Types of grants

Types of grants and funders. 

There are four primary types of grants. These are competitive. Competitive grants are where you compete with other applicants to win that grant. And that would be either open competitive grants, which means that it’s open to pretty much everybody, or to particular types of organisations, or it’s closed competitive grants. 

And closed competitive grants generally mean that an opportunity has been offered to selected organisations or individuals to apply for that grant, but it’s not public and not publicised. 

Demand-driven grants launched generally in response to things like advocacy or consumer trends. So for example, research may have shown in the government strategic planning that there’s a need to support more women in tech, and so they will offer a women in tech program. 

Responsive-limited is another type of funding, and this responsive-limited funding is responding to a situation, an example could be flood or fire recovery or prevention. And limited means, of course, it’s for that limited period of time. And the final type of funding is discretionary. 

A lot of funders have what’s called discretionary funding, and this means, you know, it’s like discretionary buckets of money. And this means that certain roles in the organisation have the discretion and budget to spend up to a certain amount before they’re required to go through a competitive grants process. This amount could be anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars. For others it’s, you know, 5 to $10,000, it does depend. Sometimes, it’s also politically incentivized funding, as well, which, of course, can be more. 

There are four primary types of funders. These are commonwealth, also called federal state, and local government funders. All levels of government have policies, and strategies, and plans, and some of these also have to align to international targets. So local government strategies and plans may generally align to state and also commonwealth or federal. The driver for government funding is really about achieving goals and strategies, so they are looking for those applications and projects that can help them deliver on those. 

Corporate given is generally decision maker-driven. For example, it might be decided by a business owner or a team of staff, and it could be through policies, such as the environmental, social, and governance, or corporate social responsibility policies. While they, of course, support others, it is about providing grants that align to their strategy. And often, it’s also about showcasing that this corporate or this company is a good community citizen. So it is about brand awareness and supporting the fact that they are doing good things. Philanthropy includes organisations, foundations, and individual philanthropic-minded donors. That could also include PAFs, which are private or public ancillary funds. Philanthropic donors and organisations are interested in causes and impact, and they also look for values aligned organisations. Their interest and grant funding programmes may differ, or they may be consistent depending on their purpose and what they want to achieve. One of the valuable things about philanthropic organisations is they can choose a flexible approach to funding. With philanthropic organisations, you generally do need to have tax deductible status, or DGR, Deductible Gift Recipient status in order to apply. 

And the individuals sectors, the last funder, they will, of course, support you if they believe in the projects. So individuals give through things like crowdfunding platforms, donation campaigns, or investor pitch nights. Fundraising from individuals is one way you can diverse income streams, and show the next grant funder on your application that you are actually receiving multiple sources of funding.