Funding, Prizes and Awards – 28 March 2023
Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation – EOI Applications Now Open
The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation (LMCF) has opened EOIs for three grant rounds:
2023 Affordable Housing Challenge – individual grants ranging between $30,000 – $50,000. Closing 20 April 2023 with applicants notified in July 2023.
The 2023 Affordable Housing Challenge will again focus on eligible not-for-profits, including faith-based organisations, who wish to use their land holding, including vacant land, strata or redevelopment of existing buildings, to increase the supply of affordable housing in Melbourne. The Challenge is intended to encourage not-for-profits to utilise their existing land holdings and demonstrate a scalable and replicable solution to providing affordable rental housing.
The 2023 Affordable Housing Challenge will include funding for eligible organisations to undertake a feasibility study to develop affordable housing on underutilised land in Greater Melbourne. Feasibility studies allow organisations to analyse parts of a potential capital works development, and could include:
- Planning requirements
- Concept designs
- Financial modelling
- Development timelines
- Site location analysis
- Sustainability requirements and aspirations
Feasibility grant amount:
- Individual grants between $30,000 – $50,000
- Applicants may indicate if all or part of the grant would be useful as a no interest loan repayable when other funding is achieved.
2023 Climate Resilient Neighbourhoods Challenge – individual grants up to $100,000. Closing 13 April 2023, with full applications required in May 2023 and applicants notified in July 2023
Projects funded through this Challenge will nurture the capabilities, social capital, and community infrastructure of communities whose climate resilience is currently undermined by health inequities. They will show how peoples’ lives are demonstrably improved when climate change adaptation and emissions reduction efforts are combined through a regenerative social justice lens.
Projects could enable community organisations to continue, re-energise, or catalyse partnerships, including those with government, researchers, or other not-for-profits. They could be on a single site, a street, a network of sites, or beyond. As there is no single way to enable climate resilience, the Challenge encourages fresh and innovative ideas, as well as those that build upon existing related efforts.
A total funding pool of $300,000 is available for successful projects and initiatives, with a maximum of $100,000 for any project.
2023 Next Economy Jobs Challenge – seed grants up to $50,000, scaling grants up to $100,000. Closing 13 April 2023, with full applications required in April 2023 and applicants notified in June 2023.
Grants will support eligible charities and their partners to test and develop new models, enterprises and programs that encourage ‘next economy’ transitions to employment for individuals and communities experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.
Complex interconnected challenges such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, the climate crisis and growing economic inequality are reshaping Australia’s economy. Australia is facing a critical shortage in skilled workers for both existing and emerging industries as the urgent transition to net-zero carbon emissions gathers pace.
With a focus on addressing disadvantage through quality transitions to employment, the Next Economy Jobs Challenge 2023 seeks to catalyse innovative job creation in these sectors:
- Care economy (health, disability, child & aged care)
- Clean energy and community energy
- Construction / retrofitting of sustainable, affordable, quality housing
- Regenerative food / urban agriculture systems
- Digital economy
- Waste / circular economy
Grants will focus on building the capacity of organisations and enterprises to generate employment outcomes, build sustainability, and/or scale for social procurement opportunities and greater impact.
- Feasibility or seed grants up to $50,000
- Feasibility grants are for eligible early-stage projects wanting to further understand growth potential. Seed Grants are for piloting or prototyping employment focussed enterprise or projects.
- Scaling grants up to $100,000
- Scaling grants are for enterprises or projects that are ready for next phase of development and aiming to create significant training and employment pathways.
LIMITATIONS AND SUBMISSIONS
The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation does not fund clinical research trials and has a preference for funding projects within universities and research institutes that have the capacity to bring transformational change to a particular sector or area of practice. In addition to the Foundation’s general exclusions, universities and research institutes should note the following requirements:
- All applications from universities and research institutes must be submitted in conjunction with the appropriate central office (e.g. Research, Grants or Advancement Office). Applications received directly from individual researchers or academics will not be accepted.
- The university or research institute registration on the Foundation’s Grants Portal must be for a contact person within the central office, as above. If your institution has multiple campuses or is national, you must identify and liaise with your appropriate central office. Central office will provide the relevant contact details to those applicants who have been shortlisted.
- Universities and research institutes can submit a maximum of one application per Foundation Impact Area per Grant Type. Any applications received over this limit will not be considered, and the university’s key contact will be asked to prioritise the applications for consideration.
- Notifications of outcomes will be sent to the central office contact, as listed on the Foundation’s Grants Portal.
IMPORTANT DATES
All shortlisting of EOIs will be made with the advice of Advancement and the MRO based on program alignment and funding likelihood. The following deadlines an templates are provided to give applicants the maximum amount of time to finish a draft of a full application by the funder deadline.
For 2023 Climate Resilient Neighbourhoods Challenge and 2023 Next Economy Jobs Challenge:
- Internal EOIs due by midnight on the 3rd April 2023 (internal deadline)
- Shortlisted EOIs will be sent to MRO on 4th April 2023 (internal deadline)
- Panel review, ranking and selection will occur between the 4th and the 11th of April 2023, and the successful candidate will be notified 11 April 2023
- The successful application will be invited to proceed to submit to the funder by their deadline,13th April 2023.
For 2023 Affordable Housing Challenge:
- Internal EOI’s due by midnight on the 10th April 2023 (internal deadline)
- Shortlisted EOIs will be sent to MRO on 11th April 2023 (internal deadline)
- Panel review, ranking and selection will occur between the 11th and the 18th of April 2023, and the successful candidate will be notified on 18 April 2023
- The successful application will be invited to proceed to submit to the funder by their deadline, 20th April 2023.
If you wish to submit an EOI for this opportunity please use the template attached to this email for assessment purposes.
Please submit your Internal EOI by email to:
- HASS/MBS and STEM faculties – heather.little@monash.edu
- MNHS/MIPS – megan.oconnor@monash.edu
EOIs submitted to the contacts listed above will then be shortlisted and sent to MRO for the next stage of the selection process.
Please do not create a Pure record for your EOI. Only applications nominated by Monash MRO for submission to the funder should be entered into Pure. It will be the responsibility of the applicant to submit their application to the funder.
Please use these Application forms as a template for your EOI Submission:
Additional information:
Please note that the funder may update their guidelines on their website – please ensure you are referring to the most recent version of the guidelines when developing your EOI/Application.
Please contact mro-applications@monash.edu or the contacts listed above should you have any questions or concerns regarding this funding opportunity or the EOI process.