Brokers are being encouraged to reach out to their clients in the not-for-profit sector, after Community Underwriting began accepting applications for its 2019 Small Grants Program.
In operation since 2014, the Small Grants Program sees 5% of Community Underwriting’s annual surplus returned to clients – since its inception, the program has channelled more than $3 million back into charitable organisations.
“The bigger we grow, the more there is for our clients, which is great,” said Community Underwriting MD Graeme Berwick. “This year, the overall grant pool is going to be around $102,000 – up from about $70,000 last year.”
There are 10 grants of up to $5,000 on offer this year, as well as 15 grants of up to $2,000 and 22 grants of up to $1,000 – however, the organisation also awards other small discretionary grants where suitable, so organisations shouldn’t be discouraged from applying if they have a micro-project in mind.
“If you look at last year’s winners, some of them are quite small but they still have a meaningful impact,” said Berwick. “One of them provided craft kits for sick kids in hospital – individually, that’s not very much to spend but it still had quite a wide impact.”
Berwick also said organisations shouldn’t be discouraged if they think their project is a little left field, as the program has awarded grants to a wide variety of different projects.
“We’ve had all sorts of weird and wonderful things over the years,” he said. “It’s always a really broad cross section, it’s great.”
In fact, last year saw 33 grants handed out to various charitable endeavours – they ranged from a dung beetle training drive to a bereavement program supporting grieving children.
Discussing projects which had struck a chord with him last year, Berwick commented on two separate initiatives which help individuals who may otherwise be isolated from their communities.
“There was one project which helped fund driving lessons for new migrant women who are somewhat trapped because of their circumstances and another one which gave out strollers to mums who would, again, be stuck at home without that opportunity,” he said.
Interestingly, Berwick also offered insight into the selection process, which sees the entire Community Underwriting team get involved.
“Once we pass the closing date – which is November 29 this year – all of the applications are distributed to all of the staff members in the office,” he said. “Then we all go away to read them, and everyone comes back to lobby for any particular causes they feel strongly about.”
The approach, Berwick says, is extremely rewarding for employees and helps remind them of the amazing work their end clients are doing.
“Everybody gets to sit down and have their say if there’s a particular cause they’re passionate about so staff always get really involved and it’s a nice part of the job,” he said. “Although some of them are real tear jerkers to be honest.”
