Grants in Australia are worth pursuing, but they are harder to win than most guides admit.
- Most competitive grants require ACNC registration and many require DGR endorsement by the ATO. Check eligibility before you write a single word.
- The best starting point for Commonwealth grants is GrantConnect (grants.gov.au). For smaller, more winnable grants, start with your local council.
- "Acquittal" is the AU sector term for post-grant reporting. Getting it right is how you earn the next grant.
- One Australian not-for-profit told us they submitted 15 applications over three years and received none. Treat grants as one strand of a diversified funding base, not your primary income.
- A working donations and regular-giver program makes you a stronger grant candidate, because funders ask how you are funded outside the grant.
Grants are one of the most talked-about funding sources in the Australian not-for-profit sector. They are also, for many small and community-based organisations, one of the most disappointing. One Australian not-for-profit we spoke to submitted 15 grant applications over three years and received none, while cost-of-living pressure made donor acquisition harder at the same time.
That experience is not unusual. It is not a reason to stop applying. It is a reason to apply strategically: check eligibility first, choose the right tier of grant for your organisation, write to the funder's question, and build a fundraising base that can carry your work between rounds.
This guide gives you the honest AU-specific picture for 2026.
In this article:
What actually counts as a grant in Australia
The word "grant" gets used loosely. Being clear on definitions saves you from applying to the wrong thing.
Government grants vs philanthropic grants vs corporate community grants
Government grants are funded by federal, state/territory or local council budgets and administered by public agencies. The Australian Government publishes all Commonwealth grant opportunities through GrantConnect (grants.gov.au), the central whole-of-government register. State and territory governments run their own portals. Local councils run community grants programs that are often the most accessible tier for small organisations.
Philanthropic grants come from private ancillary funds (PAFs), public ancillary funds, community foundations, and corporate foundations. They are typically administered by a trustee board rather than a public agency. Philanthropy Australia is the sector peak body and the best starting point for researching the philanthropic funding landscape.
Corporate community grants are funded by companies as part of their community investment or corporate responsibility programs. They vary widely: some are highly structured with formal applications and public guidelines; others are relationship-driven and never formally advertised.
What is NOT a grant
Knowing what to rule out saves hours of wasted work.
Private ancillary funds (PAFs) and sub-funds inside community foundations are mostly not open-application channels. A PAF is a private vehicle; the trustees distribute to organisations they choose, usually through existing relationships. Searching for a PAF's "grants page" and cold-applying rarely works. These are relationship channels.
Sponsorships are commercial arrangements where a company provides money or in-kind support in exchange for recognition, branding, or other commercial value. They are not grants. Tax treatment, accountability requirements, and negotiation dynamics are completely different.
Loans and social impact investment are repayable or return-seeking arrangements, not grants.
Check you're eligible before you write a word
Eligibility checking is the highest-value thing you can do before investing time in an application. Most organisations that miss out on competitive grants are rejected at the eligibility screen, not on the strength of their proposal.
ACNC registration and DGR endorsement: what most funders require
Australia has a two-step legal reality that trips up many small organisations.
Step 1: ACNC registration. The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) registers charities under the Charities Act 2013 (Cth). Registration confirms your organisation has charitable purposes for the public benefit and meets governance standards. Most competitive government grants and many philanthropic grants require ACNC registration as a base condition.
Step 2: DGR endorsement. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) separately endorses organisations as Deductible Gift Recipients (DGRs) under Division 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. DGR endorsement is what makes donations of $2 or more tax-deductible for the donor. It is not automatic with ACNC registration: the ACNC and the ATO are two separate bodies. Less than half of ACNC-registered charities hold DGR endorsement.
Many funders, especially those making grants specifically to support tax-deductible charitable activity, require DGR status. Donors and corporate partners can verify DGR status via ABN Lookup. If your organisation is not yet ACNC-registered or DGR-endorsed, check eligibility with the ATO before applying to grants that list DGR as a requirement. You can also read more about DGR endorsement and what it means for your organisation's fundraising.
If you are not yet an ACNC-registered charity, the eligibility section of many competitive grants will stop you before you start. It is worth getting your registration right first. A guide to starting a charity in Australia covers the steps.
Legal structure: incorporated association or company limited by guarantee
Most government grant programs require the applicant to be a legally constituted entity. In Australia, the two main structures for not-for-profits are:
- Incorporated association: registered under your state or territory's associations incorporation legislation (for example, the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 in NSW). This is the most common structure for community groups, sporting clubs, and local not-for-profits.
- Company limited by guarantee: registered with ASIC under the Corporations Act 2001. More common for larger national organisations.
Trusts are a third structure but less common for organisations seeking grants.
If you are operating as an unincorporated group, many funders will not accept your application. See the section on unincorporated groups in the FAQ below. For more on setting up the right structure, see our guide to becoming an incorporated association.
Geographic scope: the number-one reason applications get rejected
Most grant programs are geographically scoped. A federal program administered by the Department of Social Services may fund organisations operating nationally or in specific regions. A state government grant funds work in that state. A local council grant funds work in the council area.
Before spending time on an application, check the geographic criteria. Many small organisations are rejected simply because their work spans across a boundary the funder drew. This is not a flaw in the system; it is a filter. If you run a community group serving your local area, the geographic scope of a council grant is one of the most important reasons why that tier has a higher win rate for you than a national competitive round.
Where to find grants in Australia
Federal: GrantConnect and the Community Grants Hub
The whole-of-Australian-Government register for Commonwealth grant opportunities is GrantConnect, published at grants.gov.au. Commonwealth agencies are required to publish all open grant rounds on GrantConnect. Set up an account and configure alerts for your sector and state or territory.
The Community Grants Hub (communitygrants.gov.au) administers grants on behalf of Commonwealth agencies, predominantly the Department of Social Services. Programs it has historically administered include community-facing social services, volunteer support, and resilience-building grants for community organisations. Check the Hub's website for currently open rounds, as specific programs open and close on their own schedules.
Note: grant round names and open/close dates change frequently. This guide links to the portals rather than naming specific open rounds, because a guide full of closed rounds is less useful than a shorter guide that tells you where to look.
State and territory grant portals
Each state and territory government runs its own grants portal. The starting points below are the government homepages or grants sections as of mid-2026; grant portals occasionally migrate, so if a direct link below has moved, search "[state] government grants for not-for-profits" from the state government's main domain.
- NSW: Search under "grants and funding" at nsw.gov.au. The NSW Government Community Building Partnership program and the Department of Communities and Justice run regular rounds for community organisations.
- VIC: The "grants and programs" section at vic.gov.au; Community Support Fund through the Victorian Government.
- QLD: Grants and support at qld.gov.au; the Department of Communities and Sport administers community benefit fund grants and gambling community benefit fund grants.
- WA: Grants and subsidies at wa.gov.au; Lotterywest is a significant philanthropic funder in WA with a separate application portal at lotterywest.wa.gov.au.
- SA: Community benefit grants at sa.gov.au, including the Community Development Fund.
- TAS: Grants and funding at tas.gov.au / business.tas.gov.au; the Communities, Sport and Recreation portfolio runs community grant programs.
- ACT: The Community Services Directorate and the Community Chest Fund at act.gov.au.
- NT: Community Benefit Fund grants and NT Government community grants at nt.gov.au.
Editor note: verify each portal URL against the live state government website before publish. URLs are described by path rather than hard-coded here to reduce link-rot risk.
Local council community grants: the most winnable tier for small not-for-profits
If your organisation is local, start here. Local councils run community grant programs on annual or biannual cycles, typically $500 to $10,000 per grant. The geographic eligibility requirement that can be a barrier at state and federal level works in your favour at council level: you are, by definition, a local group serving the council area.
Council grants are the most accessible tier for P&Cs, sports clubs, neighbourhood associations, and community groups that are incorporated but not yet ACNC-registered. Many councils accept applications from incorporated associations without requiring charity status.
Find your council's grants program by searching "[your council name] community grants" or by visiting your council's website directly. Most run one or two funding rounds per financial year.
Philanthropic grants: Philanthropy Australia and the funder directories
Philanthropy Australia is the sector peak body for philanthropy and the best independent directory of philanthropic funders in Australia. Membership gives access to a searchable funder database. State-based community foundations (including the Sydney Community Foundation, Melbourne Community Foundation, and Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal) are genuine access points for community-focused grants and often more approachable than large private foundations.
One important distinction: most private ancillary funds (PAFs) do not accept unsolicited applications. PAFs are private philanthropic vehicles; distributions are at the discretion of the trustees and go primarily to organisations with whom they have an established relationship. If you cold-apply to a PAF with no prior connection, do not expect a response. Relationship-building, attending sector events, and referrals from Philanthropy Australia member networks are how smaller organisations develop these connections over time.
Justice Connect's Not-for-profit Law publishes free legal guides on grant compliance, fundraising regulation, and contract review that are worth consulting before you sign any grant deed.
How to write an application that actually gets read
Grant writing is a skill that can be learned. The fundamentals are the same across most government and philanthropic programs.
Read the guidelines twice, then read them again
Every grant program publishes guidelines. The guidelines tell you the eligibility criteria, the funding priorities, the assessment criteria, the page limits, the required attachments, and the submission process. Most unsuccessful applications fail because the applicant did not follow the guidelines closely enough.
Before you write, ask yourself: does my organisation meet every eligibility criterion stated in these guidelines? If the answer is no to any one criterion, stop and either address the gap or move on to a different opportunity.
Answer the funder's question, not the question you wish they'd asked
Assessment panels read dozens or hundreds of applications. They score against the published criteria. An application that demonstrates exactly how your project meets each criterion, in order, with evidence, will score better than a well-written application that answers a slightly different question.
Do not open with a history of your organisation. Funders care about what you are asking them to fund and what difference it will make.
Show outcomes, not activities
There is a consistent pattern in weaker grant applications: they describe activities ("we will run 12 workshops") instead of outcomes ("12 workshops will connect 240 isolated older residents to local services, reducing GP presentations by an estimated 15% in the following quarter"). Funders are buying outcomes. Name them specifically, explain how you will measure them, and be honest about what you can and cannot attribute to the grant.
Build an answer bank so you're not rewriting the same eight answers
Most grant applications ask similar questions: who you are, what you do, who you serve, what the project is, why it matters, what it costs, what your governance is like, how you will report back. If you write a clean, clear answer to each of these questions once and maintain them in a simple document, you can reuse and adapt them rather than starting from scratch each time.
The Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) publishes resources on professional fundraising standards that are relevant if your organisation is scaling its grant and fundraising activity.
After you apply: reporting, acquittal, and keeping the door open
What acquittal means and why it matters
In Australian not-for-profit practice, acquittal is the post-grant reporting process. (You may see this called a "grant report" in other contexts, but in Australia, the sector term is acquittal.) Most funders require a financial acquittal, showing how you spent the grant funds against the approved budget, and a program or outcomes acquittal, showing what you actually achieved.
Getting acquittal right matters for two reasons. First, most grant deeds require it as a contractual obligation; failure to acquit can mean returning funds or being ineligible for future grants from the same funder. Second, a well-written acquittal is the strongest possible application for your next round. Funders can see that you spent responsibly, delivered on your promises, and are worth funding again.
Keeping clean records the funder can audit
The ACNC provides governance standards and guidance on record-keeping that apply to registered charities. Grant-funded projects should have clear financial records that separate grant income and expenditure from your general operating funds. Keep receipts, invoices, and bank statements for the grant period. Know your funder's record-keeping requirements before you start spending.
Clean records also support acquittal reporting and reduce the burden on your volunteer treasurer at year end.
When grants aren't the answer: diversifying your fundraising
Grants are lumpy, competitive, time-consuming, and tied to a funder's priorities rather than your organisation's most urgent needs. The most financially resilient Australian not-for-profits treat grants as one strand of a diversified funding base, not the primary one.
Why a working donations base makes you a better grant candidate
Many grant applications include a question along the lines of: "How is your organisation funded outside this grant?" A strong answer is one that names a working donations program, a regular-giver base, event income, or membership revenue. An honest answer of "mostly grants" raises a red flag about sustainability.
This is not a cynical point. It reflects a genuine funder concern: if your organisation is entirely grant-dependent and one program is defunded, what happens to the community you serve? A modest but consistent donations base, a handful of regular givers, or event income from an annual trivia night demonstrates organisational sustainability in a way that a long grants track record alone cannot.
EOFY fundraising is the most important moment on the Australian giving calendar. The financial year ends on 30 June, and donors who are DGR-endorsed charity supporters can claim a tax deduction for gifts of $2 or more made before that date. An EOFY appeal, even a simple one, builds donor relationships and generates income that sits alongside, rather than instead of, your grant pipeline.
What to build alongside the grant pipeline
The combination that gives small Australian not-for-profits the most stability is typically:
- A simple, low-friction donation page for one-off gifts and EOFY appeals.
- A regular-giver program, even a modest one with 20 to 30 regular givers at $10 to $30 per month, creates predictable income.
- Event-based income one or two times a year (a trivia night, a gala, a community fete).
- Membership, where it suits your organisation's model.
All of these can be run on a free platform. When you can issue tax-deductible receipts automatically for DGR-endorsed donations, the admin burden of building a donor base shrinks significantly.
Zeffy is a free fundraising platform for not-for-profits. It handles donations, ticketing, memberships and auctions at no cost to your organisation. It is not a grant-finding or grant-writing service.
Red flags: fee-based "grant help" and other traps
Fee-based grant writing services
A growing number of businesses market "grant writing help" to small Australian not-for-profits. Some offer genuine value. Others charge fees (including commission-on-win models, which are ethically contested in the professional fundraising sector) for work that does not improve your applications.
If you are considering paying for grant writing support, check whether the person or organisation is a member of the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA), which has a code of ethics. Prefer fixed-scope pricing over commission-on-win arrangements. And explore free resources first: Justice Connect's Not-for-profit Law publishes free plain-English guides on grant compliance, contract review, and governance that many small not-for-profits find sufficient for lower-tier grants.
The sector body Justice Connect also runs the Fix Fundraising campaign, which works to reduce the regulatory and compliance burden on small not-for-profits. Their resources are written specifically for the Australian context.
Grants that require upfront payment to apply
Legitimate grant programs do not charge you to apply. Any opportunity that requires an application fee, a subscription, or a payment to access the listing is not a grant in the conventional sense. Be sceptical.
Named grants with no active round
Many "grants lists" published online include programs that have closed, been defunded, or changed their eligibility rules. Always check the funder's own website to confirm a round is currently open before investing time in an application.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need DGR endorsement to apply for grants?
Not all grants require DGR status, but many do. DGR endorsement by the ATO is what makes donations to your organisation tax-deductible for donors; it is a separate step from ACNC charity registration. Check the specific grant guidelines. If DGR is listed as a requirement, you must have it before applying. You can verify DGR status via ABN Lookup.
Can I apply if my group is not yet incorporated?
Most grant programs require a legally constituted entity as the applicant. An unincorporated group cannot sign a grant deed or hold a bank account in its own name. In some cases, an incorporated organisation can act as the "auspice body" (or "fiscal auspice") on behalf of an unincorporated group, with grant funds held and acquitted by the auspice. Not all funders allow this; check the guidelines. If your group intends to apply for grants regularly, incorporation is worth pursuing.
How long does a grant decision take?
Decision timelines vary widely. Local council grants may take 6 to 12 weeks from close of applications. State government rounds typically 3 to 6 months. Large federal competitive rounds can take 6 to 12 months or more. Factor this into your planning: if you need funds in the next quarter, grants are rarely the answer. Many organisations apply 12 to 18 months ahead of when they actually need the money.
Is grant income taxable for not-for-profits?
Generally, ACNC-registered charities endorsed by the ATO as income-tax-exempt are not liable to pay income tax on grant income, provided the grant is applied to their charitable purposes. The specific income-tax treatment depends on your organisation's endorsements. Consult the ATO's not-for-profit guidance or seek professional advice. This article does not constitute tax advice.
Are grant monies tax-deductible for the funder (government or philanthropic)?
Government funders distribute public money through grants; tax deductibility is not relevant to them as grant-makers. Philanthropic funders distributing from a PAF or public ancillary fund are already operating within a tax-exempt vehicle. Tax deductibility for donors applies to their personal donations to DGR-endorsed organisations, not to grants. These are separate mechanisms.
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