NSW Wildlife Heroes Medium to Large Asset Grant Program (Australia)

Deadline: 11-Dec-22

The Wildlife Heroes is accepting applications for its Medium to Large Asset Grant Program to enable NSW volunteer wildlife rehabilitation groups (groups) and independents, who hold a Biodiversity Conservation Licence from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment National Parks & Wildlife Service (the Department), to acquire, build, repair or upgrade medium to large assets for use in wildlife rehabilitation.

The NSW Wildlife Heroes Medium to Large Asset grant program is managed by the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife with funding from the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.

This grant round is targeted towards medium to large assets that will improve the sector’s capacity to respond to the needs of wildlife in rehabilitation, and meet the Department’s standards as set out in its Codes of Practice. Extra consideration will be given to applications that request funds for assets that are: able to be relocated, have multiple functions and can be shared between multiple independents and / or groups.

Goals

The key goal of this grant round is to support groups and independents to acquire medium to large assets that will improve the sector’s capacity to respond to the needs of wildlife in rehabilitation. The grant round will:
- Enable groups and independents to bring existing medium to large enclosures in line with the Department’s Codes of Practice.
- Enable groups and independents to build or to purchase pre-made medium to large wildlife enclosures.
- Enable groups and independents to have a central storage structure dedicated to wildlife rehabilitation materials and alleviate pressure on individual volunteers to store items in their own homes.
- Encourage rehabilitators to consider versatility (relocatable, multi-purpose) when building enclosures, storage facilities and other assets to ensure the asset remains within the wildlife rehabilitation sector into the future.
- Enable groups and independents to purchase trailers that can be used to: relocate medium to large sized assets; be fitted with a removable enclosure; and / or used in emergency wildlife response.
- Enable groups and independents to purchase specialised assets that will result in positive wildlife welfare outcomes e.g., misting systems for bat colonies during heat stress, fitting out trailers for emergency wildlife response.

Funding Information

The total amount of funds available for allocation under this grant program is $160,000.
Grants made available through this program are one off.
The maximum funding available per application depends on whether the applicant is a group or independent.
Groups: The maximum grant available for groups is $15,000 per application, with one application only per group.
Independents: The maximum grant available for independents is $4,000 per application, with one application only per independent.

Outcomes

The round aims to achieve the following outcomes:
- Improve the capability and efficiency of groups and independents in their wildlife rehabilitation work.
- Increase the capacity of the wildlife rehabilitation sector to meet the demand for rehabilitation of wildlife that need medium to large sized enclosures.
- Improve and optimize outcomes for wildlife i.e., animal welfare and release back to wild

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants will be eligible for funding if they:
- are a NSW volunteer wildlife rehabilitator group or independent whose Biodiversity Conservation License begins with MWL,
- Have a total asset value of no more than $2M as of the last reporting period for the ACNC.
- Provide a safe workplace for volunteers. This will include a risk assessment relevant to: the use of the asset, and, the construction of the asset (where applicable). A template and examples will be provided.
- Hold Public Liability Insurance for a minimum of $10M
- Hold Voluntary Workers Insurance
- Have no outstanding grant reporting requirements with FNPW or the Department
Consideration will be given to:
- Medium to large sized pre-release and other rehabilitation enclosures that can be relocated e.g., macropod enclosure that can be moved to fresh pasture, possum pre-release enclosure mounted on a trailer
- Medium to large sized assets that are multi-purpose
- Medium to large sized assets that can be shared or used by multiple wildlife rehabilitator groups and / or independents
- Medium to large sized assets that contribute to broader regional needs for wildlife rehabilitation
- The applicant’s previous grant track record with Wildlife Heroes.