Since CORENA’s beginnings in 2013, we have been amazed by the sheer power of the revolving fund model.
As of May 2022, we have a total of $540,000 in our revolving fund most of which is currently on loan to tackle the climate emergency. When fund grows, it will continue to support more and more projects across Australia.
As we receive more donations, the revolving fund grows and we have an ongoing responsibility to our supporters and community to fund more projects. As amazing as our volunteers are, this task has become too mammoth for volunteers alone.
Funding from a significant donor last year provided an incredible opportunity to fund staff members to help ease the project workload on our volunteers for the next 12 months. Our Head of Operations and Digital Marketer are already achieving amazing results.
In her first three months, Sarah, our Head of Operations has:
- Developed a project strategy
- Worked with 7 potential project applicants to develop projects
- Hosted monthly online Q&A sessions to educate and empower community organisations on CORENA projects
- Approached over 30 peak bodies representing community organisations across Australia
- Secured coverage in community and industry newsletters promoting our project funding
- Conducted outreach to all Federal MPs across Australia for project leads
- Developed materials such as an updated info page, template email for people to send to their Local Government members
- Set up business systems including a CRM, Docusign and Workplace
Plus much more!
We are thrilled to see what incredible results they will achieve over the next year.
With this exciting work underway, there has come a need to better understand CORENA’s future. We need to understand how we’ll continue to fund our operations and remain viable in the long run.
To do this, the CORENA committee and staff modeled our future needs at a planning session.
We looked at how we can fund our much-needed staff to support our revolving fund demands and empower as many communities across Australia to tackle the climate emergency.
We’ve developed a model that will enable us to sustain our ongoing operations in just a few short years.
From 1 July 2022, we’re returning to our original commitment to direct 100% of project donations to funding new projects. Every dollar our supporters donate to a project will go directly to funding new solar panels, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, and other projects that take direct climate action.
To ensure CORENA’s long-term viability, we’ll start taking a small percentage of our loan repayments to help meet operational and project support costs. We’ll continue to seek philanthropic support to fund our operations, and will only take what we need from loan repayments – up to a maximum of 20% – to make up any shortfall in covering our operating costs.
These changes will make sure that we have the ability to source, provide technical assistance and help fund many more climate projects than we could if we were volunteer run.
In future, this model will see CORENA be able to self-sustain a level of operational funds, meaning we are less reliant on donations from philanthropists. This sort of opportunity comes around rarely for non-profit organisations, so we need your help to get there.
It will take us a few years to be able to cover the majority of our operational costs through philanthropic support and utilising a small percentage of loan repayments. To boost our efforts, a very generous long-term CORENA supporter has offered a donation-match to get us there sooner!
Every dollar donated to our operational funding over the coming weeks will be matched, to a total of $15,000. That will enable CORENA to raise up to $30,000! This donation-matching will make a significant difference to CORENA’s ability to self-fund, and ultimately will help to draw less on loan repayments to cover operational expenses.
There’s never been a more impactful way to help ensure CORENA’s long-term viability.
FAQs
What does this mean for my donation?
100% of any project donation will go directly to supporting the project.
After funding the initial project, a small percentage of the loan repayment will be taken out to cover operational expenses. The rest of the loan repayment will fund the next project.
Unlike other charities, your gift will achieve a lot more in project funding than your original donation value thanks to the power of our revolving fund.
What will a donation to operational funds achieve?
A donation to operational funds will provide the resources we need in order to connect climate projects to local communities across Australia.
As an organisation run by solely volunteers, we didn\’t have the resources to source and educate enough groups to sustain the increasing amount of funding available. Supporting our operations will ensure our revolving fund continues to create a lasting impact in carbon emission reductions.
How will the donation to the matching appeal be doubled?
A generous long-term supporter of CORENA has offered to match donations. We are incredibly grateful for their generosity.
How much money will you take out of loan repayments?
We will only take the amount necessary to fund our operational work. This will reach a maximum of 20%.
What work did you complete to come to this decision?
We conducted in-depth analysis and forecasting to work out how we can continue to service our growing revolving fund.
By taking a small percentage of loan repayments, we determined we will be better able to sustain ourselves and support more climate projects than if we were purely volunteer led.
I have more questions!
We would love to answer any questions you have. Please email us at [email protected]