Apply for a community grant

All applicants must apply at least two months prior to their activity start date to allow for grant assessment and processing time.

For example, if you require the grant for attendance to a leadership workshop in October, you must apply at least the close of the August round.

Please note:

• One successful application per individual per financial year
• Parents/guardians must apply for individuals under 18 years old.

Arts and culture applicants
Open to creative performers or artists.

Community leadership
An example for this category could be that you're attending a leadership development opportunity to support your community.

Sports and recreation competitions

Open to individuals representing at the State or National level in a sporting competition or

 Enabling increased participation and access to local sporting clubs registered the City of Whittlesea, to support people with accessible barriers (for example, people with disability and or experiencing financial hardship).

Sustainable environment initiatives
Open to all individuals.

Individual grants are available monthly for up to $1,000.

The following items are eligible for individual grant funding:

• Creative costs or expenses
• Registration fees
• Course fees delivered by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO)
• Travel and accommodation - up to $500 per application
• Clothing or uniforms, up to $250 per application
• Materials and equipment, up to $500 per application.

• Computer equipment
• School, TAFE or Uni fees
• Local travel related costs (for example, petrol)
• No grant will be funded retrospectively.

It is essential for your application to have supporting documents as priority will be given to applicants with all supporting documentation. In addition, Council staff will contact third parties to verify details of your application where required.

The following supporting information is needed:

Arts and culture

• Artist’s CV and/or a statement of artistic or creative experience
• Evidence of the opportunity relevant to their art or cultural practice. 

Community leadership

• A demonstrated history of volunteering, participation and taking leadership in the community/ community group.
• Evidence of the leadership development opportunities to support their community.
• Courses that are delivered by a Registered Training Organisation. 

Sports and recreation competitions 

• Evidence of financial need (e.g. Healthcare card holder or disability support payment).
• Evidence of pending selection in the event/ competition - payment will be made upon confirmation
• Evidence of registration pending membership payment with a local sporting club
• The list of costs to participate. 
  
  

Sustainable environment initiatives

In line with the sustainable environment vision, the applicant must complete:

• a project plan of the initiative they want to achieve
• clear objectives of the plan
• impact of the initiative
• list of costs.

Our online grant application service is powered by SmartyGrants.

Apply for an individual grant

If you have any questions about the grant application process, email the Community Grants team on community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or phone 03 9217 2170.

Small, medium and large grants offer support to social enterprises, not-for-profit community groups, organisations and businesses to undertake activities that have a broad community benefit.

Eligible applicants are encouraged to apply for grants to deliver projects and events that have a community benefit in line with the Whittlesea 2040 vision:

• Connected Community
• Liveable Neighbourhoods
• Strong Local Economy
• Sustainable Environment

All small, medium and large grants have three sub-categories:

• Projects
  Community groups, social enterprises and businesses have the opportunity to apply for grants to deliver projects that meet any of the Whittlesea 2040 vision noted above. 
  
  
• Events and/or festivals
  To celebrate our diverse community, eligible applicants are encouraged to apply to run events or festivals that celebrate who you represent in the City of Whittlesea. Applications for events must ensure it meets all the Festival and Events requirements including:
  • traffic management strategy
  • health and safety considerations and permits where applicable
  • risk management strategy
  • communications and/or media plan

• Building projects or capital works
  

  To support community groups and organisations that own property in the City of Whittlesea, grants are available for the type of works that include:

  • permanent fixtures
  • extensions
  • capital improvements such as installation of heating and cooling systems, shade sales, solar panels, portable buildings, safety rails or accessibility upgrades

  The grant is not available for maintenance of building projects or capital works.

  Applicants are encouraged to apply six months in advance for their proposed event to ensure it meets all requirements for the Festival and Events approval. Events applied for must be delivered in the following quarter. For example, an applicant has an event in August. The application must be submitted by end of April quarter.

The following eligibility requirements must be met to apply for grants:

• be a registered Not-for-profit classified by the Australian Tax Office
• be an incorporated group with evidence of incorporated association number
• be a social enterprise,
• be a businesses
• be a school or university 

Eligibility Conditions 

All applicants must have at a minimum the following:

• a current Australian Business Number (ABN)
• public and professional liability insurances covering the project or event with a minimum of $20 million coverage
• provide all supporting documentation to support your application including quotes for budgeted items $500 and over 
• applications submitted with an event or project start date in the notification period of the grant applied, will not be considered

To enable equitable distribution and consideration for all groups who are applying for these grants the following requirements for co-contribution is mandatory for all applicants as follows:

Co-contribution will be required for small, medium and large grant categories only with the following requirements per entity type:

1. Not-for-profit groups and organisations

Applicants with an annual turnover or gross income of $300,000 or more per year, must match the grant amount applied for dollar for dollar. This can be in the form of:

• cash contributions
• grants from other funding bodies
• in-kind support (venue, donated goods, services)
• volunteer hours.

2. Businesses and social enterprise

Businesses that apply or auspice other applicants for grants must invest and match the same amount of funding they are applying for dollar for dollar.

For example, if an event company agrees to auspice a not- for-profit group, then the business with a commercial gain must agree to match the funding amount requested by the not-for-profit group dollar for dollar.

3. Schools, Universities and other Educational Institutions

Co-contribution must match dollar for dollar in the form of:

• cash contributions,
• staff time towards the initiative,
• grants from other funding bodies.

4. Groups that do not include a profit or loss statement will be required to meet co-contributions according to their entity type.

The list below shows some examples of what can be funded. What can be funded is not limited to these items, as long as the items don’t fall under ‘What won’t be funded’ or are ineligible.

1. Venue Hire for non-Council facilities and venues

Eligible for 30% of the grant amount up to a maximum of $1,500.00, whichever amount is lower.

Please note, groups and organisations currently receiving a discounted venue hire with Council are not eligible to apply for venue hire towards Council venues and facilities.

2. External Facilitator or Presenter Fees

3. Portable Equipment – not fixed or permanent

Purchases for equipment are eligible for 50% up to $5,000, whichever amount is lower.

For example: if you apply for a $20,000 grant, you may be approved for a maximum of 50% of the equipment requested, up to $5,000 (whichever amount is lower). If your application includes equipment that is $15,000 you may be funded up to $5,000 of the purchase price. Or if you apply for a grant for a project and are purchasing a speaker and microphone that cost $1,500, your grant would only cover 50% of the purchase cost.

4. Entertainment Hire

5. Project Materials

6. Advertising and Printing

7. Artists and Creative fees and costs

8. Pilot for new projects or services

9. Building projects, capital works

Permanent fixtures, extensions, capital improvements (such as heating or cooling systems, shade sails, solar panels, portable buildings etc)

Due to the limited pool of funding, priority will be given to organisations or incorporated groups only operating and delivering services in the City of Whittlesea.

The following are activities, projects or events Council will not fund across small, medium and large grants:

1. Day to day operational expenses - Includes core business that are part of the applicant’s everyday expense or business as usual. For example, salaries or wages, insurances, electricity, lease or rent payments etc. This includes salaries to deliver the program or event under this grant application.

2. Regular activities - For example, if a group applies for morning tea for their group who meet regularly, this is not a new project or event. However, groups can apply for events that are may be for a day of significance, for example: Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, cultural celebrations or for a Neighbour Day initiative.

3. Requests for building projects, capital works or facility maintenance to Council owned buildings or properties

4. Gambling or alcohol - In line with Council’s Gambling Strategy and Action Plan, grant applications for projects or events held in venues that have both an electronic gaming machine license and liquor license will not be funded.

5. More than two approved applications per applicant per year - To ensure and fair and equitable distribution of grants, organisations are limited to two approved applications per year. Organisations can apply as many times as they would like but will only be approved for 2 grant applications per year.

6. Auspice organisations supporting more than four other applications

7. Political activities - Council Grants can not be used by or for political party activities or initiatives.

8. Projects or events already completed

9. Projects or activities that are the responsibility of the State or Federal Government - Applicants can include State or Federal government funding as co-contribution in their application. For example, if a School or University apply for a grant, they must make transparent aspects of the project covered through their own contributions.

10. Catering not integral to the project or event - Applicants applying for catering not linked to the purpose of the event cannot be funded. For example, catering for a group who meet regularly to cover morning tea is not integral, however, community groups meeting to share a meal due to Ramadan or other significant cultural event would be considered integral to the event.

11. Fireworks and burning of materials

12. Travel expenses or accommodation

13. Gifts, vouchers, prizes, trophies, scholarships, donations, other grant programs

14. Activities, events or projects that do not comply with relevant Federal, State and Local government legislation

15. Activities that duplicate an existing Council Program

16. Events, activities or projects that are not open to the public.

Grants offered through Small, Medium and Large Grants are selected through a competitive process against the following assessment criteria and weighting of each criteria as follows:

Small grants

Up to $5,000 in grant funding will be assessed at the end of every month. Notifications occur approximately six weeks after the end of the application month.

Medium grants

Up to $20,000 in grant funding will be allocated quarterly for medium grants. Notifications occur approximately six weeks after the round has closed.

Large grants

Up to $40,000 in grant funding will be allocated quarterly for large grants. Notifications occur approximately six weeks after the round has closed.

Our online grant application service is powered by SmartyGrants.

Apply for the grant

If you have any questions about the grant application process, email the Community Grants team on community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or phone 03 9217 2170.

Applications for the unincorporated grants must fulfil the following eligibility requirements:

• the group has been meeting on a regular basis for at least six months at the time of application
• the group has a minimum of six members
• a minimum of 50% of members reside in the City of Whittlesea
• the group is established in the City of Whittlesea
• the group has Rules of Association of a Statement of Purpose or a Mission Statement
• unincorporated groups can only apply once for this grant.

Unincorporated group grants are available quarterly for up to $1,000. 

Items that can be funded under the unincorporated group grant include:

• public Liability Insurance to cover organisation/group
• incorporation costs
• materials and equipment to support organisation set-up
• group promotion and member recruitment
• costs for regular meeting venues
• costs to set up a webpage
• facilitators to support development of strategic plans, governance systems
• costs of activities associated with starting up a social/business enterprise.

The following won't be funded for unincorporated grants:

• groups of a political nature
• groups already incorporated
• incomplete applications
• Consumer Affairs Victoria Incorporation fees and charges 
• costs for meeting venues that are located in a place promoting gambling or serving alcohol.

Community Group Benefit – 40%

The group demonstrates how the group will benefit City of Whittlesea residents.

This may include demonstrating how the group meets a need identified in the community.

Creating social cohesion – 40%

The group is to benefit members by increasing a sense of belonging.

Budget – 20%

The budget must align to setting up the organisation to obtain incorporation. Items requested in the budget clearly demonstrates the group will seek incorporation over the next 12 months.

The following documents will be required as part of your unincorporated group grant application:

• quotes for costs associated with setting up your group
• list of members including their residential suburbs
• group Rules of Association or Statement of Purpose or Mission Statement
• a business plan showing the proposed start up social/business enterprise
• evidence supporting your proposed business plan or project - this could include (but not limited to) minutes of a meeting confirming proposed move to start up a social/business enterprise. 

Our online grant application service is powered by SmartyGrants.

Apply for an unincorporated grant

If you have any questions about the grant application process, email the Community Grants team on community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or phone 03 9217 2170.

Emergency grants are open to:

• not-for-profit community groups
• incorporated organisations
• social enterprises
• businesses.

Emergency grants are up to $1,000 in total and are assessed as the need arises.

Emergency grants are for:

• reducing financial impact of emergency and unforeseen events
• enabling eligible applicants to continue to operate or quickly return to normal operations. 

In addition to the items on page fifteen of the guidelines, emergency grants are excluded from funding:

• emergency initiatives already delivered in the community by other key organisations of the State
• insurance excess for covered event.

Emergency grant applications are assessed by the following:

• Impact on normal operations
  Applicants need to show evidence of how the event occurred and its detrimental effect on normal operations. 
  
  
• Financial hardship or risk fee will create for the applicant
  Applicants need to describe how the fees incurred due to the emergency event will create financial hardship or risk. Applicants will need to provide evidence of their financial status by means of:
  • bank statements
  • proof of loss
  • recent copy of financial accounts or
  • letter of current standing from a financial account.
• How the community will be impacted if normal operations are interrupted
  Applicants need to describe how their normal services/activities help their local community. 

The following supporting documents need to be included with your application:

• quotes
• evidence of current financial status
• other documents relevant to the proposed emergency project or activity.

Our online grant application service is powered by SmartyGrants.

Apply for an emergency grant

If you have any questions about the grant application process, email the Community Grants team on community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or phone 03 9217 2170.

To ensure fair and equitable consideration towards all applications submitted, all grant types will have the following mandatory conditions included:

1. Declaration of Conflict of Interest

To ensure fairness and transparency a Declaration of a Conflict of Interest must be completed by all applicants who are affiliated with Council with any of the following roles:

• Councillor
• Council staff
• Volunteer
• appointed to committee or working group
• contractor or consultant.

2. Acknowledge Council support

All grant recipients are required to acknowledge Council for their support. Acknowledgement requirements will be set out in the ‘Conditions of Grant’ once a grant is approved and offered.

3. Grant Acquittals summary

Grant acquittals are the last step of the grant process where you have completed your project or event, and you provide a report on how the grant money was spent and how successful your activity was. This is also a great opportunity to showcase your activity through photos, videos and other media. Acquittals must be completed to:

• capture the great initiatives delivered across City of Whittlesea through grants
• be sure successful grant recipients use the grants for the intended purpose applied for
• show the impact of your project or event to the community through stories, photos, media and other means (eg web links, Youtube links, posts etc).
• confirm how you used the grant money, provide receipts and return any unspent funds.

4. Consent

Through the eligibility check and assessment process, Council will seek consent to contact third parties noted in your application in order to verify details where required.

To facilitate delivering all year grants that are open and competitive, if consent is not provided at the application stage and we cannot verify information on your application, priority will be given to applicants who have provided all information and consent to liaise with third parties.

Contact with third parties noted in your application will be to verify only details specific to your application for the grant, where required.

An auspice organisation is an incorporated organisation that can receive and manage a group’s grant money on their behalf. The auspice organisation will sign the ‘Conditions of Grant’ agreement and will take responsibility of the expenditure of funds and make sure the project or event is successfully completed or delivered.

The auspice group or organisation will be required to meet all eligibility requirements for the grant, except the co-contribution requirements if your organsation is a not-for-profit or incorporated association. That is, if you agree to auspice another group, you do not need to meet the co-contribution requirements unless you are a business.

If the application is approved for funding, the auspice will be required to sign the Conditions of Grant to agree to manage the grant funds and accept legal accountability for the funds ensuring the funds are spent for the purpose of the grant. The auspice will also be required to meet all reporting requirements. An auspice organisation is limited to auspice a maximum of four other applicants throughout the year.

An Aupsice letter should include:

1. Date (not more than 12 months old)
2. Auspice organisation name and ABN
3. Applicant name
4. Grant type
5. Project or event name
6. Grant amount applied for and
7. Signed by the correct delegate in the auspice organisation (with their contact details included).

Click below to view an auspice template:

Auspice letter template(DOCX, 23KB)

It is essential for your application to have supporting documents as priority will be given to applicants with all supporting documentation.

Quotes

Any quotes provided must have the following details:

• ABN details of the organisation or company providing the quote
• an itemised break-down of what is included and costs
• screen shots of online quotes with the website address included in the screen shot and name of business
• budgeted items costing $1,500 and over must provide a minimum of 3 quotes demonstrating comparative market costs.

Letters of support

Any letter of support you provide must have the following details:

• provided on letterhead or email from supporting group
• acknowledgement of the support for your group name, grant type and grant event or project title you are applying for
• the reason they support your grant
• signed off by the authorised contact of the support group or organisation and their contact details.

All applications for our grants will be on-line through SmartyGrants. You will require an email address to apply for the grants. This email address will be the main form of communication for any details regarding your application, conditions of grant, grant variations and acquittal.

How to complete the application form

On every screen (page of the form) you will find a Form Navigation contents box, this links directly to every page of the application. Click the link to jump directly to the page you want.

You can also click ‘next page’ or ‘previous page’ on the top or bottom of each page to move forward or backward through the application.

Saving your draft application

If you want to save an application and return to it later, press ‘save and close’ and log out. When you log back in and click on the ‘My Submissions’ link at the top of the screen (see image below), you will find a list of any applications you have started or submitted. You can reopen your draft application and start where you left off. 

You can also download any application, whether draft or completed, as a PDF. Click on the ‘Download PDF’ button located at the bottom of the last page of the application form.

Submitting your application

You will find a Review and submit button at the bottom of the Navigation Panel. You need to review your application before you can submit it.

Once you have reviewed your application you can submit it by clicking on ‘Submit’ at the top or bottom of the screen or on the navigation panel. You will not be able to submit your application until all the compulsory questions are completed and there are no validation errors.

Once you have submitted your application, no further editing or uploading of support materials is possible.

When you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of your submitted application attached. This will be sent to the email you used to register.

Attachments and support documents

You may need to upload/submit attachments to support your application. This requires you to have the documents saved on your computer, or on a storage device.

You need to allow enough time for each file to upload before trying to attach another file. Files can be up to 25MB each; however, we do recommend trying to keep files to a maximum of 5MB – the larger the file, the longer the upload time.

Completing an application in a group/team

A number of people can work on an application using the same log in details as long as only one person is working at a time. Ensure you save as you go.

Confirmation of submission

You should receive an email confirming your grant application was submitted. If you do not receive a confirmation email, check your spam or junk email folder. If you can’t find the email, your application is not submitted, double check in Smarty Grants.

If you are applying for a grant as an individual, it is best to apply for an individual grant. Please consider the individual grant streams in the community grant guidelines and apply under the appropriate stream.

If your group, business or organisation is applying for a grant, the answer to this question will depend on how much funding your organisation is seeking.

Filling in your organisation and contact details and getting supporting document together will take time, however we recommend allocating your time for the grant application in proportion to the importance of each assessment criteria.

Assessment criteria and their weighting can be found in the Community Grant guidelines(PDF, 2MB):

• Individual grants – page 9
• Unincorporated Group grants – page 10
• Emergency grants – page 11
• Small, Medium and Large grants – page 16-18

Notifications occur approximately 6 weeks after the close of the grant round.

See the tables below for further information (also on page 20 of the guidelines). 

Medium, large and unincorporated group grants (quarterly)

Small and individual grants (monthly)

Please note, if your notification date occurs on a weekend or public holiday, your notification will occur on the following working day.

Grant notifications occur approximately 6 weeks after the close of the grant round. After notification, we send out the Conditions of Grant and once you have signed it, we forward the information to our finance team for payment. If we have never paid you before, it can take up to 3 weeks to be paid (after we receive the conditions of grant).

For example, if you apply for a large grant on 30 November, the round closes on 31 December and you can expect notification in mid-February. If your Conditions of Grant is received at the end of February, it may still take a few weeks for payment.

We encourage all applicants to plan ahead to ensure they have allowed sufficient time for payment of the grant before the event date.

Council shows its support for community groups who receive the community rate for Council venues; consequently there is no waiver process for venue hire.

The grant must be applied for and awarded before the project or event date. We do not fund grants retrospectively.

City of Whittlesea Community Grants will only fund projects or events held in the City of Whittlesea.

Budget items that are under $500 do not require quotes, however quotes indicate to the management panel that planning has occurred for your project or event. Quotes are only mandatory for budget items over $499, however it is worthwhile noting that there is a limited pool of funding for Community Grants, and they are competitive with other organisations who are applying for the same funding. Any budget items over $1,500 will require three quotes to be provided.

If your budget item is unique and you cannot find other quotes, you can provide quotes for similar items along with an explanation. For example, if your quote is for a specific cultural service, please provide quotes for other similar cultural services along with an explanation of why the quotes are not for the same item.

An example of in-kind contributions can be staff or volunteer hours, venue hire, or donated goods and services, funding received from other bodies - you cannot double dip.  Funding from other sources must not fund what you have asked the City of Whittlesea grant to fund.

Anything that is part of your group’s regular activities and not annual, is considered a regular event.  

Grants are awarded exclusive of GST.

Payment for gifts, vouchers, trophies, prizes etc are not able to be funded under the guidelines. We encourage you to seek alternate funding for these items and to look at page 15 of the guidelines for other items that can’t be funded.

Your grant can be used to cover traffic or project management, with a valid quote if the amount is $500 or over or 3 quotes if the amount is over $1,500. Council does not provide event traffic or project management as part of our services.

All Councillors, staff, volunteers, contractors or consultants are required to declare their conflict of interest when applying for City of Whittlesea Community Grants. If in doubt, please contact the Grants Team or err on the side of caution when you submit your application.

More information about conflict of interest can be found at vpsc.vic.gov.au/ethics-behaviours-culture/conflict-of-interest/types-of-conflict-of-interest-and-duty/ 

This is outlined in your Conditions of Grants form. The general rule is that the more money you receive, the more acknowledgement requirements you will have. For example, large grants require groups to invite Councillors to present a speech at the event.

You can run an event or project that is targeted towards a specific group however it should be open for any member of the community to attend. Council will not fund projects or events that show discrimination.

You can add additional contacts if you are partnering with another organisation so that people at the other organisation can enquire about or act for the grant.

Grants assessors will be from a range of teams across council. Subject Matter Experts will also review the application and provide their recommendation to the Management Panel for decision on your application.

Co-contributions are required for businesses, schools, educational institutions or not-for-profit groups or organisations exceeding $300,000 gross annual income. Groups that do not include a profit or loss statement will be required to meet co-contributions according to their entity type.

Co-contributions for:

• Not-for-profits can be in-kind support (eg volunteer hours, venue hire, grant from other funding bodies etc).
• Schools, Universities and other Educational Institutions can be in the form of cash contributions, staff time towards the initiative or grants from other funding bodies.
• Businesses must match funding as a dollar-for-dollar contribution. 

If you don’t have $20 million public liability insurance, you can consider hiring a Council facility and asking to include the public liability insurance associated with facility hire. You will need to speak to the facilities team to find out if you are eligible. Alternatively, you can consider partnering with another organisation with appropriate insurance and being auspiced by them.

If you are being auspiced by another organisation, you will need the auspice organisation to write a letter to confirm the auspice arrangement.

The auspice letter should include:

1. Date (not more than 12 months old)
2. Auspice organisation name and ABN
3. Applicant name
4. Grant type
5. Project or event name
6. Grant amount applied for and
7. Be signed by the correct delegate in the auspice organisation (with their contact details included).

Click below to view an auspice template:

Auspice letter template(DOCX, 23KB)

If you or your organisation has an outstanding acquittal for a City of Whittlesea grant you are ineligible to apply for another grant. We recommend completing your outstanding acquittal before submitting your new application to avoid disappointment. 

Similarly to your Conditions of Grant, your acquittal will be sent to you on Smarty Grants. User guides can be found on the Smarty Grants website - Acquittals

There will be no direct feedback for acquittals unless it is requested by the organisation who is acquitting. Project or event outcomes will be summarised, collated and reported to Council with others in the same quarter.

Information about our upcoming information sessions and grant writing workshops can be found on our website - www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/grants. If you cannot find information there, we recommend signing up to our eNews for the latest information Subscribe to receive Community Grants information from the City of Whittlesea. 

If you need to reset your password, visit the City of Whittlesea Smarty Grants page at Home Page - City of Whittlesea (or copy and paste: whittlesea.smartygrants.com.au) and go to the ‘log in’ screen.

From there click the ‘forgot your password’ link (highlighted below) and follow the prompts.

If the person who applied for the grant has left your organisation and they weren’t using a shared email address, please email the Community Grants team at community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au. In your email, please explain the situation and provide new contact details (name, position in organisation, email and phone number) for the new grant contact.

After reading the community grant guidelines and the FAQ, if you are unable to find an answer to your question and still need help, please contact our friendly team. We can be contacted by emailing community.grants@whittlesea.vic.gov.au or calling Council on 03 9217 2170 and asking to speak to the Community Grants team.