For many not for profits money can be hard to find, so when grants become available it makes sense to apply.  Could your not for profit organisation do with a little help?

The Federal Government is offering $16 million in funding to not-for-profit organisations to help their volunteers and encourage volunteering.

Grants of $1,000–$5000 are available to help your organisation purchase equipment to help volunteers, reimburse transport or fuel costs incurred by your volunteers or help pay for training their courses.

There is a strict set of guidelines that organisations must meet and much of the information is available in the Application Guidelines.

To be eligible for a grant, your organisation must be an Australian not-for-profit organisation and your volunteers’ work should support families and/or communities in Australia and are legal entities.  Selection criteria will be found in section 3.3 of the guidelines.

Before you apply for the grant have a look at section 2.2 of the Application Guidelines which spells out what the grant money may and may not be used for.  Be clear on what you would use the grant money for before you go ahead with the application.

The Volunteer Grants 2013 funding round opened on Friday 15 March 2013 and will close on Wednesday 24 April 2013 at 5pm AEST.