Philanthropy Australia KnowledgeBank
From PhilanthropyWiki
See the KnowledgeBank page on the Philanthropy Australia Website for an outline of the different KnowledgeBank components and their progress.
History
Plans for the KnowledgeBank were first mooted in 2004 in the context of researching knowledge management within philanthropy. The Myer Foundation provided Philanthropy Australia with a grant to enable staff member Louise Arkles to attend “Leveraging What You Know: Knowledge Management Strategies for Funders” which was held in Seattle as a preconference meeting prior to the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations 2004 annual conference. Following this, the Philanthropy Australia Resource Centre researched other philanthropy and membership organisations' use of ICT, and explored various options for utilising emerging technologies for information management and knowledge sharing.
The first priority was to redesign the Philanthropy Australia Website. Launched in March 2006, the new site features a refreshing new look and an open and accessible design, with intuitive navigation and a wealth of information resources. New features include the philanthropyOz Blog, which started in January 2007.
In 2006 IT development and support firm Strategic Data was consulted for advice on Philanthropy Australia's knowledge management aims might be realised, and what we would need to be done to get from the existing, outdated IT set-up to one which would support and enable the level of information services and resource sharing envisaged. This required an overhaul of Philanthropy Australia's information and communications technology infrastructure, including a major revision of the internal Contacts Database.
Plans were drafted for the KnowledgeBank project and applied to Macquarie Group Foundation for a grant in early 2007, which was awarded several months later. Work began in earnest shortly afterwards, with staff member Emily Turner being the driving force behind the PhilanthropyWiki, designing and creating the sites look and structure, and working with Vanessa Meachen and Louise Arkles to establish the content structure and administrative groundrules. Adam Thick at Strategic Data has been the chief technical advisor and software developer extraordinaire.