Your say
Our Community Matters • 6 •
Our grants survey is a win-win BY MATTHEW SCHULZ, JOURNALIST, OUR COMMUNITY
Securing funds for your all-important mission is rightly near the top of the agenda for every charity and not-for-profit in the country. And with an estimated $56 billion in grants distributed in Australia, and growing, it’s not surprising that groups are eager to know who’s winning the cash, how they’re getting it, and why. So, if putting in an application leaves you cold, that’s a big problem. And it’s one we’re working to solve at Our Community’s Innovation Lab. But we can’t do that without your help, which means filling out our annual grants survey – starting now! The 2017 Grants in Australia research study – based on our survey of more than 1200 notfor-profit representatives – revealed new trends about who is scooping up the billions, where funders and grantseekers are going wrong, and big gaps in how the money is handed out.
We found, for instance, that 54% of applications are abandoned, which means many not-forprofits are effectively wasting millions of dollars’ worth of effort by not applying for the right grants, and need to think twice about where they direct their limited resources. The annual survey is the only one of its kind in Australia, and having collected data since 2006, it is the most highly regarded source of information about grants trends in the country. The 2017 study was one of our most-read publications of the past year, and attracted keen interest from grantseekers and grantmakers – all the result of people like you saying what you really think about navigating grant applications. With the help of our data science team we’ve continued to improve how we collect, compile and model our results, so 2018’s results are expected to be even more eye-opening.
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