Cooperative Initiatives Grants Program: 2025-2029 Grant Opportunity

Cooperation in the workplace has been shown to provide mutually reinforcing benefits for both businesses and workers through higher levels of economic output, better wages and conditions, and increased trust and retention. The Cooperative Initiatives Grants Program (the program) will fund organisations to partner with other organisations to collaboratively work to identify and resolve workplace issues and promote compliance and positive change across the spectrum of workplace participants.

The objectives of the program are:

• to promote harmonious, productive and compliant workplaces by fostering sustainable partnerships across the spectrum of workplace participants and cooperative engagement with the FWO
• to assist initial development of innovative multi-stakeholder mechanisms that will create systemic and long-lasting change
• to facilitate the provision of assistance to workers and employers covered by the federal workplace relations system.

The intended outcomes of the program are:

• to embed cooperative practices to monitor compliance and prevent non-compliance with Commonwealth workplace laws
• to build capacity of multi-stakeholder mechanisms to deliver meaningful, long-term improvements to workplace practices and relationships
• to prevent non-compliance with Commonwealth workplace laws, create systemic change and/or address drivers of non-compliance.

Eligibility:

The 2025-29 grant opportunity is only open to organisations that will join together as a group to deliver a collaborative project involving eligible grant activities that achieve the objectives and intended outcomes of the program.

To apply for this grant opportunity, a group of organisations must appoint a ‘lead organisation’. Only the lead organisation can submit the application form and enter into a grant agreement with the Commonwealth. 

To be eligible, the lead organisation must:

• have an Australian Business Number (ABN) 
• unless you are GST exempt, be registered for the purposes of GST 
• be located in Australia 
• have an account with an Australian financial institution 
• be a legal entity with the capacity to enter into a legally binding agreement or contract  
• be one of the following kinds of entities:
  • a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission  
  • a non-charitable not-for-profit  
  • an industrial association 
  • a peak council.