Fundraising & Grants
Your Living Neighbourhood project could be anything from a simple low cost idea to a more complex project requiring detailed planning and funding. Often success with a smaller project can increase interest, prove your ideas work, and create funding opportunities for bigger ideas.
What can be done for free?
Simple, low cost, or free projects can be extremely effective. In these cases, your community can offer skills, support and even goods and services to help you achieve your goals.
- Ask your neighbours and friends to volunteer their time, skills, knowledge and talents. If jobs can be shared it’s more likely that energy and interest will be maintained.
- Ask local businesses for their support, either in goods, funds and services. They could gain some benefits from your project too, as slower speeds and safer roads encourage people to walk and shop locally. Make sure you acknowledge any "free" support in a public way e.g. a news article or a certificate.
- Check out our quick easy ideas for free and low-cost initiatives that could work in your Living Neighbourhood.
Some easy ways to fundraise?
It can be hard work, but fundraising can also be a lot of fun. Communities get an increased sense of common purpose through fundraising or contributing to a great idea.
- Hold a morning tea for friends and ask them to donate a gold coin to your project.
- Have a community garage sale or cake stall.
- Sell excess fruit and veg from your driveway.
- More formal fundraising activities require planning - you may need to apply for a licence e.g. to sell liquor, run a raffle, etc.; or get permission to use a venue.
- Some ideas might lead to others, for example you may arrange to close a street then hold a street party and ask for donations towards a bigger project.
- Check out the Better Fundraising ideas for some more inspiration.
No matter how you fundraise, make sure you are clear about what your project is trying to achieve and how the money you raise will be used. If you’re handling money you’ll need to keep records of income and expenditure and might even need a separate bank account.
The state government has prepared some general information about fundraising regulations which may be of use.
Need to apply for a grant? What’s out there?
There are some grants available that you may be able to apply for. Remember to be realistic about the amounts you need and the funds you might get. Well documented projects, with large and wide ranging community impacts will have greater chances of receiving funding.
- Be realistic about the amount of money for which you are applying. There will probably be lots of applications competing for a share of any grant funding.
- Read the fine print in any grant guidelines and ring to check that your planned use of grant funds is relevant to the guidelines before you prepare your application.
- Carefully check the conditions and include all information to satisfy any assessment criteria.
- Keep an eye on the local press - grants for local projects are often advertised.
- Not all grants are offered annually, they may be one-off opportunities for funding for specific purposes or projects.