Up to $500,000 available under Visionary Grants (Australia)

Deadline: 1 September 2023

The Australian Ethical Foundation is accepting expressions of interest for its Visionary Grants to fund up to $500,000 in projects that create positive environmental and social impact in Australia and overseas, particularly those in the validation and start-up phase.

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In 2023, the Australian Ethical Foundation Visionary Grants program will continue to support early stage projects and ideas that have the potential for large impact in combatting climate change.

The Visionary Grants program works alongside the Strategic Grants program to ensure they can support a wide array of high impact, effective and innovative climate projects and solutions.

Focus Areas

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• Stopping Sources of Carbon
  • Australia is a global leader in the export of fossil fuels and livestock agriculture, so it’s important they shift domestic energy policies, energy creation and food supply towards cleaner solutions – while ensuring this process is equitable and empowering for all. They also need to ensure emissions from other important sectors, like transport and buildings, are rapidly reduced.
  • They are seeking initiatives in the following areas:
    • Adoption of new forms of energy production (e.g. renewables, storage, community energy development)
    • Sustainable food systems and land use (e.g. reducing food waste + miles, increasing plant-rich diets and alternative proteins, protecting natural ecosystems)
    • Waste treatment (e.g. recycling, methane digesters, waste-to-energy, composting)
    • Adoption of alternative and new forms of transport (e.g. EV’s, bicycles, walkable cities, transport efficiencies)
    • Enhancing material efficiencies and building sustainability (e.g. smart buildings, reduction in HFC’s, bioplastics, water management, clean cookstoves and biogas)
• Supporting Carbon Sinks
  • Temperate and tropical forests (green carbon) and seagrass meadows, tidal marshes and mangrove forests (blue carbon) sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon. They also provide vast biodiversity benefits for the planet, supporting most ecosystems that underpin life on earth.
  • They are seeking initatives in the following areas:
    • Protection and restoration of land sinks and the ecosystems + biodiversity they support (inc. tropical and temperate forests, grasslands, peatlands, First Nations environmental tenure and cultural practices)
    • Protection and restoration of coastal sinks, oceans and the ecosystems + biodiversity they support (inc. coastal wetlands, mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses, plastics)
    • Human engineered carbon sinks (inc. biochar, carbon capture)
• Empowering Women and Girls
  • Securing gender equality and advancing women’s wellbeing is the leading solution to addressing climate change. When levels of education rise, access to reproductive health care improves and women’s political, social and economic empowerment expand, women can control their family size and lives, curbing population growth and building healthier, more inclusive societies.
  • They are seeking initiatives in the following areas:
    • Improving access to education (inc. affordability, overcoming health and safety barriers, making schools more girl-friendly)
    • Improving access to healthcare
    • Securing women’s rights to voluntary, high quality family planning (inc. sexual and reproductive health services)
    • Supporting smallholder agricultural women farmers
• Other Areas
  • Alongside funding direct projects specifically targeting the issues outlined, they will also consider applicants using the following methods to drive broad systems change across the focus areas outlined:
    • Strategic climate and nature litigation
    • Advocacy campaigns and policy engagement
    • Community organising, community engagement and community empowerment
    • Research projects and communication of new methodologies and technologies

Funding Information

• Grant Size: $25,000 – $75,000
• Total Grant Pool: $500,000
• Projects can run for up to 2 years

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must have an ABN, an Australian bank account and be a not-for-profit organisation with relevant documentation to prove it.
• Organisations must be based in Australia, but can have their operations conducted overseas.
• They will prioritise support to early stage projects that need funding for validation or scaling.

For more information, visit Australian Ethical Foundation.