Gardiner Foundation Community Grants Program
Between 2003 and 2024, FRRR partnered with the Gardiner Foundation to strengthen the sustainability of dairy farming communities in regional Victoria. This resulted in $2.3 million being invested in 574 community organisations, leaving a strong legacy of revitalised community facilities and enduring program outcomes that have boosted wellbeing and social connection across Gippsland, Southern and North Eastern Victoria.
In 2024, the Gardiner Foundation made a strategic commitment to serve the needs of regional Victorian dairying communities with a view to the future and enabling enterprises to sustain community development. In this new chapter, the Gardiner Foundation will be working with new partners to support their initiatives in communities in future.
This program has now ended. To explore other grant options, please go to Find Funding Now.
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How to apply
Please read the information on each of the three tabs below to make sure this is the right grant for your project.
If you want to explore other grant options, please go to Find Funding Now.
I have a question, who can I talk to?
Danielle Griffin
info@frrr.org.au
1800 170 020
Confirm you are eligible to apply for this grant
To make sure this is the right grant for your community, please read the grant information detailed in the Program Guidelines below carefully. Click on each headline to reveal the detail.
What are the program objectives?
Projects must measure against one or more of the following outcomes:
- Stronger community resilience
- Greater community participation and engagement
- More friendly and inclusive community
- Build a creative / culturally vibrant community
- Innovate or respond to local opportunities
- Give children the best start in life
- Strengthen the ability to respond to community / individual challenges
- (Re)build community identity and sense of pride
- Strengthen the local economy
- Increase engagement in learning and strengthen educational outcomes
- Promote environmental health / sustainability
Is this grant available in my area?
This program is open to not-for-profit community-based organisations from communities in a recognised Victorian dairy region – either Gippsland, South-Western or Northern Victoria. Preference is given to communities with a population of 5,000 or less.
How much funding is available? Are there priority areas?
The Gardiner Foundation Community Grants Program will make available $120,000 in grant funds for innovative, community-driven projects up to the value of $5,000.
What can be funded?
Grants of up to $5,000 are available to not-for-profit organisations in a recognised Victorian dairy region – either Gippsland, South-Western or Northern Victoria – to support projects that focus on one of the following activity areas:
- Building Community Resilience (for example, projects that facilitate community connectedness, develop leadership capacity within the community, improve local community infrastructure and meeting places, or support and develop volunteer community groups).
- Enhancing Environmental Sustainability (for example, projects that increase awareness of local environmental issues, provide opportunities for local residents to care for the local environment, and projects that work to restore, protect and promote the local natural environment).
- Fostering Cultural Vibrancy (for example, projects that celebrate, preserve and promote local culture and identity, creative projects that foster the arts, and support for local artists and the arts community).
- Lifelong Education & Training (for example, projects that provide local residents with access to opportunities that enrich their learning and skills development, from cradle to grave).
- Economic Strength (for example, projects that create local employment and training with an employment outcome, stimulate new spending within a community or region, events that attract visitors and which can demonstrate an economic benefit as a result, and projects that attract new residents to a community or region and improve economic prosperity).
- Improving Community Health & Social Wellbeing (for example, projects which address physical health, improved nutrition and access to fresh food and sustainable local food systems, projects that enhance mental health, and those which assist vulnerable members in communities to improve their health and wellbeing).
What can’t be funded?
There are several areas that we can’t fund through this program. If in doubt, please contact us.
- Projects that are not in proximity to a recognised Victorian Dairy Community;
- Individuals, private or commercial businesses are ineligible;
- Projects that support core business and areas of responsibility of Federal, State and Local Governments are ineligible.
- Ongoing core organisational operational costs (e.g. rent, utilities, regular wages, loan repayments);
- The encouragement or advancement of sport, recreation and social activities are not considered charitable activities under Australian law. Applications from sporting organisations need to clearly demonstrate charitable outcomes and benefit to the wider community that are above and beyond the sporting activities of the club;
- Overseas travel and overseas projects;
- Prizes, gifts, trophies or awards;
- Projects that have already occurred or will occur before the grant is confirmed;
- Political lobbying;
- Projects solely focused on animal welfare cannot be considered;
Is my organisation eligible?
- Not-for-profit community-based organisations from communities in a recognised Victorian dairy region – either Gippsland, South-Western or Northern Victoria – can apply for funds to support projects and activities that offer clear public benefit (i.e. are for a charitable purpose) and clearly address a need in the community in one of the areas listed above.
- Applicant organisations must be a not-for-profit organisation with either an Incorporation Certificate and/or an ABN. If you are unsure if your organisation is a registered not-for-profit (for example, if you are a Co-operative, Other Unincorporated Entity, Public Company or Trust), please contact FRRR;
- Not-for-profit organisations with or without DGR-1 endorsement are eligible.
- Organisations and/or projects demonstrating community partnerships are preferred to multiple applications from one community (please submit only one application per organisation).
- Projects should be undertaken between July 2024 and June 2025, as projects cannot be funded retrospectively.
NOTE: Previous FRRR grant recipients who have not completed final reporting requirements are ineligible.
Who can’t apply?
- Individuals, private or commercial businesses are ineligible;
- Projects that support core business and areas of responsibility of Federal, State and Local Governments are ineligible.
If you have significant issues accessing a stable internet connection, please contact our team to discuss an alternative way of applying:
Ph: 1800 170 020 or Email: info@frrr.org.au
Inspiration – Past projects
Explore some of the projects we’ve previously funded to see how other organisations have helped their community thrive.
South Western Region: Reconnecting community in South Purrumbete
A Gardiner Foundation Community Grant helped the South Purrumbete Recreation Reserve’s committee of management continue to rejuvenate the grounds and building to create a great community hub.
The $4,870 grant went toward electrical works essential to reinstating power, water and toilet facilities. These improvements will ultimately help to facilitate community connectedness, as the committee of management and volunteers work to restore the Reserve buildings and grounds to a safe and suitable condition to enable large gatherings at future community events.
Gippsland Region: ‘IncrediGirls’ makes for incredible learning opportunities
Welshpool and District Primary School identified challenges with the gender imbalance at their school and received a $5,000 Gardiner Foundation Community Grant to support the girls in their school and promote connection and empowerment.
The ‘Incredi-Girls’ program created opportunities for students to develop an interest and passion for STEM skills. Additionally, it indirectly fostered teamwork, connection and leadership opportunities. Two other schools within the cluster are now running similar programs and ideas off the back of the ‘IncrediGirls’ program.
Northern Region: Kyabram’s Tastes & Tunes Festival boosts community
A $5,000 grant from FRRR’s Gardiner Foundation Community Grants program was pooled with the organiser, Kyabram Development Committee’s own fundraising, along with funding from the local Bendigo Bank, Ky Valley Dairies and other sources, to put on the Kyabram Tastes & Tunes street festival.
The FRRR grant funded the the entertainment component of the Kyabram Development Committee’s Tastes & Tunes Festival, which attracted a crowd of around 4,000 people and helped boost the local economy, as well as community connectedness and individual wellbeing.
