Institute of Community Directors Australia: Annual Report 2025
2025 was a year of balance for the Institute of Community Directors Australia.
We launched Radical Moderate: Leading with boldness & balance, a publication comprising 20 articles by thought leaders in higher education, advocacy, school education, research, communications, fundraising, international development and migration services, reflecting on what the concept of the radical moderate might mean in their sector in Australia.
We delivered training on how to implement AI integration, on the one hand, and on how to consider appropriate guardrails to balance innovation with protection from harm, on the other. We also published an innovation guide and various policy templates to support risk mitigation.
We balanced a strong focus on the digital realm of artificial intelligence with efforts to build and strengthen community connections among our members. These connections spanned groups of treasurers, secretaries, chairs, First Nations board members, and emerging leaders. Relationships are central to our work, and we collaborated with many valued partners to provide not-for-profits with access to online board portal tools, coaching, advocacy and pitching.
We recognise the need for organisations to balance board members’ commitment to their cause with their own wellbeing, so that they remain fresh and effective in their roles. To this end, we published the 2025 Australian Community Boards Wellbeing Report.
2025 also marked the year we expanded our reach into New Zealand through the Certified Community Directors course, delivered in partnership with Community Governance Aotearoa and BoardPro.
We strongly value our relationships with the community organisations we work with across Australia, and we are proud to support their skills, knowledge, confidence and ethics development. So I took particular delight in reading this quote from a Not-for-profit Leadership Certificate graduate, which beautifully encapsulates the way we seek to work: “[The most useful things were] the collaboration with others and the intuitive, personal, non-corporate approach of the facilitators – they obviously understand the community sector.”
As the year wrapped up, on 14 December 2025, Australia faced the worst massacre since Port Arthur in 1996. The Bondi terrorist attack targeted a Jewish cultural celebration. We recognise that tragedies of this kind profoundly affect community organisations – both those that organise public events like the one targeted, and also those that take on a leadership role in the aftermath. This includes organisations involved in emergency services, victim support, and the long-term work of fostering cultural safety for all Australians and residents of Australia.
We believe that a stronger community sector will make a stronger Australia and we remain committed to that vision.
Adele Stowe-Lindner
Executive Director, Institute of Community Directors Australia