Over the coming 12 months, Project Australia will seek to establish itself as a free, online space in Australia for people who have ideas about how to create a brighter Australian future but who lack some critical aspect in order to start the process of taking that idea to reality. We want to become known for our ability to offer or help source accessible, supportive infrastructure and resources that provide a basic stepping-stone for people to convert ideas and emerging projects into successful realities. As part of our collaborative vision, we’d like to work with other groups to ensure that people and their socially-focussed ideas are supported, right from the very beginning, through the whole creation process. We also want to ensure that smaller projects are part of the broader tapestry that is ‘social change’.

We will continue to build online infrastructure that supports people in:

• Promoting their ideas
• Receiving feedback on their ideas
• Receiving updates on things going on in their areas of interest
• Being connected to relevant ideas
• Sharing relevant templates and documents
• Accessing cutting-edge information about social entrepreneurship
• Reviewing successful case studies
• Being connected to relevant people/mentors
• Sharing volunteer expertise
• Accessing small-scale finance

In the coming 12 months we will launch a new website that will include aspects of the above infrastructure, with a planned phasing in of the remaining infrastructure, as appropriate.

This space will be unique in the sense that it will promote new ideas, will funnel people to existing support down the process chain and will provide small-scale funding.

We are calling the model that underpins user-engagement: ‘5 x 5’. The model proposes that, to get an idea (one that addresses a social need) off the ground, five basic ingredients are required:

• Five minutes to set-up a profile and post an idea;
• Five volunteers to take the idea from concept to reality, including one leader;
• Five questions about the non-profit project: What is the identified social need? How do you plan to address this need in a sustainable way? What existing or emerging efforts are similar? How will the project be governed? What ‘Event’ will launch your project (Project leader provides)
• Five hundred dollars for a ‘launch event’ (Project Australia provides); and
• Five strong leads or ideas for the next phase of the journey (Project Australia provides).