Self Determination Fund
First Peoples-led charitable trust — Victorian Treaty process.
The challenge
The Self-Determination Fund is one of the most significant First Peoples-led organisations in Australia. Created by agreement between the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government as part of Victoria's landmark Treaty process, the Fund exists to ensure Traditional Owner groups can enter Treaty negotiations with the State on equal footing, and to build First Peoples wealth and prosperity for generations to come.
The Fund needed a website live by 8 December 2023. The reason was non-negotiable: the funding launch for Traditional Owner groups was 15 December. There was no existing website to work from. The brief was to build something from scratch in four weeks, using the annual report as both a content source and a visual guide, that served five distinct audiences while reflecting the cultural authority and seriousness of the organisation.
Those audiences were Traditional Owner groups seeking funding to prepare for Treaty negotiations, the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and government stakeholders, potential supporters, donors and philanthropy, corporate partners, and the broader public. Each needed a clear pathway through the site. None of them could be confused for another.
My role
Website strategy, information architecture, content structure, UX and design, Squarespace design and build.
What changed
With no existing site to audit, the content architecture was built from the annual report and the proposal brief outward. The structure was organised around the two primary actions the site needed to enable: understanding what the Fund is and why it exists, and applying for funding. Everything else, including who governs it, the guiding principles, and the connection to the Assembly and Treaty process, was structured to support those two actions without obscuring them.
The five audiences required different entry points and different levels of detail. Traditional Owner groups needed a clear, accessible path to the funding guidelines and application process. Government and Assembly stakeholders needed to see governance, accountability, and cultural authority. Donors and philanthropists needed the mission and the case for support. The general public needed context: what Treaty means, what the Fund does, why it matters.
The visual design drew from the Fund's existing iconography and the annual report's established palette, building a site that felt like it belonged to the organisation from day one, without requiring a full brand development process within the timeline.
The outcome
The site launched on 8 December, one week before the funding round opened to Traditional Owner groups. The Fund has since grown significantly, with new sections including a resource library and donation capability added as the organisation's work has expanded. The platform built for speed has proven durable enough to grow with one of the most consequential First Peoples organisations in Victoria.
