Australia Post Inundated with Partnership Applications

Not for Profits across Australia have inundated Australia Post with applications for the recently offered three-year partnerships but the postal giant says it wants to reassure organisations that every application will be individually assessed.

Australia Post announced the three-year partnerships with Australian Not for Profits to promote inclusion in communities earlier this month offering up to $500,000 per year. 

Australia Post’s General Manager of Community Relations, Andrea Pearman says it has already received hundreds of applications and she is expecting an ‘absolute frenzy’ of applications next week as the the deadline to May 31st approaches.

“Not for Profits should be assured that we will be assessing everyone single one of these applications,” Pearman said.

“They will be initially assessed on how they fit into our criteria, how the funds will be used. And then a cross section of people, both internally and externally with assess the applications for quality and also putting a business lens across them,” she said.

“In the later assessment stages as many and a dozen people will have been involved in the process of looking at individual applications.

“What we are aiming for is to invite 20 or so organisations, from wherever they are in Australia, to make a presentation to us.

“It will be from these presentations that we will chose some five to seven partnerships. This is an indicative number and will be dependent on the nature and scale of the successful applicants.”

Under the broad ranging partnership, Australia Post says it will consider applications from organisations including Not for Profits, community groups, sporting associations, peak / industry bodies, social enterprises and commercial entities.

Under the Australia Post partnership proposal organisations can apply for the following:

• Up to $100,000 plus GST, per year, for three consecutive years.
• Up to $250,000 plus GST, per year, for three consecutive years.
• Up to $500,000 plus GST, per year, for three consecutive years.
• Other – organisations may choose to specify a proposed investment and timeframe in their application.

Applications must be submitted by Friday, 31 May 2013. The successful partnerships will be announced in September 2013. 

The Briefing Pack can be downloaded here. 

Australia Post says its one-off grants program is also open for Not for Profits. Funding of one-off cash grant payments between $1,000 and $25,000 are available for community projects or initiatives, based on how strongly they meet the theme of 'inclusion' and support disadvantaged audience groups within Australia.

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