Meet our latest grant partners

A just, equitable and sustainable Australia doesn’t build itself. In our latest grant round, we’re proud to support work that’s laying the foundations — from community-led climate action and digital human rights, to inclusive environmental leadership and truth-telling through the arts.

Environment Victoria

Environment Victoria’s mission — creating a just society living in harmony with a healthy environment — has long aligned with ours. We’ve partnered on many projects over the years and in 2026, we’re joining forces to build a stronger, more inclusive climate movement in Melbourne’s west.

Environment Victoria has already prepared the groundwork, hosting Our West, Our Future workshop last year, which explored the formation of a broad-based community alliance to build community power together. The aim is to create a sustainable, community-driven structure that can strengthen grassroots leadership, amplify culturally and linguistically diverse voices, influence decisions about how Melbourne’s west grows and help the region adapt fairly to a changing climate.

Over the next 12 months, Environment Victoria will continue working with this group, known as the Western Melbourne Community Alliance, launching a community event ahead of the state election.

Forming this alliance now is strategic and timely. The west is growing and changing rapidly. Inequality is rising. Environmental pressures are increasing. Communities are feeling the strain — but are also showing enormous creativity, care and collective strength. It’s time they were meaningfully included in decisions that shape the region.

This initiative resonates deeply for the Reichstein Foundation. Lance Reichstein’s factories were based in West Melbourne, and we see merit in returning resources to the communities and places that helped generate the Foundation’s wealth.

Digital Rights Watch

Founded in 2016, Digital Rights Watch (DRW) is Australia’s leading civil society organisation dedicated to defending digital rights. It advocates for strong privacy protections, regulation of data-driven corporate power, safeguards against digital harms, and systems that uphold fairness, transparency and accountability.

As DRW Chair Lizzie O’Shea says, “If we don’t fix how our online world is governed, it remains virtually impossible to build functioning community spaces, or a public space to debate difficult problems like climate change, racial injustice and our response to military violence.”

From advocating for privacy law reform that responds to the ever-growing reach and power of big tech, to educating the public on how to disable AI data scraping on popular social media sites, DRW is at the forefront of a burgeoning movement to build a safe and fair digital future.

Supporting DRW aligns squarely with the Reichstein Foundation’s commitment to systemic justice, for human rights now play out in digital spaces as much as physical ones. If we want a fair, just and democratic society, we need digital systems that respect and protect everyone.

Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia

The Reichstein Foundation has partnered with Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) since its earliest days, supporting its evolution from a small leadership initiative into a national force for feminist climate action.

One of WELA’s most innovative programs is the Giving Circle, which offers grants to small grassroots initiatives led by women and gender-diverse people. Now in its third year, the Circle has grown into a community of 110 donors across Australia. Members contribute $20 per week or $1,000 annually, collectively deciding how funds are allocated.

In 2026, the Reichstein Foundation is joining the Giving Circle as a matched-funding partner to double the impact of its grantmaking. The Circle expects to distribute four $5,000 grants; a $20,000 matched contribution from our Foundation will increase each grant to $10,000, significantly deepening the benefit for small organisations.

“Matched funding allows us to support a more democratic model of giving that shares power, centres community decision-making and channels resources to projects identified through an open, participatory process,” says Reichstein Foundation CEO Rachel Ball.

“More women in decision-making leads to better environmental outcomes. And a strong grassroots movement is central to addressing the climate crisis. We’re so pleased to be providing support at this important intersection.”

Opening Doors

David Arden (Kokatha, Gunditjmara) and Violet Arden (Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Arrernte) are acclaimed First Nations musicians and truth-tellers, renowned for their powerful storytelling through song. They have worked alongside some of the Australian music industry’s most respected artists, including as longtime collaborators with Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter.

Over the past year, David and Violet have toured regional Victoria through their Opening Doors project, delivered in partnership with the VCA’s Wilin Centre. This initiative invests in First Nations-led creative practice, fosters culturally safe spaces for connection and strengthens relationships between First Nations artists, local communities and cultural institutions.

In 2025, their show Meerta toured twelve Victorian towns, offering audiences a profound experience of story, history and song. The response was extraordinary — a testament to the enduring power of truth-telling in deepening understanding and advancing reconciliation.

Building on this momentum, David and Violet are now ready to expand this work full-time. Through the Lore Germain Bequest, we are proud to support them on the road in 2026, enabling more communities to engage with their music, stories and cultural leadership.