Community Foundation donations hit hard during Covid

Covid has seen a dramatic drop in donations and bequests for the Bass Coast Community Foundation, down by more than $270,000 in the 2019/20 financial year.

Annual donations/bequests fell from $295,816 in 2018/19, to $22,948 in 2019/20. There was a slight upturn in 2020/21 with $33,357 received.

Similarly, the Foundation's return on investments fell from $34,041 in 2018/19 (or 4.08 per cent) to $18,458 in 2020/21 (just 1.8 per cent).
Administration costs for the Foundation have been reduced to under five per cent of the total value of its funds.
The difficult but notable year has been documented in the Bass Coast Community Foundation’s Annual Review 2020-2021.

The Foundation said it attracted an additional $100,000 last financial year that was channelled into projects across the shire. It also distributed more than $75,000 in community grants.
The foundation received $124,300 in grants from Aquasure, Bass Coast Shire Council, Collier Charitable Foundation, Ecstra Foundation, Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) and International Women’s Day fundraiser.

For the 16th year, it distributed Back to School vouchers to help families that were struggling to fund school expenses at the beginning of the school year.
The annual report said the Foundation’s three key focus areas were reducing homelessness and housing stress, increasing the aspirations of young people and increasing opportunities for local women and girls.

The Women for Change initiative continued to help other local women make positive life changes. Through fundraising as part of International Women’s Day, the foundation awarded $6450 to three groups as part of the initiative: 
* Bass Coast Landcare – to help women on farms access services and increase awareness, connection and support.
* State Coal Mine – Rescue Station Arts Inc to run art therapy-based wellbeing programs.
* Wonthaggi Neighbourhood House L2P – to enable five local women to participate in the program.
The Foundation funded the Kids as Catalyst program at Newhaven Primary School, which it hopes to roll out to other schools next year.
It also supported the L2P program, helping young people gain their licence by providing supervised driving practice.
The $1000 Tertiary Education Grant was awarded to Caitlyn Allen who is studying a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne.
2020 was the first year of a research project with Ecstra Foundation to determine the financial vulnerability of the Bass Coast community and create a statistical profile. The research backed up what was anecdotally known and the data is being used to help target resources.
Phase two focused on building the financial capability within the community.

Board

The board farewelled four long-time board members, Sylvia Davey, Bruce Hydon, Paul Taranto and Angus Cameron, who collectively have given 30 years of service.

There were six new board members welcomed to the team – Phil Friedlos, Christian Stefani, Amy Dynes, Nina Barry-Macaulay, Joanne Dixon and Charles Popple.

Phil Friedlos from Sunderland Bay was elected as Chair. Carol Blair stepped down from her leadership role, but will continue as a Patron of the Foundation.
Releasing its summer newsletter, BCCF wished everyone a Merry Christmas and thanked the community for its support

“No one has managed to escape the Covid curse and the impacts it has had, but we do hope you have found kindness and compassion regardless. We are regularly humbled when we learn about and experience the generosity of people.”

The BCCF office was closed from December 17 until January 17, 2022.
You can read the full Annual Report or make a donation at bccf.org.au/news/