Our Opinion – Goodwill needs more than thanks

Sometimes the stories that say the most about a community are the small ones.

A woman came into our office last week looking for help for her quilting group (see page 6) who make quilts for people in hospice. They have plenty of fabric and volunteers, what they need is batting, hardly a glamorous request, and not something likely to attract a major sponsor. But without it, the quilts don’t get made.

It struck me because, in almost every issue of this paper, we write about people helping others. They knit and sew, coach students after work, drive ambulances, fight fires, run foodbanks, plant trees, sit on committees, organise fundraisers, keep clubs alive, teach art, music and theatre, visit the lonely and help people through some of the hardest moments of their lives.

Much of what makes the Hibiscus Coast a great place to live is not delivered by government or business. It is delivered quietly, week after week, by volunteers.

We are very good at saying thank you, unfortunately we don’t do as well at making it easy for them to keep going.

Community groups spend an extraordinary amount of energy chasing relatively small amounts of money. They fill out endless applications, compete against one another for the same grants, approach the same local businesses for sponsorship and hold endless sausage sizzles, raffles and quiz nights. Meanwhile the pool available for funding is shrinking while the expectations placed on community organisations keep growing.

There has to be a smarter way. Government and councils should recognise that community organisations are part of our social infrastructure, just as surely as libraries, parks and roads are part of our physical infrastructure. Funding should reflect that, with more stable multi-year support for proven organisations rather than forcing volunteers to repeatedly justify their existence for small annual grants.

But public money cannot do everything. There is also an opportunity for business and philanthropy to fund locally in a more coordinated way. Imagine a Hibiscus Coast community fund where businesses, individuals and larger donors could contribute to one transparent pool, with simple applications and local decisions about where relatively modest amounts of money could make the biggest difference.

Not every group needs $50,000. Sometimes they just need smaller amounts on an ongoing basis. Perhaps the greatest inefficiency in community funding is that we make people who are already giving their time, spend even more of it asking for help.

We should be able to do better than that. Because when we support our volunteers, we are not simply funding hobbies or nice-to-have projects. We are investing in the people who hold a community together, and on the Hibiscus Coast, there are an extraordinary number of them doing that.

Adrienne Kohler, editor