News

Some evenings stay with you because they change the question.

At Journey to Impact, Melbourne Women’s Foundation asked our grant partners something more honest than a traditional report back: what happens after a grant, when the work continues, the need shifts and the learning deepens?

Hosted by Evans & Partners, the evening brought MWF members, guests, partners and friends together to hear from three organisations connected to our grantmaking at different points in time: Lighthouse Foundation, Hope Network and the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety.

As MWF Deputy Chair and panel moderator Jody Evans reflected, sometimes “impact takes much longer than the life of a grant.”

Impact is not always immediate

A grant might fund a staff role, a program, a safe home or a pathway into work. But meaningful change rarely fits neatly within a reporting period.

Sometimes impact looks like a woman understanding her options for the first time. Sometimes it is having someone to call after leaving prison. Sometimes it is a young woman having a safe place to sleep, heal and begin again.

The panel reminded us that real change is often built through small, careful steps — with time, trust and people who keep showing up.

Financial safety is safety

For the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety, MWF’s 2025 grant has supported capacity in the Melbourne Money Clinic, helping women experiencing economic abuse access specialist financial counselling.

Money Clinic Manager Sally Renfrey spoke about the importance of helping women understand their options and choices.

“Money gives us choices.”

Financial abuse can be hidden behind joint accounts, debt, mortgages, property and years of being told, “you can’t”. Financial safety can be a critical part of physical safety — and can make leaving possible.

Belonging is part of recovery

For Hope Network, formerly Prison Network, MWF’s 2023 grant supported women after release from prison, including peer support.

What began as an online recovery group during COVID grew into a community where women could connect, lead and support one another.

As Sally Tonkin, Head of Impact at Hope Network, said:

“We tend to work with people who don’t have people.”

Today, Hope Network provides wraparound support including housing, peer connection, employment pathways and social enterprise.

Its new dog grooming social enterprise creates training, employment and community for women returning to work — creating a place where women can work and “be themselves.”

That too is impact.

Home is more than a roof

For Lighthouse Foundation, the evening offered a longer view.

MWF’s 2019 grant supported the Early and Forced Marriage Therapeutic Home, now part of the Young Women’s Freedom Program.

Ben Pryke, Manager of Youth and Family Services, spoke about the importance of time, relationships and safety in recovery, sharing the story of a young woman who escaped a forced marriage situation and arrived at Lighthouse.

“The grant meant that she had somewhere to call home.”

Home is more than shelter. It is trusted adults, therapeutic care, community, education, shared meals, art and the time to heal.

As Ben put it simply: “Healing comes through relationships.”

Deepening impact

One of the strongest reflections of the night came when Jody drew the threads together:

“What all three of you really demonstrate is deepening impact.”

In philanthropy, we can be drawn to scale — bigger numbers and broader reach. But the panel reminded us that depth matters too.

Depth can mean a young woman having time to heal.
It can mean a woman leaving prison and not being alone.
It can mean a financial counsellor helping someone see a future that once felt impossible.

For MWF, this is an important part of our learning as a giving circle. We are not here to rescue. We are here to stand alongside the organisations closest to the work and keep listening to what good support really looks like.

What good funding looks like

The panel was also generous in sharing what funders can do better.

Good funding is not only about starting something new. It is about sustaining what works, funding the learning, supporting the people doing the work and giving organisations room to adapt.

As Sally Tonkin put it: “fund the learning as well as the work.”

For MWF, these insights matter. They shape how we think about collective giving and how we can provide support that is thoughtful, practical, respectful and grounded in relationships.

Thank you

To our panellists, thank you for sharing your work with such honesty, care and generosity.

To Evans & Partners, thank you for hosting us and creating space for this important conversation.

And to our members, thank you. Your giving helps strengthen organisations walking alongside women and their families across Greater Melbourne. Your willingness to listen, learn and stay connected helps make collective philanthropy personal, accessible and meaningful.

If you joined us as a guest or friend of MWF, we hope the evening offered a warm introduction to the power of collective giving.

Interested in being part of a women-led giving circle that makes philanthropy personal, collective and accessible? We would love to welcome you.

Join the MWF circle