$50k ‘Exploration’ Grants Up for Grabs

Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation in Victoria has opened up its latest round of Exploration Grants, which will offer organisations up to $50,000 per year.

The grants are available for organisations working in one of the Foundation’s six key impact areas including Youth, Ageing, Homelessness, Community and Preventative Health, the Environment (including Food Security), and Arts and Heritage.

“Alongside this heritage, the Foundation also takes a contemporary approach to philanthropy, investing in innovation and social change,” the Foundation said.

“The Foundation aims to increase life opportunities, improve quality of life and promote social inclusion through grantmaking, working collaboratively and inspiring philanthropy.”

Exploration Grants will provided to support:

• Project funding to test, demonstrate, trial or pilot a new concept or idea that will lead to a service improvement or an advance in addressing a major community issue;
• Research funding to build understanding of an area or issue, inform program design or practice, inform policy development and philanthropic investment, identify good practice or inform community behaviour; and,
• Funding to support the initial development phase of a social enterprise.

To be eligible to apply for an Exploration Grant, an organisation must be endorsed as a Tax Concession Charity and usually a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) as covered by Item 1 of the table in Section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

For more information on the Exploration Grant guidelines and how to apply, click here. 

The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation is an independent philanthropic organisation and one of the largest community foundation in Australia. The Foundation was established in 1923.