Finding grants

It is an imperative of all contemporary not-for-profit organisations that they maximise their income from the full range of potential sources. The four primary ways that not-for-profits raise income in Australia are:
1. Donations, sponsorships and fundraising
2. Service provision
3. Sale of goods
4. Government funding from federal, state and local sources

Fundraising strategies must capitalise on each and every one of these sources in order to stay afloat in a tightening economy.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, during the 2006-2007 financial year not-for-profit organisations received $74.5 billion in income.

The main source of income for these organisations was funding from federal, state and local government, which accounted for just over a third, 34.1 per cent or $25.4 billion of total income.

This funding is delivered in two main streams; one is volume based funding- such as per student or per client – and the other is in grant funding programs. In the 2006-2007 financial year over two thirds of total government funding to not-for-profits was volume based, 68.1 per cent or $17.3 billion. Both volume based and non-volume based funds are accessible through grant funding programs.

With so many grants available, there are likely to be funding opportunities for your organisation you are unaware of.

After years of working in the sector, Stuart Reid and Sally Hunter recognised the need for a low cost, time efficient, simple way of finding government grants and created an online searchable database for government and philanthropic sources of funding.

FundBase uses the searcher’s critical details such as; organisation type, project type, funding need and geographical location to instantly sift through more than 2,500 entries to provide a report of the applicable grants and funding programs.

This short-listing system typically saves days of searching through government and membership websites, working through each grant to assess its relevance to your organisation’s work.

“I also write grants, so I know what a labour intensive process it is. Trawling through different organisations’ websites takes ages which is time that can be spent writing or actually doing your organisations’ good work,” co-founder Sally Hunter says.

“While there are other websites that list grants, FundBase is not limited by a jurisdiction, such as a membership base or a type of funding that we can list; by contrast we offer the fundseeker an unbiased and unfettered range of government and private funding opportunities in one location. What’s more, you only pay for searches you use, starting from as little as $16.50 each (when you buy a package of ten). The database is updated daily and we also offer a money back guarantee if a search generates a zero result,” she says.

Third Sector readers are offered a free search when they purchase a package of three searches at www.fundbase.com.au/thirdsector.aspx and select Third Sector as the referral.

Michelle Perl

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