As an organisation, we've made a commitment to sharing what we learn. That includes our missteps and the things that didn’t go to plan. Sometimes things not going the way we thought they would resulted in pleasant surprises and better outcomes, other times they were clear invitations to approach things differently.
We’re still learning and accept that we always will be. Which is as it should be.
Here are five things we’ve been reflecting on in 2025:
1. Navigating change
Change is rarely easy. With a goal of increasing our impact, we introduced significant changes to our grant programs and funding arrangements in recent years. We recognise that learning how to manage those changes well is a responsibility that demands adequate time, clear communication and resources to help grant partners and others in the sector adapt.
Any significant change to the way we grant, which results in the way we and our grant partners are able to support people, brings a type of grief whether at the organisational, individual or sectoral level. The support that many had came to rely on us for in some cases was no longer available – this has been particularly tough in a time of escalating cost of living pressures. We learned that beyond anticipating those responses of loss we need to work through how we can provide appropriate support where we can throughout the transition.
Similarly, we accept that just because we’ve communicated something in a way that we believe is clear and timely, doesn’t mean our intended audience will have had the time or bandwidth to read and process it. Effective communication requires consideration and ongoing relational approaches.
Increasingly, what we’re known for and what The Wyatt Trust brand represents is changing. To some degree that’s inevitable after operating for 139 years and in some part was facilitated by the Act of Parliament that established Wyatt’s operational parameters being amended in 2020. Our growing work in Lived and Living Experience, truth telling, advocacy and more, are changes that come as a surprise to some. Realigning public perceptions and contemporising the Wyatt brand and its communication to match our internal shifts continues to be an important part of the change process. This includes understanding what issues we should be taking a public position on, and the expectations of our partners and stakeholders in doing so.
2. Creating new spaces for collaboration
We’ve seen repeatedly that the willingness to collaborate among grant partners, funders and sector stakeholders to achieve systems change is high. The shared learning approaches taken up by grant partners in our Financial Wellbeing and Housing programs have been embraced so deeply that several groups are now adapting and advocating for the same spaces and support from other funders.
This was another important learning for us: most, if not all, of the partner organisations we work with have to contend with structures and service delivery KPIs that have been built to accommodate a siloed system. Their program reporting and funding arrangements often limit their ability to dive into new collaborations or think about doing things differently.
Our co-working space in Adelaide’s CBD, Inparrila, is another example of how resourcing a dedicated space for collaboration can facilitate new networks and relationships through intentional and sometimes ‘right place, right time’ interactions and exchanges. It is an ongoing focus for us to ensure we and our partners get the most out of this space.
We recognise that if we want to create and activate spaces that enable collaborative, shared learning, person-centered approaches, we need to provide the resources that make it possible. Breaking down systemic barriers takes time, new spaces for collaboration, significant resourcing and can come at a cost to other areas of work.
3. Relationships and trust
Creating positive change isn’t possible without relationships and productive relationships are built on trust. In terms of the power imbalance that exists between funders and grant partners, it’s relatively easy for us as the grantmaking organisation to fund our grant partners and tell them we respect their expertise and decisions to direct the funds for best use. But just because we say, ‘We trust you’, doesn’t mean our partner organisations will immediately believe that - particularly when many of our historic grant guidelines were quite limiting and came with onerous reporting requirements. It’s a relationship that builds over time, through repeated interactions and examples of Wyatt ‘walking the talk’ that affirm this trust.
4. Acting without knowing what the outcome will be
Closely linked to relationships and trust is a learning about how important it is to act, even when you don’t know what the outcome will be. We saw this very clearly with our work around truth telling. Taking that first step opened up so many opportunities for us to learn and reflect more deeply which in turn sparked new conversations and provided an example others might follow.
Similarly, our work to develop the Linker Service and the shared learning approach with our grant programs began as informed leaps of faith. Being open to learning, means being open to failing, but always openly and with awareness to minimise any harm being done.
5. Understanding how we learn
One of the learnings we’re still wrestling with is how we learn as an organisation. Our Impact Log and MEL framework and our relationships are helping us gather rich data and insights, but we’re still figuring out how we can use these learnings to better understand impact, influence systems and drive change.
Thank you to our partners and peers, our Lived and Living Experience colleagues and everyone who helped us learn from the lessons that are outlined here.
Read more from our 2025 Impact Report.
