According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, over 20 million people have been internally displaced by extreme weather-related events since 2008, with storms and floods being the most common drivers. The Panel also suggests that a noticeable increase in catastrophic events, such as those that have recently struck our east coast, are human-made.
Amidst the horror at the sheer force and extensive damage that these flooding catastrophes have left in their wake, is the equally concerning realisation that such events could very well be our ‘new normal’ - climate change, it would seem, has well and truly begun.
Turning our focus again to flood-stricken communities in the Northern Rivers region, we were also honoured to be able to give $3,255.00 to the Northern Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF) as they work to support the community through early, medium and long term flood recovery phases.
Connecting people and communities to tackle challenging social and environmental problems in the Northern Rivers, the NRCF has a unique model: they invest donor money into a perpetual fund and donate the interest and dividends from those investments in the form of community grants.
With a very wide scope due to their funding model, NRCF don’t provide specific programs or services themselves, but rather provide funding to a wide range of organisations based in the Northern Rivers that themselves work directly with the local community. They have a number of named funds, many of which focus on the maintenance and protection of the environment in such a unique and diverse part of the world. By being embedded in a particular region and working with a range of community groups within that region, NRCF are able to respond to local needs, as determined by the community itself, effectively and meaningfully (sort of like Pure Community does). Plus, the donation of profit and dividends earned through ethical investments makes their impact twofold, first by investing ethically from the outset, and then by giving the profits from these investments back to the community to continue the cycle of support for local environmental and social causes).
NRCF’s Resilience and Regeneration Fund + Quick Response Flood Relief Grants
To support the NRCF’s flood recovery efforts, we’ve donated to their Resilience and Regeneration Fund which will direct money to local organisations who are well placed to provide support through their connections with community, access to resources and first hand knowledge of community needs.
Over the last two years, NRCF has provided grants ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars through this fund and with a growing number of recipients year on year, the impact has been spread across the far-ranging community, addressing a variety of needs.
In response to the recent flooding events, NRCF has partnered with Byron Community Centre to offer quick response grants of up to $10,000 for not-for-profit community organisations, providing flood relief and recovery across the whole Northern Rivers Region. Grants will be awarded on a weekly basis, with applications closing at the end of April.
If you’d like to support the wonderful work of the NRCF, you can donate via their website here. To see their impact in 2020, you can read their Impact Report here.