Australia: Bennelong Foundation’s Grant Program

Deadline: 31-Jul-20

The Bennelong Foundation is seeking applications for its Grant program to enhance community wellbeing and provide opportunities for positive and lasting change in the community.

• Education Training and Employment: Programs providing access, equity and inclusion opportunities to Education and Training or that support and build Pathways to Sustainable Employment.
  • Build numeracy and literacy skills for pre-school, primary school and secondary school students
  • Build numeracy and literacy skills for adolescents and adults
  • Building STEM capabilities for pre-school, primary school and secondary school students
  • Supporting student wellbeing and fostering school engagement
  • Scholarship, Internship or Bursary Program
  • Building interpersonal, employability and life skills for adolescents and adults (personal grooming, interview skills, and other workplace skills)
  • Mentoring and Coaching
  • Access to vocational training opportunities for adolescents and adults
  • Building learning skills through art or music programs
  • Programs providing access to entrepreneurial and business foundations
• Community Health and Wellbeing: To assist organisations that conduct programmes with the express purpose of improving the physical health, nutrition, and well-being of the Australian community.
  • Programs promoting participation in physical activity and sport
  • Improved nutrition intake
  • Programs promoting social inclusion and cohesion
  • Empowering communities and community development
  • Settlement and transition support for new Australians
  • Programs promoting cultural identity
  • Programs supporting family preservation

• Maintain grant: Supporting established and high impact programs continue to deliver.
• Grow grant: Supporting the growth or sustainability of an organisation, program or project. This may include requests to expand current programs, initiate new programs or programs that assist with growing need for the services your organisation provides.
• Innovate grant: Large multi-year grants for new projects – by invitation only.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• People with a refugee background, newly arrived migrants and culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Communities/groups experiencing socio-economic disadvantage ??

• Innovation and proactivity: The Foundation seek to support programs that respond to an identified area of need in the community that are presently not being addressed, or that take a new approach to problem solving. Ideally, such programs, if successful, should be able to be replicated in other locations or contexts.
• Change not charity: A focus on prevention is one of the main criteria. They endeavour to fund projects that address the causes of problems, rather than treat the symptoms.  Longevity and sustainability – they support projects and programs that will continue to have an impact over the long term and beyond the period of support. They also encourage programs that are able to become financially self-sustaining.
• Project-based and goal-orientated: The programs that they choose to fund must have strong and identifiable outcomes and key performance indicators over both the short and long term.
• Partnerships: To maximise the impact of the grants, they look towards organisations that are able to combine the funding with other sources. The ability to leverage financial support from other trusts, foundations, governments, businesses and volunteers is seen as an important criteria.  Administration – they look to make grants to organisations that have low administration costs and solid and proven administrative backing. Organisations with a strong volunteer program are also highly regarded.
• Bennelong Foundation involvement: The Foundation try to support organisations that have the capacity to allow the staff to become involved in their organisation/projects, should they choose.
• Low government or institutional support: The preference is to assist organisations that receive little or no government funding and are not currently the benefactor of substantial philanthropic support.

• Programs with the main focus on disability, mental health, and healthcare (i.e. programs directly addressing illness and disease) are not current priority areas for the Bennelong Foundation.
• Programs outside of Australia.
• Areas considered a direct responsibility of governments.
• General fundraising projects or appeals.
• Travel, study or conferences (unless incidental to a project being funded).
• Individuals.
• Other foundations, trusts, and philanthropic organisations to fund their general objectives.
• General maintenance or overhead expenses (unless part of a specific project).
• Applications with a religious, political or sectarian purpose.
• Funding deficiencies.

For more information, visit https://www.bennelongfoundation.com/application