On Tuesday this week I drove into Brisbane for a one-day grantseekers workshop organised through work. The slow drive each way in peak hour traffic was an ordeal, but was more than compensated by the knowledge gained from the workshop. It was a good complement to the one-day course attended late last year, and has spurred me to implement a grantseekers program at work.
Most of the work in grantseeking involves finding grants that are available and suitable for our organisation. A lot of grants will only fund a particular purpose or need. Very few will fund core operational costs of an organisation, they are usually project oriented. About the only thing grants all have in common is a requirement to demonstrate benefit to the community.
I shall be doing regular bouts of research, then posting lists of upcoming grants around the workplace. The idea is for everyone to help identify projects and opportunities in their particular area where we might apply for a relevant funding grant. I will then assist with the preparation of our submission, foster our relationship with the grantmaker and get things moving along.
Since mentioning this new program to a couple of my colleagues I have already learned of a couple of areas where grant funding would be ideal. It is quite exciting to envisage this approach helping with the development of various new programs and creatively finding ways to offset some of the costs with running the organisation.