Community Grants and Funding Opportunities

Content grants support the development, production and distribution of content via Australian community media.

This year they are particularly looking to:

• increase community participation and diversity in community broadcasting and/or
• support creativity and excellence in content production.

Content grants are distributed twice per year, with the greater portion allocated in Round 1.

Content grants include funds specifically dedicated to Specialist Radio Programming. This portion of our content grants funding is available to support ongoing ethnic, Indigenous and RPH programs.

Stations producing content that meets the needs of particular communities may be eligible for dedicated Specialist Radio Programming Content grants. This funding is intended to encourage stations to incorporate:

• RPH programs to serve people with a print disability
• Ethnic programs to serve a defined local ethnic community
• Indigenous programs.

These grants are distributed twice per year, with the greater portion allocated in Round 1.

Development & Operations grants aim to support community media station resilience by strengthening governance, building community, sustainable operations and technical capacity.

Your application must clearly demonstrate how the proposed activities address one or more of the areas listed below:

• Governance – strategic planning, technology planning, developing open and transparent governance policies and procedures, recruiting and maintaining a governance team with diverse skills and experiences
• Sustainable operations – improving the financial sustainability, and/or reducing the environmental impact of community media
• Building community – engaging the diverse members of your community.

Grants for Development & Operations are distributed twice per year, with the greater portion allocated in Round 1.

The Community Investments Stream will fund new or expanded local events, strategic regional plans, or leadership and capability strengthening activities that provide economic and social benefits to regional and remote areas. Infrastructure projects are not eligible under the Community Investments Stream.

For most projects grant funding will be up to either 50% or 75% of your eligible project costs. Your location will determine the percentage of grant funding you can receive.

You may apply for a partial or full exemption to your cash contribution if you can demonstrate that you are experiencing exceptional circumstances. 

For small projects with a total grant amount of equal to or less than $20,000, grant funding will be up to 100% of eligible project costs. 

Your project will need to deliver economic and social benefits to a regional or remote community.  

The National Women’s Alliances grant opportunity will establish 6 civil society networks (Alliances) to ensure women’s voices are heard in the policy making process.

The intended outcomes of the National Women’s Alliances stream are that Alliances:

• Represent Australian women, including underrepresented women.
• Collaborate with policymakers to inform the Australian Government’s understanding of policy issues affecting Australian women.
• Collaborate with policymakers to inform the development of policy solutions to issues affecting Australian women.

Alliances should have a national footprint. Given this, organisations should apply under one of the 6 specific themes to achieve maximum impact. The 6 themes are:

• women’s safety
• women’s economic security and leadership
• Australian women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women
• women living in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia
• Australian women living with disability.

Community, sporting and educational groups across the Moree Plains are invited to secure funding from the Public Donations fund to help sponsor their next event, purchase new equipment or otherwise fund the provision of services for activities within the Shire.

Council will consider eligible applications for financial assistance at its first meeting in each financial quarter except in the first quarter of each calendar year, when it may be considered at the first or second meeting of Council

This round covers the period from April to June 2021, and applications will be presented to the Council at its meeting on 28 January 2021.

The Sporting Schools program for primary schools helps to provide a range of sporting programs that will increase children’s interest and participation in sport. It also aims to create stronger links between children and local sporting clubs, nurturing a lifelong love of sport.

Funding is available for primary schools to deliver Sporting Schools programs before, during or after school hours.

Funding amounts include a base amount determined by your whole school enrolment, plus an amount for your expected overall participant numbers.

Australian primary schools can apply for funding once per school term during the application open dates:

Term 1, 2021 - Monday 16 November 2020 (8 am AEDT) - Friday 27 November 2020 (8 pm AEDT)
Term 2, 2021 - Monday 1 March 2021 (8 am AEDT) - Friday 12 March 2021 (8 pm AEDT)
Term 3, 2021 - Monday 24 May 2021  (8 am AEST) - Friday 4 June 2021 (8 pm AEST)
Term 4, 2021 - Monday 16 August 2021 (8 am AEST) - Friday 27 August 2021 (8 pm AEST)

Thanks to an annual financial contribution from the Moree Solar Farm, Moree Plains Shire Council is able to, in accordance with a resolution of the Council, contribute money or otherwise grant financial assistance to groups or organisations.

Under the Community Enhancement Fund, the Council will consider eligible applications for financial assistance at its first meeting in the April to May financial quarter per calendar year. All applicants are required to complete and submit a Community Enhancement Fund Application Form to enable the application to be considered.

Applications in this round will be presented to the Council at its meeting on the 8th of April 2021..

This grant supports activities being held during NAIDOC Week 2021 (4-11 July) that celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, achievements and continuing contributions to our country and society. Activities should align with the National NAIDOC Theme for 2021, ‘Heal Country’.

This grant round provides funding to organisations to contribute to the costs of local and regional NAIDOC activities across Australia.

The purpose of a FutureSteps grant is to directly increase the supply of accommodation with support services to assist individuals or families experiencing homelessness or housing stress.
 
Lendlease are seeking partnerships that are collaborative and will:

• Require a grant contribution that will be used to increase the supply of accommodation for individuals or families experiencing homelessness or housing stress
• Provide the opportunity for Lendlease staff to volunteer their skills and expertise
• Offer wrap around services that facilitate skilling, training and employment opportunities for the individuals housed.

Primary schools and early learning centres are encouraged to apply for a Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant. 1,000 grants area on offer, the largest number of Junior Landcare Grants ever given out in a single round.

These grants aim to inspire kids from across the country to get hands-on with projects that focus on sustainable food production, improving waste management practices or enhancing native habitats.

The grant can be used for:

• a habitat restoration project
• planting a bush tucker garden
• planting a vegetable garden
• running a composting or recycling project

Extra funding of up to $500 is available for projects that have a bee related component. This could include building and installing a native beehive, creating pollinator gardens featuring plants that attract bees, pollinator education programs, etc.

The Honda Foundation is funded by contributions from Honda Australia, private donors and more than 100 dealerships across the country. More than $10 million has so far been donated to hundreds of very worthy causes, including empowering disadvantaged Australians, providing relief for victims of natural disasters and supporting the development of new technologies and research to fight disease.

The Honda Foundation acts as a charitable trust, providing financial assistance to charities and organisations doing amazing work across a range of social and environmental issues. These include:

• Supporting the disadvantaged, disabled or those suffering from illness
• Relief for victims of natural disasters
• Promotion of innovation and new technologies
• The promotion, development and preservation of Australian culture

The Honda Foundation also provides a 12-month Loan Vehicle Program which includes registration, insurance and all servicing costs, and is capped at 20 loan vehicles at any one time.

Essential Energy’s Community Hall Program aims to give back to the local halls that make up the social fabric of regional, rural and remote NSW and provide a valuable venue for the provision of localised services for their surrounding areas.

Through the program, eligible halls can receive a $200 donation to put towards general maintenance costs for the hall.

Halls run by Council Section 355 Committees are eligible, however Councils are not eligible apply.

The foundation provides funding for two priority areas:

1. Children with physical &/or mental disabilities
Projects by community based organisations to support children with physical and/or mental disabilities or their carers, particularly projects seeking to address social isolation experienced by such children and their carers (Not including research projects).

2. Elderly people suffering mental disabilities

Projects by community based organisations to support elderly people suffering from mental disabilities (including dementia) or their carers, particularly projects seeking to address social isolation experienced by such elderly persons and their carers (Not including research projects).

The Sisters of Charity Foundation provides charity grants of up to $10,000 to organisations that use clever ways to fight poverty, loneliness, suffering and oppression, but struggle to find funding.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation favours programs that:

• restore hope and build dignity
• fall between the cracks of other funding sources
• are not associated with well established organisations with significant reserves and or are not capable of raising their own funds
• are not eligible for funding from government or other sources.

There are two rounds a year:

• March Grant Round - Opens 1st of February and Closes 31st of March
• September Grant Round - Opens 1st of August and Closes 30th of September

This program provides funding for organisations to deliver locally-driven projects, programs or activities that foster social inclusion for older people.

The grant program aims to support effective, self-sustaining projects that provide meaningful opportunities for older people to connect with each other and develop quality relationships.

For a project to be eligible, it must be aimed at older people aged 65 years and over, or 50 years and over for Aboriginal people, who are socially isolated or at risk of isolation. Projects should focus on bringing older people together in person through small group activities where possible.

The program encourages projects, programs and activities that seek to actively engage new people, particularly harder-to-reach socially isolated older people

This grant opportunity provides organisations, such as schools and community groups, funds to help young Australians to take part in:

• in-person and virtual STEM engagement events, activities and competitions in Australia and New Zealand (where permitted by COVID-19 restrictions)
• virtual STEM engagement events, activities and competitions activities and competitions overseas (student/s to participate remotely from Australia).

The grant is for up to 100% of eligible project costs. 

The greatest grant amount per student is:

•     $2000 for STEM events or activities within Australia
•     $5000 for international STEM events or activities.

As the foundation's purpose is “To provide support that helps, grows, and enriches our communities”, they have a clear focus on providing grants to reputable community-based charitable organisations which need funding for projects and initiatives designed to benefit as many people as possible.

Because most of the funding for The Harcourts Foundation is generously provided by Harcourts offices, they will only consider applications from groups for a specific event, project, item, or initiative where Harcourts has an office.

The NSW Government established the Community War Memorials Fund to help conserve, repair and protect war memorials across NSW. Since the establishment of the program in 2008, grants have been provided for a wide range of projects including conservation assessments, honour roll repair, war memorial cleaning and conservation work, arborist advice for war memorial trees, security measures for memorials, repairs to war memorial halls and improvements to the accessibility of memorials.

Two application rounds are run each year. The rounds open on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

In 2021 Assessment and notification of outcomes will be divided into 3 batches. The table below identifies the cut-off dates for all 3 batches:

1. 11:00 PM AEST on 10 June 2021.
2. 11:00 PM AEDT on 7 October 2021
3. 11:00 PM AEDT on 8 February 2022

Active Kids is a program to help NSW families meet the cost of getting their kids into sport and active fitness and recreation activities. The initiative aims to reduce barriers to participation and help change the physical activity behaviours of children and young people in NSW.

Every child (4.5 - 18 years’ old) enrolled in school from Kindergarten to Year 12 is eligible. This includes those who are home-schooled or enrolled in secondary school education at TAFE NSW.