What makes IF different?

- IF is a small, member-based community development organisation which aims to provide effective and innovative assistance to improve people’s lives. The size of IF means:

• We are flexible, non-bureaucratic and approachable
• Each community has contact with at least one Management Committee member
• We develop personal relationships with donors and members, and encourage involvement in IF activities
• Our financial management systems are simple and transparent

- We are committed to remaining small, maintaining a hands-on professional management style and developing strong individual and organisational relationships with communities.

Operations

- IF works with local community based organisations, which are often overlooked by larger development agencies because they are too small or lack adequate connections to access international support.  We see that new technologies or large amounts of money are often not appropriate or necessary.

- IF’s beliefs about sustainable development and strong relationships with communities manifest themselves in projects that demonstrate real community control of decision-making and equal and honest relationships between IF and the communities where we work.

Our Ethos

- Our work is grounded by two sets of principles, and it is these that allow us to establish and maintain quality projects. These are our:

• Guiding Principles (sustainability, community ownership, transparency and equity);

• Operational Principles (for example, core funding, participation and partnership development, and medium to long term commitment to communities).

This principle-based approach provides our partners and us a clear framework that allows our assistance to be both effective and ethical.

- We quietly advocate for a more realistic and responsible approach to development that is guided by existing research and ongoing evaluation.

- We are an organisation that values its staff, volunteers and members and promotes a flexible and fulfilling working environment.

Management

- IF is financially independent. To become established, 70% of funds came from Management Committee members. All our funding now comes from our members and donors.

- From its inception in 2001, IF has been a fully, volunteer organisation. Due to a steady increase in projects and organisational growth, we employed a part-time coordinator in January 2008 to help manage the workload. However, a large proportion of our work is still conducted by volunteers and operations are managed through a ‘virtual’ office. This enables us to keep administrative costs to a minimum.

- IF doesn’t spend funds on elaborate marketing strategies. We don’t send members or donors requests for money.

- IF provides honest information on projects including ‘lessons learnt’, difficulties and problems faced. We send out quarterly newsletters, occasional emails and have a website (www.indigofoundation.org).

- Donations to IF are tax deductible.

Establishment and experience

- Our extensive individual experiences in the development industry enabled us to identify major gaps, contradictions and concerns in the way development was undertaken. Rather than just criticise, we wanted to ‘put our money where our mouth is’ and so we established IF – with the view to providing development support ‘differently’.

- We and a number of ordinary IF members, have or currently work for organizations such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, AusAID, Medecins sans Frontiers (MSF), CARE Australia, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and private sector development companies. Regions of experience include South East Asia, South Asia, Africa, Central America, and remote Australia.

Activities

- IF works with marginalised communities primarily in the Asia-Pacific and Central Asia regions.

- We are currently supporting six community development projects. These are in:

• Eastern Indonesia (public health and water, education and agricultural development in rural communities);
• Solomon Islands (vocational education for young men and women);
• Afghanistan (Hazara community schools for girls and boys and a girls high school);
• India (schooling and career development support program for Dalit, ‘untouchable’, children and youth);
• East Timor  (establishment of an anti tobacco program, and the printing of ‘Memory Books’ - outlining the memories of women who were widowed during the violence in May 2006);
• Democratic Republic of Congo (health promotion program, focusing on malaria prevention).

- From time to time, IF advocates on behalf of communities whose human rights, environment, health or access to education we consider are under threat.

- We would like to expand our activities and, with financial support, plan to assist up to eight communities by 2009.

Growth strategy

IF has a growth strategy that will enable us to maintain our commitment to our vision; expand our field work and build the IF community in Australia. The three pillars of IF’s growth strategy are;

Ø      Projects

Ø      Structure

Ø      Resources

These pillars are interdependent and will be developed concurrently throughout 2008/09.

The three pillars all rest on a key theme of IF – relationships. The theme of relationships permeates everything IF does. One of the features that sets IF apart from many other development organisations is its relational approach to its project partners, to its volunteers, and to its supporters. For example, the aim of IF’s current structural changes is to facilitate relationships and communication among people and systems with the ultimate aim being to enhance IF's assistance to, and solidarity with, the people among whom we work.