority of our funding being of benefit to the community of South Australia. 

At this point and with the commitment to Mannifera at an end we are taking a moment to take stock of where we can be most effective in distributing these funds and how we maintain a small presence at the national level. While we are departing from Mannifera we will continue to support their work while playing an active role in considering the future of funding collaboratives for systemic impact.