How to gain grant success

COMMUNITY groups looking for funding can learn the best ways of preparing their grant submissions in a series of workshops being hosted by the Bendigo Volunteer Resource Centre.

The sessions scheduled for the next two Thursdays, 8 and 15 August will cover the internal processes of governance and budget, and the grant writing process.

They are being led by Central Goldfields Shire councillor Anna De Villiers and Volunteering Loddon Mallee Project co-ordinator Alistair Shaw at the Bendigo Library.

Cr De Villiers is involved with the Maryborough Volunteer Resource Centre and has led similar events in the town.

Mr Shaw said the workshops were arranged using funding from the City of Greater Bendigo’s Partnering for Impact grants program.

The resource centre was among eight local organisations to receive $25,000 a year for three years to help build capability among community groups. The grants were announced in December last year.

“We’re very happy with participation,” Mr Shaw said, adding that a similar event would be held next year or sooner if there was sufficient demand.

He said the series could benefit existing organisations or pre-organisations through the very nature of the Partnering for Impact program.

“We will work with groups to identify what’s the barrier that’s holding them back from succeeding, and we’ll work with them for up to a year,” he said.

“To write a grant application, there’s a whole lot of stuff you need to have in place and getting those things in place is good for the group.

“That’s why it’s a four-workshop series and not, ‘this is how you write a grant’.”

Mr Shaw said participating groups will have dealt with strategic plans, compliance systems, governance arrangements, project budgeting, management and more by the end of the series.

“It’s so they can set themselves up so they can be successful in getting grants and doing the projects that the grants are for,” he said.