Working together for the common good
Confluence is a specialised social impact advisory. I’m John Bush, Founder and Director.
Through Confluence, I support communities, philanthropy and social impact organisations to see and contribute to the common good.
I particularly support initiatives focused on education and youth, ensuring that all young people, regardless of background, have what they need to thrive and make an impact in their communities.
I help you read your strategic environment, ensure your mission meets the moment, generate creative options and opportunities, convene the right people in the right way and design and deliver effective strategies for change.
Core offerings
Are you seeking clarity about your social mission in a changing environment? Trying to come to grips with how your resources and unique strengths can be deployed for the best impact within your ecosystem? I can support you to draw on the right frameworks and tools in a structured process to bring clarity to your strategy.
Are you grappling with a tricky issue among your key stakeholders? Are you trying to make sense of the national and international strategic environment for your work with young people or in education? I can be on tap as a sounding board and source of systems intelligence to help you find a way through complexity.
Are you working through what sources of revenue best help you meet your mission in a sustainable way? Are you considering how to tell your story of impact in a way that’s clear to grantmakers? I can help you work through these questions to drive sustainable funding.
Are you hoping to bring together key stakeholders or players in your ecosystem to learn together or make collective progress? I can help you design and deliver a gathering or set of gatherings to surface new insights and create conditions to act together.
Are you looking for a sharp but grounded perspective on key issues at the intersection of philanthropy, education, research and social impact? I can craft a keynote address, panel presentation or piece of writing that distils key ideas from complexity and creates conceptual space for new patterns of working to emerge.
Are you trying to keep track of a rapidly changing policy environment or sector? Are you trying to understand the implications of your evolving sector ecosystem for your work or your giving? I can summarise and synthesise key developments and trends so that you can see your strategic environment, and I can help you see your options and choose where to focus your effort.
Do you want to ensure that a strong evidence base has impact on policy or practice? Are you considering how to ensure community or practice knowledge is weighed as strongly as research evidence? I can help you think through the best options to ensure the most important knowledge is used well by the people who can have the most impact.
Examples of my work with…
Start-up social impact initiatives
I am on the founding team for a grassroots effort to strengthen local philanthropy and local community organisations in the Illawarra region of New South Wales.
I am on a national working group developing an initiative to ensure schools around Australia are socio-economically diverse, so that we can improve outcomes for all students and strengthen our social bonds across difference in communities around Australia.
Philanthropy
I co-chair the Philanthropy Australia Education Funders Peer Network, convening education funders quarterly to share insights from the field and build opportunities for collaboration and impact.
I was a member of the Bryan Foundation’s executive team and Policy Squad during the 2025 National Early Years Policy Summit, where I worked with a cross-organisation team to synthesise perspectives coming from summit attendees into a set of policy opportunities.
I advise several Australian philanthropies on their strategies for education and youth, with a particular focus on First Nations-led education.
Non-profit and community organisations
I provided advice to Green Connect, a social enterprise based in Wollongong, on how to tell the story of their impact in grant applications.
System collaborations
I conducted policy research and synthesised perspectives form key stakeholders to generate policy recommendations for the Schools as Community Platforms National Working Group.
Universities & researchers
I provided strategic coaching and guidance to establish the Quality Teaching Academy at the University of Newcastle (Australia), a social enterprise mobilising the evidence-based Quality Teaching Rounds program into thousands of schools in Australia and around the world. As a result, thousands of teachers have improved their teaching practice and tens of thousands of students have measurably improved learning outcomes.
First Nations-led organisations
I provided strategic coaching and guidance to support the establishment and expansion of the Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School, the first Indigenous bilingual school in New South Wales.
About me
I am a collaborative, outcomes-focused senior leader working at the nexus of philanthropy, social impact and education, with an abiding focus on addressing disadvantage and helping young people to thrive. My expertise is in philanthropic grant-making and evaluation, policy influence, leading education social enterprises, designing and delivering transformative social impact convenings, and recruiting and developing exceptional talent for social impact.
I began my career with more than a decade of experience working directly with young people, first as a teacher and school leader in the United States, and then as a teacher and youth facilitator in Australian schools. These direct experiences with young people have been at the heart of my work in designing, developing, and leading programs, and catalysing systemic impact through strategic partnerships and philanthropic funding. I have a constant focus: “How are my daily actions making a difference for young people and the adults who support them?”
This means I care about impact, even as I’m working at scale. In philanthropy, I led the development and management of more than $170,000,000 in partnerships across grants, impact investing, research and evaluation, which have measurably improved outcomes for hundreds of thousands of Australian children and young people. In the design of all that work, I made sure we kept human relationships at the core of every strategy, partnership and project and that we could hang our collective hats on measurable improvements in important outcomes.
I have held leadership roles in four social purpose organisations during their start-up phases: Ravenwood High School, High Resolves, Evidence for Learning, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation. I have also closely supported many ambitious initiatives from start up, including Learning Creates Australia, the Quality Teaching Academy, the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition, the Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School and Thrive: Finishing School Well. Because of this experience, I have a keen understanding of the challenges and dilemmas unique to this time in the organisational lifecycle, particularly for Australian education initiatives.
Core Beliefs
Collaboration & Diversity: Real change happens when we work together, drawing strength and new insights from our diverse perspectives. Different perspectives strengthen our learning, our communities and our democracy.
Equity: Every community deserves to thrive, and every child deserves a rich, quality education in their community.
Community: We can create communities as places of connection, progress and prosperity. We can keep all our schools at the heart of a cohesive and adaptive society.
Values and Actions
Trust: Positive change moves at the speed of trust. I strive to earn trust through what I say and what I do. For First Nations-led organisations, for communities and for cohorts of people who are marginalised, I strive to be a trustworthy ally.
Knowledge: Knowledge is a strong foundation for the common good. I support communities and initiatives to draw on and generate useful knowledge from their own experience and formal research.
Contact Me
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and I will be in touch shortly. I can’t wait to hear from you!