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Despite the importance of fundraising to the nonprofit sector there has been surprisingly little research on fundraising as a revenue source in Australia. Research that has been conducted both here and internationally has focused on the cost of fundraising — the proportion of fundraising expenses to total fundraising revenue, and fundraising performance — the absolute or relative amount of money raised by organisations via fundraising. This paper examines why some nonprofit organisations are more dependent on fundraising as a source of revenue than others. The paper applies multivariate techniques to examine the influence that three broad sets of factors: organisational; revenue generation model; and fundraising approach, have on what we term ‘fundraising dependency’ — the percentage of a nonprofit organisations total revenue that is derived from fundraising activities. It finds that fundraising dependency is associated with a range of organisational characteristics (e.g. size, geographical scope of the organisation and tax status); alternative forms of revenue generation (e.g. reliance on government funding and commercial venturing) and fundraising approach (e.g. whether professional fundraising staff are employed, the use of volunteer fundraisers and the number of fundraising practices used). The results support taking a multidimensional approach to understanding fundraising dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores views of Australian grantmakers who give to Indigenous causes. It reports on a qualitative study undertaken as part of the Giving Australia research to elicit if and how giving to Indigenous causes differs from philanthropy to other areas. This paper builds on the scant literature, particularly reporting exploratory research results on Australian grantmaking issues, critical funding needs, and recommendations for fostering Indigenous nonprofit funding. Indigenous groups are challenged in understanding how foundations work and, conversely, foundations do not always appreciate the need for their inputs to complement traditional cultures (EGA 2006). The study found that small grants can play a key role, as could enticing and supporting new grantmakers, co-funding, engaging Indigenous representatives in the decision making, and dispelling misconceptions of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on various social themes dealt by the "Australian Journal of Social Issues." The journal's writers have not necessarily understood each paper as situated within a tradition of concerns about issues that are inescapably part of democratic social policy, concerns about professional authority, academic representation and the encouragement or inhibition of various kinds of individual and collective agency. One of the earliest themes identified in the journal was professional representation. That is, there is much comment on the process by which social phenomena become social issues and thus enter the domains of academic commentary and of the human services professions. In a variety of ways, the journal's writers have considered how social policy could or should be an expression of the values of Australians. A third theme called citizens and social capital, the relationship between state and civil society agencies, and how they interact to construct the agency of individuals and communities.

Social capital and community capacity have become key concepts in social policy responses to marginalised individuals and communities. Policy making has occurred in the context of heated debate about the roles of government and business institutions in strengthening community capacities. In this paper, we wilt explore theoretical positions about the role that these institutions play in building local social capital. We argue that the dominant conceptions of social capital in Australia fail to recognise the potential for non-local institutions to strengthen local community capacity. Drawing on a study of four geographically diverse communities we show that a substantial proportion of community members were disconnected from non-local government and business institutions. We conclude with some initial suggestions for extending the social capital discourse to recognise and build the role of non-local institutions in strengthening local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Church related agencies are major providers of community services in Australia (Lyons, 2001:34-35). While the history of church related welfare service provision is not well known in Australia it is asserted that many have a long tradition of outreach and service provision to marginalised groups regardless of the government social policy of the day (ACSWC, 2000; Mendes, 2003). This paper examines the current environment of human services restructuring and the impact of the shift to contractualism on one church related provider: Catholic social welfare provision in Australia. It explores the significance of the church's social teachings and history on concerns that service innovation, diversity and advocacy are currently under threat. Finally it calls for greater appreciation of the distinctive contribution of church related agencies and what they have to offer in service delivery and as contributors to the social policy discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State and local governments in Western Australia increasingly identify 'community development' as a key approach for the delivery of community services. In this paper I explore how the concept of community development is understood and practiced by workers in the context of government community services. While definitions are most often presented as a universally understood approach, my key argument is: that there are instead, community development 'discourses' that are variously applied to diverse situations. Foucauldian notions of discourse and power are used to propose that, while there may be core and recognisable traits found within the language of community development, in any given situation these combine with a number of variables (most notably stemming from the organization responsible for community services) to form a 'situated' community development discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care is a fundamental condition of human existence, an inherently social activity. Yet surprisingly, care has only recently begun to receive serious attention from social researchers and the public. Despite the fact that care has become a public issue over the past twenty-five years or so, current thinking in policy and advocacy for carers has developed an overtly narrow and self-limiting focus with a strong emphasis on the plight of primary or sole carers, with care being seen predominantly as a burden, From looking at Australian policy on carers, it may be concluded that care is essentially understood as a private, individual concern, a one-way activity in which the active agent, the carer, does something to the other, passive, recipient. The challenge posed in this paper is to move beyond this approach to that of a more social conception of care. Following a review of the uses of the terms 'care' and 'carers' in the current Australian policy context, a discussion of the meaning of the term 'care' is presented and an. alternative understanding of the term, with the potential of recognising and promoting care as a complex, social outcome is advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) provides services for homeless people. After demonstrating that the Program is intended to assist people to move on to independent living, the following paper examines the implications of remaining in SAAP services for longer than would otherwise be necessary because there is no where else to go. In particular, the broader social functions of SAAP are examined in the light of the work of Michel Foucault. It is suggested that SAAP serves a specific social function in exerting socially approved power over SAAP users who are forced to remain in SAAP services for longer than would otherwise be required if affordable and appropriate accommodation were available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]