Bennelong Foundation’s Grant Program in Australia

Bennelong Foundation’s Grant Program

Deadline: 29-Jul-22

The Bennelong Foundation is seeking applications for its Grants Program to enhance community wellbeing and provide opportunities for positive and lasting change in their community.

Funding Areas
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
Exclusions: 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.
Types of Grants
In keeping with the Bennelong Foundation’s community & grass roots funding approach, they are seeking grants of up to $30,000 for maintain and grow grants.

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.
Target Communities
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.
Key Criteria
They strive to support causes, organisations and projects that possess the following principles and/or criteria:

Innovation and proactivity: They 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 their 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 their 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 their grants, they look towards organisations that are able to combine their 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: They try to support organisations that have the capacity to allow their staff to become involved in their organisation/projects, should they choose.
Low government or institutional support: Their preference is to assist organisations that receive little or no government funding and are not currently the benefactor of substantial philanthropic support.
Exclusions
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 (not relevant for the Bennelong Foundation UK).
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/fundingareas