Deadline: 20-May-2024
If you’re an Australian community organisation or a social enterprise working to create inclusive employment opportunities for people facing barriers to work, you can apply for an Inclusive Employment Grant.
The Inclusive Employment Grant (IEG) is a two-year grant of $50,000 to support community organisations and social enterprises that:
- create meaningful Award Wage Jobs and/or Training Opportunities for individuals and communities facing complex barriers to mainstream work or Self-Employment for people in the priority groups
- are currently earning revenue through trading of goods and services and want to strengthen their business model and build greater financial resilience and sustainability in delivering their social mission
Grant partners will also receive non-financial support including:
- being matched with a Westpac Community Ambassador to help access a broad range of networking, leadership, business strategy, governance and financial capability programs
- opportunities to build their capacity to measure and report on a range of key employment, capability and financial sustainability outcomes as part of an impact study on the IEG program
Priorities and Focus Areas for the Inclusive Employment Grant
- Westpac Foundation prioritises organisations that create Award Wage Jobs and/or Training Opportunities for people facing complex barriers to mainstream work or Self-Employment, that benefit one or more of the following listed priority groups:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
- Culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds including refugee and asylum seekers
- Women experiencing disadvantage
- Young people (greater than 15 years of age)
- People that are homeless or at risk of homelessness
- People who have experienced family and/or domestic violence
- People living with a disability (including carers)
- People living with a mental health issue (including carers)
- People who have been incarcerated or have had contact with the criminal justice system
- Long term unemployed and experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage
- Living in rural and remote areas
- They also prioritise those social enterprises and job-focused community organisations that are building skills and career pathways in jobs-rich growth sectors such as the technology care, and green economy.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for consideration for the IEG, your organisation must satisfy all the following criteria. These requirements continue throughout the duration of the grant’s two-year term and are a pre-requisite for any grant payment.
- Deductible Gift Recipient Status
- Is your organisation currently endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR-1 status) and registered with Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) or Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC)?
- Note: Organisations that have an existing auspicing arrangement in place may be eligible on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Westpac Foundation prior to starting an application.
- Mission and Priority Groups
- Does your organisation exist to create meaningful Award Wage Jobs and/or Training Opportunities for people facing complex barriers to mainstream work or Self-Employment, that benefit one or more of the listed priority groups?
- Note: They also prioritise those social enterprises and job-focused community organisations that are building skills and career pathways in jobs-rich growth sectors such as in the care, technology and green economies.
- If your target group is children 0-15 years, please refer to St.George Foundation, Bank of Melbourne Foundation and/or BankSA Foundation.
- Annual Revenue
- Your organisation (that is applying for the IEG and not the parent entity or any other related entity) has (in the previous financial year):
- annual gross revenue of more than $100,000 and less than $5 million (as submitted to the ACNC or ORIC).
- a minimum trading revenue of $50,000 as submitted to the ACNC or ORIC (trading revenue is defined as income from trading of goods and services).
- Note: If the trading enterprise is part of a larger non-profit parent or other related entity these revenue eligibility limits apply to the trading enterprise only, not the parent entity or any other related entity. If this is the case (and, separate financials are not submitted to the ACNC or ORIC for the trading enterprise) you will be required to contact Westpac Foundation via email before submitting an application to check your eligibility. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you will then need to provide a summary (in PDF format) of the separate financial profit and loss statements for both the parent entity or any other related entity and the trading enterprise.
- Stage of Enterprise
- Is your organisation applying for the IEG to support an existing (not start-up) organisation or enterprise to increase its trading income from goods and services to achieve greater financial resilience and sustainability to deliver its social mission?
- Deductible Gift Recipient Status
Ineligible
- Your organisation is not requesting grant funding for any of the following excluded items:
- Rescue services
- Animal Welfare
- Medical research
- Programs promoting religion
- Charity works outside of Australia
- Sponsorship or fundraising activities
- Contributions towards capital projects, major equipment and refurbishments that are reliant on other funding and approvals yet to be obtained in order to be completed
For more information, visit Westpac Foundation.