Date and time: Wednesday 26 February 2025, 4.00pm - 5.00pm AEDT
Topic: Australian funders and evaluation
Location: online via zoom, details will be shared just prior to the event
Presenters: Caroline Henwood | The Ian Potter Foundation, George Argyrous | Paul Ramsay Foundation, Katrina Webster | Victorian Legal Services Board, Squirrel Main Paul | Ramsay Foundation
Register online by: Tuesday 25 February 2025

Event description:

Have you been wondering how philanthropic and government funders in Australia consider evaluation?

This seminar will provide a brief overview on the Australian funding landscape and how different funding organisation's engage with evaluation. With insights drawn from a small set of conversations with Philanthropic and government organisations.

This will be followed by a Q&A session with a panel of funders to discuss:
- evaluating the funding organisation
- evaluation of grants
- supporting grant partners in evaluation

Join us for the conversation.

About the presenters:

Katrina Webster is the Grants Program Lead at the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner where her focus is on running a successful program that effectively identifies and supports initiatives that improve access to justice in Victoria. With years of experience in the social sector, Katrina has worked in emergency management and climate resilience roles in Australia and overseas, for peak bodies and in State Government. She is skilled in grant management, strategic planning, project management, and has a keen interest in outcomes measurement.

George Argyrous heads the Measurement, Evaluation, Research & Learning team at the Paul Ramsay Foundation. George completed his PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research. Since then, he has worked within the university sector, teaching and also working with organisations to improve their evidence-based decision-making. He has authored several high-level government evaluation frameworks in areas as broad as disaster recovery and countering violent extremism. He has a particular passion for capability building so that practitioners can become more critical users of evidence to inform their work.

Squirrel Main is the Evaluation Manager at the Paul Ramsay Foundation managing evaluation and learning. Squirrel founded Australia's Philanthropic Evaluation and Data Analysis network (fondly known in funder circles as “geek club”). Over the past two decades, she has conducted evaluations for schools, outdoor education programs, government, childcare settings, and homelessness programs. An evaluator and a data analyst with a passion for measuring and improving outcomes across education, health and employment sectors, Squirrel completed a Masters at Stanford University in Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and also holds a Masters in Journalism (data, infographics and investigative) at the University of Melbourne. She received her PhD at the University of Auckland investigating teacher support systems in low-socioeconomic schools. 

Caroline Henwood is the Research and Evaluation Manager at The Ian Potter Foundation. She is passionate about strategy development and evaluation and committed to supporting organisations deliver on their objectives. She enjoys engaging with people to understand both the challenges faced and the vision they are trying to achieve. Caroline has worked within the private and government sectors and with not-for-profit and community service organisations across a broad range of sectors, including environment, education, social protection and with the justice system.

This free event has been organised by the AES Victoria Regional Network. Our seminar series provides an opportunity for you to meet with AES members and others in the evaluation community and to share and learn from the experiences of fellow evaluators.

This seminar will not be recorded

Session start times

• VIC, NSW, ACT, TAS: 4.00pm

• QLD: 3.00pm

• NT: 2.30pm

• SA: 3.30pm

• WA: 1.00pm

• New Zealand: 6.00pm

For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html