Mercy Foundation: Grants to End Homelessness

Deadline: 14 October 2016

The Mercy Foundation is currently inviting applications for its Grants to End Homelessness 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.

Projects that focus on chronic homelessness and women who experience chronic homelessness are currently priority areas for funding.

Chronic homelessness is defined as an episode of homelessness lasting 6 months or longer or multiple episodes of homelessness over a 12 month period or more. People who experience chronic homelessness are likely to have ‘complex needs’, which usually means that they have one or more of the following:

developmental disability
traumatic brain injury
serious physical health problems
history of abuse or trauma
mental illness
mental disorder
psychiatric disability
addictions

Funding 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 in Australia.
Applicants must be able to specify measurable outcomes from the initiative.
Applicants must be a legal entity, such as an incorporated association or company.
They 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 women who are experiencing chronic homelessness
Projects that initiate and collaborate through strategic partnerships among funders, policymakers, business leaders, and government, housing and service providers are well regarded.
There must be measurable outcomes for the initiative.
Outcomes need to include 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 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 auspice by an appropriate organization.
Recurrent funding will not be offered.
The Mercy Foundation prioritizes projects that require seed funding and have potential to help build capacity and to create structural change.
The committee must be satisfied that the applicant organization has the competency and capacity to implement the project.