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About our grants

 

What we will fund

We will consider fixed term funding for projects to develop, test and grow innovations in disability inclusion. We will fund work that creates new models of inclusion, where people with disability are able to develop and exercise their personal authority to take up active, contributing roles in communities and activities of their choice.

We will fund great, new and disruptive ideas, from start-up stage through to scale up. Our preference is to support innovations that have been identified by people with disability to address the issues experienced by the disability community.

We will also consider projects that adapt and customise proven models of inclusion to new contexts and environments.

We will look to address needs identified by people with disability.

Grant applications should either:

  1. Present ideas developed or identified by people with disability through codesign with people with disabilities, or
  2. Address areas identified by our engagement with people with disability, which include:
    • Community attitudes.
    • Accessibility – including physical access, communications and the online environment.
    • Transport.
    • Housing.
    • Education.
    • Employment.
    • Services – including access, quality and choice.
    • Regional issues.
    • Intersectionality.

These needs may change over the period of the strategy, depending on what the disability community tells us.

Applications must demonstrate scope to influence policy or practice beyond the direct impact of the grant. This could be via advocacy, through production of shareable resources (such as learning and methodologies) or through demonstration projects that are scalable and replicable.

 

Who will we fund

We will fund:

  • Social purpose organisations (including not-for-profits, social enterprises, universities and governments) who demonstrate an existing commitment to inclusion through engagement of people with disability in recognised roles in governance and/or workforce. This inclusion must be in place before you will be considered for a grant.
  • Individuals with disability (see separate guidelines on our grants to individuals).

We will consider joint (or consortium) applications from two or more organisations. We will also consider auspicing arrangements for organisations who are not formally constituted or who lack the internal capacity to manage all aspects of grant delivery, financial administration and reporting.

 

Where we fund

We are based in South Australia and most of our grants are awarded to organisations based in SA, for the benefit of South Australians with disability.

We will fund organisations which are based interstate, and projects delivering national or interstate activities, but they must include some SA-based activity.

 

How much we fund, and for how long

We do not have a fixed minimum or maximum grant size. In financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24, grants ranged in size between $8,000 and $230,000. We will make multi-year grants, up to a maximum of three years.

 

What we don’t fund

Our focus on inclusion means we will not fund activities that involve segregated settings or segregation by stealth (e.g. so-called inclusive groups which primarily engage people with disabilities alongside a smaller number of non-disabled people). We will only consider projects where people with disability are the sole target cohort and where the focus of the project is to build the capacity of people with disability to participate as active, contributing members of communities. For example, we have previously supported a peer-mentoring service to support people with disability to build their personal and professional capacity to engage in the activities and communities of their choice.

We will not fund standard welfare services, disability supports, or activities that should be funded by government. This includes supports that should be funded under NDIS and individual advocacy services. We will not fund capital costs that should be funded by government (including local government) or by organisations, where these relate to meeting core accessibility requirements (e.g. ramps, accessible vehicles etc).

1. Applying for funding

 

Before you apply

We strongly encourage you to contact us before you prepare your grant application. We are very happy to discuss our grant program with you and your idea (or ideas) for a project. This can help you to focus on an initiative with a stronger chance of receiving funding and avoid spending time on an application with a limited chance of success.

 

Application format

You can apply using the online form on our website. Alternatively, you can download a Word or PDF version of the form available on the ‘Grant Application‘ page. We will also accept applications via video or over the phone. Please let us know if you need any support in completing your application.

 

Preparing your application

Please read through these guidelines before you start your application, so you have all the information you need readily available.

You will need:

  • Information on your organisation, including:
    • Name, ABN, address, website and if you are registered for GST.
    • Description of your work.
    • Description of your organisation’s experience.
    • Description of your organisation’s approach to inclusion.
    • Your certificate of incorporation.
    • Your most recent financial report.
  • Contact details for someone in your organisation who will be the key point of contact for your application.
  • Information on your project:
    • Project name.
    • Project description – including project activities, the people who will benefit from your project and where your project will be delivered.
    • Information on how people with disability are involved in project planning, delivery and evaluation.
  • Information on project impact, including:
    • Innovation in inclusion – how your project will take an innovative approach to disability inclusion.
    • Information on how your project will influence the practice or policy of other organisations.
    • Planned project outcomes (the changes for people or communities, and your influence on other organisations) and how you will measure them.
  • Project budget and resources:
    • a detailed project budget, for up to three years.
    • information on project staffing, including how many people with disability you expect to be employed on the project.
    • information on any other organisations you will work with to deliver the project.
    • information on how you will continue the project after the end of the grant (for ongoing projects).
    • if you are applying for less than the full costs of the project, information on how you will fund the gap between our grant and the full project costs.
  • Details of two referees for your organisation.

Most of the questions have word limits. Please provide brief responses. We will ask you for more detail if we need it.

 

Deadline for application

We do not have fixed deadlines for grant applications. We will continue to receive and consider applications throughout the year, provided we have the funds available to award new grants.

If you contact us before you prepare your grant application, we can tell you the schedule of our upcoming board meetings and discuss a timeline for you to submit your application.

2. Completing the application

This section of the guidelines provides detailed information on completing our application form. We have explained why we are asking the questions in this application to help you prepare your answers.

Why we ask the question

This helps us to know who you are, and to decide if you are eligible for a grant.

How to answer

Please provide the basic information requested.

Why we ask the question

This is the person we will contact for further information about your grant, and to tell you if your application has been successful or not.

How to answer

Please provide contact information for someone with a good understanding of your organisation and your grant application.

Please let us know the best, and most accessible, way for us to contact you.

Why we ask the question

This helps us understand who you are and how your project fits with the work you do.

How to answer

Give a brief description of your organisation and your work relevant to the project. Focus on your purpose and your recent activity, rather than your structure or history.

Why we ask the question

This helps us understand who you are and how your project fits with the work you do.

How to answer

Provide information on the people with disability in your team. This could include board or committee members and your staff. You can also provide information on people with disability who support your work through advisory or codesign groups or as volunteers. We don’t need information on the individuals, we just want to know the roles people with disability hold in your organisation and how they influence your governance, leadership and decision making.

Why we ask the question

This helps us reference the project within the organisation.

How to answer

You can use an existing name for your project, or just give a brief description.

Why we ask the question

We need to know who you will work with, how they will benefit (experience positive impact) from our grant and where you will deliver your project. We use this information to test if your grant application is eligible for our funding and if it is a strong fit with our funding strategy. We also want to understand the key activities and deliverables of your project. This helps us to test whether the project is likely to achieve positive impact for the disability community, and if it is value for money.

If you are awarded a grant, we will use this information to monitor grant progress.

How to answer

Provide information on what your project will actually do. For longer projects, you can present this information in stages.

Describe the deliverables or outputs from your project. This could include workshops, events, digital resources (e.g. video content, podcasts, apps) and publications (e.g. research reports or toolkits).

Describe the group of people who will be directly impacted by (or benefit from) your project. This might be based on a geographical community where people live or work, or some shared characteristics. This may be based around disability but may also consider other common factors such as shared interests and experiences, and intersectionality.

You should describe the location based on where the activity will be delivered, or where the people who will benefit from the project live or work, rather than where your organisation is based.

Why we ask the question

We want to fund projects that involve people with disability in informing what the project does and how it runs. We also want any evaluation of the project’s impact to centre the voices of people with disability.

How to answer

Provide information on how you have involved people with disability in planning your project and how they will continue to be involved in running and evaluating your project. You can include information on how people with disability have been involved through formal governance or staff roles, as well as any codesign or consultation activities such as workshops, advisory or reference groups, or via surveys.

Why we ask the question

This helps us to decide if you have the skills and experience to deliver the project and your planned outcomes.

How to answer

Focus on your skills and experience relevant to the project you are applying for. You can describe your experience as an organisation, as well as the skills and experience of your team. You can also discuss any relationships you may have with other people or organisations who may help you deliver the project. For example, this might include advisors with specialist skills, or connections within the community or for advocacy.

Why we ask the question

We want to fund projects that look at new or different ways of improving disability inclusion and/or changing attitudes to disability.

How to answer

Describe how your project is taking a different approach to disability inclusion. It would be useful to include information on any research you have done to identify existing approaches to inclusion and to explain how your project is different, and what need or gap it addresses. If you are scaling up an innovation you have already tested, or customising an existing approach to a new context, it would be good to explain what you’ve learned so far, and how you will be adapting these approaches to reflect that learning.

Why we ask the question

We want our funding to have impact beyond the life of our grant. In particular, we want to see how your grant might influence changes in community attitudes to people with disability, and to organisations’ policy and practice, so people with disability are genuinely included in all forms of community life.

How to answer

Provide information on how your project might influence other organisations. This might be through direct advocacy, or through sharing learning and experience, and promoting successful models of inclusion etc.

You can describe any deliverables you will produce that will involve, or be available to, other organisations. This might include events (conferences, workshops etc), published reports, videos and toolkits.

You should also describe how you will share and promote these deliverables.

If advocacy is the key purpose of your project, you can use this section to add detail on your advocacy campaign strategy.

Why we ask the question

The outcomes describe the changes that will happen for individuals and for communities. These changes will include the direct impact of your grant, as well as how you have influenced others. This helps us to ensure we are funding projects that address our purpose and meet our strategic objectives.

If you are awarded a grant, we will use the information on outcome measures to monitor the progress and impact of the grant.

For example, you may have an outcome of:

Increase inclusion of people with disability in open employment.

Your measures might be:
Number of people with disabilities who complete project training program, securing and sustaining a job in open employment (direct impact).

Number of employers changing recruitment processes to make them more accessible (influencing policy and practice of other organisations).

How to answer

Fill in the table with each of the main outcomes you hope to achieve. You can use your own words to describe your outcomes, but we expect them to address one or more of our values:
• Personhood considers the level of control and independence a person with disability has over their own life – for example, in their life goals and choices about where they live, who they live with, their work, relationships and interests.
• Citizenhood considers how people with disability are active in the communities of their choice – for example, in friendship groups, neighbourhoods, education, work, community and interest groups.
• Capacity building considers how people with disability grow their skills and experience in pursuit of their goals. This includes life skills, relationships, employment, and personal interests and self-expression – e.g. gardening, gaming, arts, sports etc.

You should describe your outcomes in terms of the changes for individuals or a community. These may include the direct impact of your grant and indirect impact where you expect to influence the policy or practice of others.

Each outcome should have one or more measures to demonstrate how far you expect the outcome to be achieved. You can use quantitative measures (numbers) and qualitative measures (stories and narrative).

Why we ask the question

We want to understand how many people will work on the project and how many of those will be people with disability. This helps us to understand the impact of our funding in terms of employment outcomes, and to make judgements about value for money.

How to answer

Provide information on the number of roles and the number of people with disability you plan to employ. You do not need to identify individual employees.

Your response to this question can include new and existing roles; full-time, part-time and casual positions. It can be helpful to provide job title and full-time equivalent working hours.

Why we ask the question

Understanding who you are working with helps us to consider the likelihood of your project being successful, for example, because your partner organisation brings additional skills, resources or community connections.

How to answer

Provide the name of any organisations you will work with to deliver your project and describe what they will do on the project.

If you are not planning on working with any other organisations, you can mark this question as not applicable.

Some of our projects expect to finish at the end of our grant (e.g. research projects). If you want your project to continue beyond the end of our grant funding, we want to see that you have a plan for future funding.

Why we ask the question

Some of our projects expect to finish at the end of our grant (e.g. research projects). If you want your project to continue beyond the end of our grant funding, we want to see that you have a plan for future funding.

How to answer

Provide your ideas for securing further funding following the end of our grant. This might include other sources of grant funding, or fee for service models, such as NDIS, training fees or some form of social or commercial enterprise.

If you plan for your project to be completed when the grant finishes, you can explain that in your response to this question.

Why we ask the question

We ask for your certificate of incorporation, financial reports and referees so we can confirm you are a legitimate, financially stable organisation, with the skills and experience to deliver a successful project.

How to answer

Provide copies (or links to online versions) of your certificate of incorporation and your most recent audited (year-end) accounts.

Provide contact details for referees who are independent of our organisation. This might include organisations you work with, or other funders who have supported your work.

Please complete all sections of the application form and provide the supplementary information (your certificate of incorporation and most recent financial report). If any questions are not relevant to you, please mark them as “not applicable”. If you have any questions about the application form, or suggestions to improve our application form or these guidelines, please contact us at grants@juliafarr.org.au.

3. How we make decisions

 

We will review your application and let you know if we have any additional questions for clarification.

Assessment: Your application will be assessed independently, by an assessor with a strong background in disability inclusion.

Decision making:

  • Final decisions on your grant are made by our board, which includes people with disability.
  • We will consider applications against the following filters:
    • Innovation in inclusion.
    • Fit with our trust deed.
    • The extent to which an application addresses needs identified by the disability community, including issues of intersectionality, where people with disability experience further systemic disadvantage.
    • The inclusion of people with disability in organisation governance or workforce.
  • Applications are considered on a competitive basis against a limited grant budget. We will consider the strength of your grant application against the following criteria:
    • Fit with our values of:
      • Personhood: The level of control and independence a person with disability has over their own life.
      • Citizenhood: How people with disability are active in the communities of their choice.
      • Capacity building considers how people with disability grow their skills and experience in pursuit of their goals.
    • Fit with our strategic objectives of inclusion, innovation and influence.
    • Identified need for your project, based on engagement with the disability community.
    • Value for money.
    • Financial sustainability of projects intending to continue beyond the life of our grant.

 

Each project is assessed on its own merits, and will be considered relative to other applications, particularly where we have more applications than we can fund.

We work to manage any conflicts and perceived conflicts of interest.

 

Informing you of our decision

We will email you to tell you whether your application has been successful or not.

  • If your application is unsuccessful, this does not mean your project isn’t a good idea or isn’t valuable. It just means it’s not a strong enough fit with our strategy. We will explain the reasons we decided not to fund you.
  • If your application is successful, we will explain the next steps in setting up the grant agreement.

4. Grant management

 

Grant agreement

If you are awarded a grant, we will send you our standard agreement and we will work with you in developing the schedule to the agreement. This is based on the information in your grant application and includes the purpose of the grant, payment and reporting schedule. Once we have both signed the agreement, we will ask you to invoice us for the first instalment of your grant.

 

Grant payments and reporting

We will agree your grant payment schedule and reporting arrangements as part of your grant agreement. You will be asked to provide quarterly progress reports against your project plan and a quarterly financial acquittal to show you are spending the grant as intended. We usually pay grants quarterly in advance, linked to satisfactory progress reports and acquittals. We will ask you to send us an invoice for your grant payment, following our review of your progress report and acquittal.

You can choose to spread your grant in equal instalments, or you can vary the amount to reflect the costs of different stages of your project.

You will also need to send us a final report and acquittal, following the completion of your grant.

 

Grant variations

We recognise the reality of delivering a project usually differs from the plan. We encourage you to tell us about any changes you need to make to your project.

In most cases we will agree changes that are consistent with our values and funding objectives, within the original purpose of the grant and within the agreed amount of funding.

Acknowledgement of Country

In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures today.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this website may contain images or names of people who have passed away.