Deadline: 27 July 2018

The Bennelong Foundation is inviting applications for its grant program with an aim to enhance community wellbeing and provide opportunities for positive and lasting change in community.

Focus 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.
• 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 ​​

Principles and/or Criteria

• Innovation and proactivity: The foundation seeks to support programmes 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 programmes, if successful, should be able to be replicated in other locations or contexts.
• Change not charity: A focus on prevention is one of foundation’s main criteria. The foundation endeavors to fund projects that address the causes of problems, rather than treat the symptoms. Longevity and sustainability – foundation supports projects and programmes that will continue to have an impact over the long term and beyond period of support. The foundation also encourages programmes that are able to become financially self-sustaining.
• Project-based and goal-orientated: The programmes that they choose to fund must have strong and identifiable outcomes and key performance indicators over both the short and long term.
• Partnerships: To maximize the impact of foundation’s grants, they look towards organizations that are able to combine funding with other sources. The ability to leverage financial support from other trusts, foundations, governments, businesses and volunteers is seen as 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 programme 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: The foundation’s preference is to assist organizations that receive little or no government funding and are not currently the benefactor of substantial philanthropic support.

How to Apply

Applicants can submit their Expression of Interest via given website.

Eligible Country: Australia

For more information, please visit Bennelong Foundation Grants.