Highlights from our panel at the Philanthropy Australia Conference 2026

At the Philanthropy Australia Conference 2026, Seer Data Founder and CEO Kristi Mansfield moderated a conversation exploring a question facing many funders and social impact organisations: how do we balance trust-based funding with meaningful accountability?

Kristi was joined by Sarah Bailey from MECCA M-POWER, Bonnie Ashton from Future Generation and Bhanvi Anand from the Snow Foundation. While each approaches funding differently, the discussion highlighted a shared view – trust and accountability don’t have to work against each other.

Rethinking what accountability looks like

Untied funding gives organisations greater flexibility to decide how funding is used, but that doesn’t mean measurement disappears. Instead, the panel discussed shifting the focus from reporting on activities and spending towards understanding what changed.

MECCA’s M-POWER program, for example, started with intentionally light-touch reporting to reduce the burden on partners. Its approach has since evolved – not towards more reporting, but towards measurement that better captures change.

From left to right: Bhanvi Anand (Snow Foundation), Sarah Bailey (MECCA M-POWER), Bonnie Ashton (Future Generation), Kristi Mansfield (Seer Data).

The discussion also highlighted the importance of maintaining connection. Without the natural milestones that come with project-based funding, untied funding can sometimes create distance between funders and their partners.

The panel shared four practical ways funders can maintain that connection:

  1. Build regular conversations into the relationship, rather than relying solely on reporting forms.
  2. Visit partner organisations and see their work firsthand.
  3. Create the trust needed for partners to share what is really happening – including what isn’t working.
  4. Invest in partners’ own data and measurement capability, so measurement creates value for the organisation as well as the funder.

Making measurement useful

A consistent theme throughout the session was that more measurement isn’t necessarily better measurement.

Good impact data should help organisations understand what is working, support learning and provide funders and investors with meaningful evidence about the change being created. The panel’s advice was practical: start with one to three meaningful measures, ask what each measure is actually for, and recognise the value of qualitative evidence in understanding impact.

As Kristi summed up during the session:

“The choice was never between trust and accountability. It’s between measurement that extracts value from organisations, and measurement that creates value for them.”

The conversation reinforced a simple idea: measurement works best when it creates value for everyone involved, helping organisations learn, funders stay connected and both make better decisions about where to go next.