Mercy Foundation seeking EOIs for “Grants to End Homelessness” Program

Deadline: 7 October 2019

The Mercy Foundation is currently accepting Expressions of Interest Form (EOIs) for its “Grants to End Homelessness” program.

The Mercy Foundation Grants to End Homelessness are available for seeding initiatives, services, projects, advocacy and research that will contribute to the goal of ending homelessness by supporting housing first and permanent supportive housing solutions. The Foundation acknowledges that the majority of people experiencing homelessness in Australia do not have high or complex needs. They simply need access to affordable housing and few, if any, supports may be required. However, because our focus is on chronic homelessness – it is often this group of homeless individuals and families who do have additional support needs.

Grant Information

These will generally be larger grants (up to $50,000 for any one year) with grants likely to be averaging $20,000 – $30,000.

Eligibility Criteria

Grants to End Homelessness are only available for projects within Australia.
The criteria for the Mercy Foundation’s Grants to End Homelessness program are:
- All potential applicants must contact the Mercy Foundation to discuss their projects prior to submitting their application. Applicants are strongly urged to call the Mercy Foundation as early as possible, prior to the submission date.
- Grants are available for seeding initiatives, services, projects, advocacy and research that will contribute to the goal of ending homelessness by supporting housing first and permanent supportive housing solutions.
- Priority is given to applications that focus on ending chronic homelessness particularly for women.
- The Mercy Foundation prioritises projects that require seed funding and have potential to help build capacity and to create structural and systemic change and have capacity to continue after the funding period.
- The Mercy Foundation supports housing first and permanent housing solutions combined with appropriate support to help end homelessness and sustain housing.
- Projects that initiate and collaborate through strategic partnerships among funders, policymakers, business leaders, government, housing and service providers are well regarded.
- Outcomes need to demonstrate that the project has contributed to ending chronic homelessness or contributed substantially to increasing knowledge about pathways into and out of ending homelessness (thereby increasing our understanding of how to intervene early and end homelessness).
- Applications need to outline their evaluation strategy and make it clear how outcomes will be measured.
- Applicants must be a legal entity (incorporated association or company) or be auspiced by an appropriate organisation. Preference will be given to small and medium size charities
- The Mercy Foundation must be satisfied that the applicant organisation has the competency and capacity to implement the project.