R U OK? is a public health promotion charity that encourages people to stay connected and have conversations that can help others through difficult times in their lives.

Since 2018, the Foundation has been the major Funding Partner of the R U OK? “Are They Triple OK?” campaign, which aims to increase levels of peer and social support for police and emergency services workers and volunteers nationwide. The campaign’s free resource materials, originally developed in response to a Beyond Blue nationwide “Answering the Call” study into the mental health and wellbeing of Australia’s police and emergency services workers, have become highly regarded and widely distributed. To date more than 200 downloadable assets have been produced and more than 100,000 copies of 8 bespoke Conversation Guides – developed for each state and territory – have been physically distributed across the services.

Funds in FY25 will continue to support the Are They Triple OK? program, creating resources that promote social support both at work and home, including case studies that reach “beyond the uniform” to help break down stigma within emergency services, increase social support and encourage conversations. Support will also be directed towards an R U OK? presence at the 19th Australasian Police and Emergency Services Games (AP + ES Games), hosted in Hobart in March 2025. In addition to this, Are They Triple OK? is looking to explore opportunities that will help increase capacity building within the sector to share the R U OK? message, including reaching more family and friends.

The Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) is the only national foundation specifically focused on ensuring social and economic strength in remote, rural and regional Australia. This is achieved by connecting good will with good purpose, and aligning government, philanthropic and local community purpose and investment.

The Foundation established a partnership with FRRR in FY22, with funding directed towards three programs: Future Drought Fund: Networks to Build Drought Resilience, Disaster Resilient: Future Ready, and Strengthening Rural Communities. All three programs align closely to the Foundation and Pinnacle’s interest in helping to drive sustainable social and environmental change, to secure and maintain the overall health and wellbeing of communities. This helps ensure that they can not only survive, but thrive in changing and challenging circumstances.

In FY24 and continuing into FY25, the partnership is helping to support FRRR’s capacity to grant funding to multiple communities across these programs, rebuilding and strengthening regional communities.

Full Stop Australia seeks to create a consistent, national platform for local and state based sexual, domestic and family violence law reform and policy. The ultimate aim is to ensure that every survivor of sexual, domestic and family violence receives the same support and experience – regardless of location.

The Foundation formed a partnership with Full Stop Australia in FY17, reflecting that sexual, domestic and family violence is a key concern across the PNI Group and a key investor base – the superannuation funds industry. Subsequent funding has consistently allowed Full Stop Australia to maintain the critically important Head of Advocacy position, which will continue in FY25 to advocate for law reform and in particular, reform which is grounded in the lived-experience of survivors.

Funding has also supported Full Stop Australia to establish the first National Survivor Advocate Program (NSAP) which brings together people with lived experience of sexual, domestic and family violence from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. In FY25 their voices will remain critically important in guiding the advocacy work of Full Stop Australia, and helping to drive meaningful changes to policy, practice, and law reform in a safe and supported way.

ReachOut is a safe place where young people can openly express themselves, get a deeper understanding and perspective on what’s happening in their lives, connect with people who will provide judgement-free support, and build the resilience to manage their challenges now and in the future. ReachOut is an intuitive and digital service that connects people via online peer-support communities, one-to-one chat with trained peer workers, and data-led personalised experiences.

The Foundation and Antipodes formed a partnership with ReachOut in 2017, following Antipodes’ connection through acting as a pro bono fund manager for Future Generation Global Investment Company (FGG). Support has contributed to research projects and content generation, as well as the piloting and launch of the Peer Chat service; and the development of a cross-team process for identifying and responding in real time to emerging issues of concern to young people.

Funds in FY25 will be directed towards further work in refining and expanding ReachOut’s Parents Service. This project will involve exploring opportunities to create new expert-led content for parents, as well as seeking to source questions from parents through social media forums and platforms.

batyr believes that every young person in Australia should feel equipped and empowered to take charge of their mental health and wellbeing. By training a generation of young people with the tools, education and support systems to navigate challenging times, they can thrive and grow into independent, confident and happy adults. batyr draws on young facilitators with lived experience of mental health challenges to deliver peer to peer messages of resilience, hope and action in schools and universities.

The Foundation and Palisade have been supporting batyr since 2018. Employees across Palisade believe in addressing issues around youth mental health – especially in regional locations – and in fostering education as a pathway to future wellbeing. Throughout the partnership, funding has primarily been focused on building networks and delivering batyr@school programs in the Central West region of NSW, in addition to designing, building and piloting a training program for batyr regional ‘advocates’ and expanding batyr’s online project for community leaders.

Funds in FY25 will enable the delivery of 14 batyr@school programs in the NSW Central West, extending the significant impact of batyr’s ongoing presence in these communities, and on the lives of around 1,100 young Australians. These numbers will build on the 6,660 students across the region who have already been directly reached through the partnership.

CMRI is a world-leading independent research institute dedicated to discovering how to prevent or treat birth defects, children’s cancer and genetic diseases. CMRI actively conducts fundamentally important medical and biological research, and as Australia’s first medical research facility dedicated to children, has been helping to save the lives of children for over 60 years.

Together with Plato and Resolution Capital, the Foundation formed a partnership with CMRI in FY18, funding key upgrades to one of CMRI’s research facilities and purchasing important new research equipment. Funding has continued to be directed towards research and equipment, and in FY25 will support a new research project: targeting cancer cell immortality to improve treatment of aggressive cancers.

CMRI’s research is laying the foundations for development of new therapeutic approaches, which specifically target the molecular pathways that allow cancer cells to replicate without restraint (replicative immortality). This replicative immortality is a fundamental property of most cancers, and is enabled by molecular mechanisms that function to maintain the length of chromosomal-end structures (telomeres). The activation of a telomere maintenance mechanism in cancer cells establishes Achilles heel-like vulnerabilities, that CMRI aims to exploit in the development of new cancer therapies.

The ILF’s purpose is to invest in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities to provide the tools and resources they request to shape the direction of their children’s literacy futures. Through collaborative investment in Community and meaningful strategic partnerships, the ILF supports sustainable and positive change in Indigenous literacy through the supply of books and a focus on the publication of Indigenous content.

Five V and the Foundation commenced a partnership with the ILF in FY25, and together are supporting three inspiring programs: Book Buzz, Book Supply and Community Publishing Project.

Book Buzz aims to develop familiarity and engagement with books for children under five through a daily dedicated Story Time session. It also provides the funding for many remote Communities to translate popular books into First Languages.

Book Supply provides new, culturally relevant books to remote Communities across Australia. Schools, community health, and women’s centres can also order books to distribute to children and families.

The Community Publishing Project supports communities to write and illustrate their own stories in languages of their choice. These stories are created by adults and children in a Community and published by the ILF. The books are then gifted back to the Community to share with children and families.

Yalari provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from regional and remote communities across Australia the opportunity to receive a full boarding school scholarship for their entire secondary education. Yalari believes education is the key to generational change and a brighter future for Indigenous Australians and for our nation. Yalari is deeply committed to the ongoing success of the national program of scholarships, student support and post-school opportunities.

The Foundation and Resolution Capital formed a partnership with Yalari in FY19, supporting the annual Orientation Camp which is the starting point for all new Year 7 students embarking on their boarding school journey. The Camp paves the way for a smooth transition from primary education and living at home, to a secondary education at a boarding school.

In addition, Resolution Capital is sponsoring a young Kamilaroi student from Moree on her boarding school journey at Sydney’s Kambala in Rose Bay. Lilli is a proud participant in the Rosemary Bishop Scholarship Program and is in Year 10 in 2024.

Mirabel believes that every child deserves a childhood filled with love, hope and belonging. A highly respected children’s charity operating for more than 25 years, Mirabel has a mission to break the destructive cycle of drug addiction. This is achieved through the delivery of proven programs for children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to their parents’ illicit drug use, supported by crisis intervention and parenting assistance for the kinship carers who largely take on the responsibility of raising them.

With the help of the Foundation, Firetrail and other funders, Mirabel commenced an Intensive Youth Support Program in the Hunter Valley region in NSW in 2021. Funding in FY25 will continue to support the program’s two key elements; preventative actions aimed at working one on one with families experiencing a crisis regarding a child’s behaviour, and therapeutic group activities which bring children and young teens together in a regular format, to connect with each other based on shared experience.

In 2021 Resolution Capital also initiated a partnership with Mirabel, in support of the wonderful “Big Day Out” events for children and families. In FY25 the Foundation and Resolution Capital are continuing their support for Mirabel through two other initiatives – peer support groups for grandparents and kinship carers, as well as social inclusion experiences for small groups of children and young people with similar interests and passions.

Alzheimer’s Research Australia is a leading medical research institute specialising in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. With 1,800 Australians diagnosed with dementia every week, the disease remains the second leading cause of death in Australia. ARA undertakes research and clinical trials aimed at exploring advances in diagnosis and treatment, with the ultimate aim of finding a cure for this debilitating illness.

The Foundation has supported Alzheimer’s Research Australia (ARA) together with Spheria Asset Management since FY20, with Resolution Capital also forming a partnership with ARA in FY22. Together all three organisations have provided significant support aimed at understanding cell biology and very early-stage changes at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, especially around gene mutation.

In FY25 funding will continue to drive research focused on developing a simple and non-invasive blood test to assess the levels of specific blood-based Alzheimer’s disease related biomarkers. This has the potential to detect the presence of the disease well before symptoms appear, and typically before treatment commences. Recent research results by ARA have provided promising validation of initial work – subsequently applied within in a broader cohort of patients – which have been accepted for publication. Funding will enable the development of specific assays (test kits) for the blood biomarker project. To date, the ARA research team has undertaken their initial work using commercially available assays. Given the success of their findings however, the team is seeking to develop unique testing kits tuned to their own requirements, which can also generate considerable savings.

Kindness Factory is on a mission to make the world a kinder place, focusing on community, schools, and businesses. Starting with one person’s incredible story of courage, hope and adversity, Kindness Factory has now become a global kindness movement, touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life.

Since 2020, the Foundation has partnered with the Kindness Factory with support directed towards the development of the Kindness Curriculum and the Kind Schools Network (KSN). The Kindness Curriculum is built around 12 attributes of kindness and was designed as a resource to help schools embrace the mission around increasing global kindness. The offering has been expanded to incorporate age-appropriate learning modules and a professional development workshop series for teachers, with the KSN also giving access to exclusive content, Kindness Factory ambassadors, community activations and special experiences.

Funds in FY25 will continue to support the Kindness Curriculum, in particular the development of content for the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Program. This addresses, and explicitly teaches to, the social external tools required to be kind and to connect with others, along with the internal emotional skills students need to be kind and connect with themselves.

NASCA’s school-based programs are designed to improve the educational attainment rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. NASCA’s program designs are based on the irrefutable evidence that educational attainment is critical to vastly improved socio-economic status and strengthened opportunities to thrive post-school. All NASCA programs focus on strengthening overall engagement with study, improving educational outcomes, and helping students navigate pathway options post-school.

The Foundation formed a partnership with NASCA in FY21, specifically directed to supporting the annual NASCA CareerFit Conference. This brings Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders students enrolled in years 10 to 12 together for a week of engaging workshops (including one designed by the Firetrail team and delivered in their office), networking and cultural experiences. The aim is to help empower these young students to map their own careers and futures, and to explore and investigate options and opportunities open to them.

Lighthouse helps young, vulnerable people in Victoria who are homeless, and who typically come from backgrounds of long-term neglect and abuse. More than 1,000 children and young people have secured the assistance they require to achieve a lifelong sense of belonging, the opportunity to heal and the capacity to thrive. Within a safe home and a community to belong to, these young people are nurtured by the Lighthouse Model of Care – a holistic therapeutic treatment program drawing on over 60 years of empirical research into human development.

In order to support acutely disadvantaged young people, in FY22 the Foundation and Spheria established a new partnership with the Lighthouse Foundation. Support has been directed into the renovation of the Youth Resource Centre and establishing the Lighthouse Peer Support Program.

In FY25 funding will support the Lighthouse Community Connect Program, and in particular provide help for emergencies that arise. The program supports young people aged 16-25 who are at high risk of primary homelessness, developing their capacity to live in safe and sustainable housing. Lighthouse therapeutic case managers work closely with each young person, together with housing providers and other organisations, to establish or retain safe and affordable housing.

The Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust (PCT) was founded on the philosophy that, to improve Australia’s water and environmental management, we need to enhance the link between good science and effective policy making. Through developing leaders in the water sector and raising the level of discourse – by facilitating, convening and enabling – PCT empowers others to be effective communicators and advocates.

In June 2021, together with Riparian Capital Partners, the Foundation initiated a partnership with the PCT. Funds have been directed towards the PCT Leadership Program (Women) – a bespoke program designed by women, for women. The program recognises that women are under-represented at the leadership table, particularly across the STEM, policy and governance fields. Participants in the program are already established leaders from diverse backgrounds and careers, and this transformative leadership program empowers them to build positive influence and impact in their leadership journey.

In FY25 the Foundation and Riparian will continue to support the PCT Leadership Program (Women). Fourteen participants will take part in the program which will span three months, with a first group session to be held in South-East Queensland, followed by a second session and formal graduation in Canberra. Each session involves an intensive face-to-face experience over the course of a week, coupled with pre-session reading, and follow on project-based activities.

Photography below by PCT Fellow Tanya Doody.

We Are Mobilise was created to journey alongside those experiencing homelessness and explore how to best make a tangible impact in the lives of those in need. Mobilise is committed to ‘connection for change’ – providing a genuine human connection, time, and companionship for people experiencing homelessness – with the view to creating transformational change.

A relationship between Mobilise and the Foundation was first established in 2023, after the NFP was selected by employee choice to receive funds from the PNI Group Step Challenge.

The Foundation and Spheria subsequently formed a partnership with Mobilise in FY25 in support of the Kickstarter Program. The Mobilise Kickstarter program provides direct rental assistance for eight weeks, plus bond payments, to help people at risk of homelessness to access or maintain a rental property. Providing access to appropriate and affordable housing – and in turn creating autonomy over one’s finances – can be a life-altering experience. And when financial assistance payments increase, people seeking help for financial stress decreases. The financial ‘breathing room’ that Kickstarter provides also allows participants to amass a small amount of savings, often for the first time, which provides an extra layer of financial security they wouldn’t otherwise have.

RizeUp Australia is a nationwide organisation dedicated to partnering with front-line specialist agencies and the community to provide tangible, life-changing support for families affected by domestic and family violence. Their core mission revolves around driving awareness of the prevalence of domestic and family violence within Australian society, and more crucially, generating practical assistance that offers families hope, support, and the means to break free from the cycle of violence.

The Foundation and Five V established a partnership with RizeUp in FY24, supporting their cornerstone Homes Program. By furnishing homes for families emerging from traumatic circumstances, RizeUp create sanctuaries of comfort, support and security. In addition to the physical contribution to setting up the homes, the experience aims to transform volunteers into advocates, who amplify awareness of domestic and family violence within their own communities through practical solutions. The program fosters personal growth, enabling volunteers to confidently address this critical issue in society.

In FY25 the partnership will also continue support for the RizeUp Health and Wellbeing Hub, which offers victim-survivors access to essential psychological, medical, and dental services, addressing the enduring effects of trauma. This innovative program bridges the gap between crisis intervention and sustained recovery, emphasising trauma-informed care to support victim-survivors on their journey to healing.

SANE offers a range of free digital and telehealth support services for people over 18 years of age with complex mental health needs, and their family, friends and carers. The organisation also provides support to people with intellectual disability, autism or acquired brain injury and mental health issues. SANE has three goals: to end mental health inequity through systemic change; to eliminate stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion; and to create equal employment and economic opportunity.

The Foundation and Five V formed a partnership with SANE in 2023, in response to Five V employees’ desire to provide practical support in the area of complex mental health.

Funds in FY25 will help fund the implementation of a Safety, Risk, Management and Planning Module which will enable SANE counsellors to better support those who are risk of harm or suicide ideation. The funding will enable SANE to invest in increasing the sophistication of its system so that when counsellors are managing crises, responses are more integrated, support better prevention, and improve SANE’s response at an organisational level.