Dear Community,

We wanted to share some important news with you.

After 12 months of effort, reflection, and community consultation, it has become clear to our team that in our current format, Collective Being cannot overcome the persistent funding challenges we have been facing.

As a result, at the end of 2025, we will enter a period of hibernation - a time for our team to rest, reflect, and re-strategise for the future.

Funding an organisation like Collective Being has been a labour of love, and we are heartbroken that we have not been able to raise the funds needed for 2026. Our team is holding both grief and hope about this hibernation period, which we imagine many of you might also experience.

We are deeply grateful of the support and trust our community has extended towards us and our work. In honour of this trust, below is some further information about how we got here, and our plans for the hibernation period.

Should you wish to connect with us regarding the hibernation period, or engage in conversations about the future of Collective Being, please reach out to Jo directly - jo@collectivebeing.org.

With care,

The Collective Being team.

Demand and impact

Collective Being was born in January 2017 (then State of Being). In the almost 9 years since, we have:

supported over 10,000 people
partnered with 60+ organisations
delivered 200+ therapeutic programs, hundreds of free classes, and multiple trainings and events.

As we know though, our real impact is qualitative, not quantitative. In a mental health landscape that often defaults to standardisation, we have always prioritised innovation, relational care, and practices that reflect the real lives of those we work with.

Participants tell us it’s "how we do things" that makes the biggest difference. We understand the potential for healing and recovery when people feel dignified, supported, and safe. We also deeply understand the importance of accessible services.

Recent evaluations show the strength of this approach: 97% of participants in our therapeutic programs reported improvements to their health and wellbeing.

The incongruence between demand and funding

Despite our service delivery success and rising demand for our offerings, the nonprofit funding environment has become increasingly small, competitive, and short-term. Changes to the NDIS, reduced government funding, and shifting funder priorities have created enormous challenges for our small organisation.

With limited resources and staff capacity for fundraising, we’ve been unable to secure what’s needed for long-term stability at this time.

We also want to acknowledge that this is a challenge that many established small-medium sized nonprofits are facing across the country. We extend our support and compassion to others navigating unstable ground.

The future of Collective Being

Given that our challenge is funding, as opposed to service quality or demand, we see this as the end of a chapter, not the end of our work.

We are hopeful that a different version of Collective Being will be born of this period of rest and reflection, scaffolded by the innovation, collaboration, co-design, and community-hearted work that has made us a responsive, unique, and beloved organisation.

Our priorities before we hibernate

Our priorities in closing this chapter in Collective Being’s life are to complete an archival project that will see many of our practices and resources made freely available. These will be shared over social media and email newsletters.

Shortly, on our website, you will find professional contact details of our team members who are offering ongoing somatic and therapeutic work, and a Resource Hub for personal, community and professional practice.

Our deepest gratitude

We want to thank our participants, program partners, funders, and community members for your incredible support and over the last 9 years.

We remain open to finding sustainable ways to continue our work, and welcome your contributions to that conversation.

We hope to be in touch soon,

the Collective Being team.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

We are closing this chapter of Collective Being

Dear Community,