Foundation For Young Australians

The Foundation’s vision is Communities celebrating and strengthening young people.
To achieve this, The Foundation works in partnership with youth-led initiatives for the benefit of young people and their communities.

The Foundation’s work is underpinned by the following values:

• We believe in social justice - a fair and just society with equitable access to resources and opportunity for all.
• We work in partnership with young people and communities to act as a catalyst for change.
• We act with integrity in everything we do and are accountable for the actions we take.
• We use our voice to strengthen outcomes with young people.
• We are passionate about our work and value innovation and creativity in the achievement of our vision.

The Foundation for Young Australians is a national grant-making organisation, committed to creating exciting opportunities and effective outcomes with Australia’s young people. Our approach is that of a ‘high engagement, venture philanthropist’ which means we provide seed-funding for innovative initiatives; we proactively seek co-funding to support ideas; and we work with grant partners on issues of sustainability, initiative outcomes, evaluation and learning.

Annually we commit approximately $6 million to supporting young people, with approximately 20% of grant funding committed to initiatives that work with young Indigenous Australians.

We focus on:

• Young Australians aged 12 – 25 years, with a particular focus on young Indigenous Australians.
• Youth participation – our grant funds are invested with initiatives that use good practice in youth participation.
• Equity – our grant decisions consider the applicant’s access to social, economic and cultural opportunities and benefits.
• Community contribution – we require grant partners to identify a positive contribution they make to their community as an outcome of the grant.
• Sustainable outcomes – we seek to ensure that our grants result in sustainable outcomes for young people.