Resilience NSW COVID Regional Community Support Program

Program objective
The program intends to support eligible not-for-profit organisations, community groups, and associated volunteer-based groups that have incurred expenses in delivering food and personal care hampers to individuals and families affected by COVID lockdowns, and to community groups that are likely to provide ongoing services to affected members of the community, building resilience within these communities to mitigate future pandemic events.

Capacity Stream objective
Focus on building capacity within these organisations and communities to support ongoing community need during the pandemic and grow resilience to future shocks and stressors, such as a future pandemic.

Thanks to the NSW Government, $700,000 in funding is available through the Capacity Building Grants Stream – to support community projects that increase capacity for service provision in ongoing and future pandemic events.

Grants of up to $50,000 per organisation are available.

While all requests will be considered, higher priority for funding for both streams will be attributed to the areas below:

• Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisations; and
• Not-for-profit organisations located in smaller, more remote locations.

To apply, you must meet the following criteria:

• 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 (e.g. if you are a Co-operative, Other Unincorporated Entity, Public Company or Trust), please contact FRRR;
• Be located anywhere within rural, regional or remote NSW. Community groups located in the following LGAs are also eligible to apply: City of Blue Mountains, Central Coast Council, City of Hawkesbury, Wollondilly Shire;
• Be a not-for-profit community group or organisation that has / is supporting community members affected by COVID isolation health orders, and/or is likely to provide ongoing services to community members to support ongoing community need during the COVID pandemic;
• Organisations can apply to both the capacity building stream and the one application per stream;
• Organisations who are acting as the legal organisation for one or multiple delivery organisations can submit multiple applications as the legal organisation and can also submit an application for their own organisation.

Please note, you will be considered ineligible if the:

• Application is submitted by individuals, sole traders, private or commercial businesses (as per the submitted ABN);
• Application is submitted by an organisation that is not a legal entity (i.e. a registered not-for-profit), without the written consent of the governing / partnering body who holds the ABN / Incorporation Certificate;
• Application is submitted without required financial documentation (see Important Notes on the Gather Information tab);
• Application is for a project or activity that has already occurred / is occurring prior to the announcement of funding;
• Application is incomplete. NOTE: Due to the volume of applications received, applications are assessed based on the documentation received at the time of application. FRRR is unlikely to follow up missing documentation after applications have been submitted.

If you need to share this information with others, you can download the guidelines above.

Every application needs to include an organisation that holds either an ABN or Incorporation Certificate. If your organisation doesn’t have that, your application may still be funded but you need another organisation’s support, which we refer to as the ‘legal organisation’ (with your organisation being the delivery organisation). This situation often occurs when the organisation delivering the activity or project is a branch of an overarching organisation – such as a local CWA or YMCA branch. In this case, the CWA or YMCA would be the legal organisation.

Even though your organisation may complete the application (and did the work), it’s the ‘legal organisation’s’ legal and if successful financial information that needs to be provided. They also need to provide a letter of support, confirming they are willing to play this role.

Why is this important?

This program is only able to distribute funds to not-for-profit organisations with an ABN or Incorporation Certificate, and FRRR needs to know that the organisation with that ABN / Incorporation Certificate understands and agrees to carry out their responsibilities in relation to your project, if successful.

Applications received without the requested financial information are ineligible. Providing incorrect financial information is currently the most common reason why applications are not able to be considered. You must attach the following:

• For organisations that have audited financial reports: Attach the most recent annual audited statements;
• For organisations that do not have an annual financial audit: Attach the most recent 12 months Income and Expenditure Statement. If you have a Balance Sheet, please also submit this;
• For organisations less than one year old: Provide Bank Statements for the period you have been operating.

Please note:

• If financial documents are more than 18 months old, please provide an explanation as to why the organisation does not have more recent documents;
• Bank Statements are only acceptable as financial documentation if your organisation has been operating for less than one year;
• Please explain any deficits and steps to sustain the organisation financially;
• Provide a brief explanation of any large financial surplus or current assets and reasons why FRRR funds are still required;
• Income and Expenditure statements must cover a full 12-month period;
• FRRR conducts a broad range of due diligence queries when reviewing applications, such as: reviewing current and past incorporation, DGR and ACNC status. If your organisation has happened to have their incorporation status, DGR status or ACNC status changed or ACNC registration revoked or voluntarily withdrawn, please let us know the reasons for this.

Please contact us if you cannot provide required financials or you are unsure about what to provide.

You must include a project budget that clearly shows the items that FRRR grant funds would be used for and that also shows all income and expenses related to your project.

Budgets should be realistic and must add up – i.e. total expenditure must match total income.

Applicant contributions in cash or in-kind are highly regarded. Quotes or detailed rationale for items over $1,000 are required, where possible. Note: FRRR suggests costing unskilled volunteer labour at $41.00 per hour.

For more info on costing volunteer labour, visit: https://www.fundingcentre.com.au/help/valuing-volunteer-labour.

Helpful resources:

How do I cost labour in my project?

Preparing your budget

FRRR strongly recommends that you provide supporting materials such as letters of support, community plans, survey results, photographs, media clips and research reports that can show broad community support and partnerships involved in the project.

Large documents should be referenced and explained in the application.

Helpful resources:

Tips on taking great photos

We have grouped the kinds of projects communities commonly ask us to help fund into seven areas, which we call the Activity Tree:

1. Building community resilience
2. Developing organisational resilience and capacity
3. Enhancing environmental sustainability
4. Fostering cultural vibrancy
5. Lifelong learning and education
6. Economic strength
7. Improving community health and social wellbeing

We ask you to nominate one of those seven areas when you apply. So, before you lodge your application, download the Activity Tree to help you identify your focus area.