Capacity assessment through the lens of place: Community Foundations in Canada and Australia in a shifting world

Justification of research project

This exploratory project aims to analyze the evolving roles of local community foundations in Canada and Australia in the post-pandemic context. As these foundations become key actors in funding and local leadership, they must navigate between government expectations, systemic challenges, and specific community needs. The study focuses on how these foundations adapt to recurring crises, manage expanded responsibilities, and contribute to both local and systemic social transformations. The initial phase will include a comparative literature review, the development of a conceptual framework, the engagement of national and local partners, and the groundwork for a broader cross-national comparative study.

Research question

How are local community foundations in Canada and Australia reorienting their roles, strategies, and relationships in response to political expectations, local urgencies, and systemic transformation?

Research purpose

To understand how community foundations in Canada and Australia are redefining their roles, strategies, and capacities in response to local crises and structural national change in order to better support community transformation

Research approach

Phase I: Unpacking the Local: Challenges and Opportunities Facing Community Foundations in Australia and Canada in a post-pandemic world

The first phase of the research will be developmental and exploratory in nature with the intent to review academic and grey literatures in both countries, build a conceptual model and mobilize and solidify national and local partners.  The broad research questions will be workshopped in greater detail and a comprehensive literature review will be established.  Further, a conceptual model will be developed for further testing and empirical analysis in both Canada and Australia in later stages of the research.  Concrete partnerships in both countries will also be established to anchor the research and support knowledge translation activities to diverse stakeholders including philanthropic bodies, grantees, community partners and policy-makers.

Phase II: Capacity assessment through the lens of place: Community Foundations in Canada and Australia in a shifting world

This second phase of the research study will examine the following broad research questions:

1. In what ways are local community foundations playing intermediary roles to support local and national priorities in Canada and Australia?

2. Why are some places in more connected, more able to access capitals and more able to mobilize change?

3. In what ways do community foundations and the communities they represent and serve become more resilient?