Mannifera

Harriet McCallum:
It evolved from a group of about a dozen funders who all cared about the way our country is run and wanted to support a fairer democracy and economy. Originally, they called themselves the Australian Fairness Funders and John Spearings, the founder of Mannifera, had done a lot of consultation with funding collaboratives over in North America. In late 2019, the Australian Fairness Funders came together in Kangaroo Valley for some 1980s disco dancing and, surrounded by the Mannifera Eucalyptus, decided to officially become a permanent, ongoing collaborative.

They started pooling their money and making collective grant decisions into civil society organisations that were focusing on democratic and economic fairness. When I came on board as CEO there were already 14 members, and the collective had given out about a dozen grants. In my early conversations with Mannifera, they said that I’d have to be comfortable with ambiguity because there was no Australian road map for what the collective was aiming to do.

Harriet McCallum:
Mannifera members commit to a minimum of $65,000 a year for at least three years, although some certainly go above that. Currently we have 26 funders who pool money and collectively grant to advocacy organisations and initiatives that are working to strengthen our democracy and build a fairer economy.

However, what makes this collective work is that we have a great diversity of members, who are all values aligned. Apart from the financial threshold needed to become a member, there are six key values that members need to agree on: Collaboration, humbleness, self-awareness, partnership, a non-partisan approach and a commitment to First Peoples. It’s worth saying that although our values are aligned, members don't have to align on their views across all issues - disagreement can make for good conversations and decision making.

While the financial contribution and values are the starting point of our work, from there we collectively decide where the money goes and then actively partner with the organisations. Our members are really invested in learning about the issues that we exist to fund, and being part of this collective gives them an opportunity to fund things that they wouldn't be able to do on their own; either because of the amount of money needed or because the issue is outside the remit of their other philanthropic work.

Harriet McCallum:
Our approach is ‘one membership, one vote’. We have some people who share a membership, so they need to work together to reach a shared decision. It doesn't matter how much money members contribute, everyone’s vote has the same weighting.

Essentially our grant process is informed by what's happening around us – both the political context we're in, but also what we hear from our partners on the ground. The grant decisions are made democratically by consensus, after a period of discussions and questions. Even though it's a lot of work to get to that point, our model means that everyone walks away feeling comfortable about where the money is going.   

Harriet McCallum:
Our collective is made up of around 85% women, and some excellent men. I've often reflected that women are not only the main ones funding this work, but the majority of organisations we’ve funded, have been led by women. We ’ve helped to kick start a lot of initiatives and organisations that have been waiting for philanthropy to signal that we’re open to funding high level systems change.

Harriet McCallum:
So far, we’ve distributed over $5 million to new initiatives and existing organisations that are all helping to strengthen our democracy and pushing for a fair economy, through things like tax and social security reform.

We’ve started tracking the progress and the setbacks of our partners to help us understand our actual contribution to the work. The partnerships where we've made a greater contribution, have been to provide initial funding in areas that have been unfunded and overlooked by most philanthropy. For example, helping them hire researchers to do policy development and create legislation around reforms like pushing for a national Anti-Corruption Commission and the Centre for Public Integrity.

Overall, Mannifera has contributed to a network of organisations that are helping to hold our government accountable to the Australian people. To ensure our democracy is as robust and strong as it can be. Five years ago, we signalled that philanthropy was open to funding advocacy for systems change, and we've helped support the emerging democracy sector in Australia and build the case for a fairer economy.

Harriet McCallum:
Collaborative funding addresses an inherent a problem in philanthropy, which is the one-to-one relationship between grant partner and funder. When I came into philanthropy I couldn’t understand why there were so many different people funding and also doing the work, who shared the same goal and wanted the same thing. Ongoing and permanent collaboration is an effective way to hold the line and to drive real change. And for the organisations we partner with, having that collective backing is an amplification of the thumbs up they need to keep on going.

Harriet McCallum:
Last year we granted just over $1.4 million and this year we have a stretch goal to grant $2 million and then build on from there. We’re stretching out our ambition because we feel that enough people know about us. We also have the capacity to move a lot more money than we currently do and we've got the systems and the processes in place. I think another incredible value of collaborative funds is how they can move money efficiently and grow that money quite quickly. I don't think we’ll build Mannifera into a massive collective because it’s a highly relational environment where members spend time with each other and build relationships.

We know there's going to be a magic number at some point, which is why we’re also growing the community of funders who want to work alongside us. These are people who might not want to do the work that membership entails but can co-fund and learn alongside us.