Today is the day that many grant writers across Australia will be rolling up their sleeves and sharpening their pencils (or booting up their laptops!) in preparation for the release of Perpetual Impact Funding’s 2020 round.
So what’s the big deal, you might ask?
As an ASX listed financial company, Perpetual also manages and distributes a pool of a staggering $100+ million donated by its diverse clients who are kept anonymous. In additions to supporting both pilot and existing programs, Perpetual also offers capacity building and operational funding – an opportunity rarely seen in the grant-making sector!
Make no mistake; this is one of the most tantalising opportunities on the yearly grant calendars of many non-profits.
But here’s the thing - last year’s round saw only 22% of approximately 1,400 applications succeed. Some of you may have also noticed that Perpetual’s guidelines deliberately avoid mentioning any specific funding areas, largely due to the diverse interests held by the donor pool. In the context of your budding application, these two facts quickly make it clear that a strong understanding of the assessment criteria will be key to your development of a potentially successful submission.
But because Perpetual is so unlike many other funding bodies, we’ve also identified three important things that you’ll need to keep in mind even as you prepare a plan of attack:
1. Perpetual Impact Funding is innovative in its approach
We’ve all heard of conventional philanthropy, even if not in these exact words. It’s the basic transaction of grant making to fulfil the immediate funding needs of an organisation.
Need a new printer for your charity’s office?
Or perhaps you’re seeking funding for your 6-week program?
Your friendly, neighbourhood grant maker will cover your funding needs - often with minimal fuss:
Here’s the funding you asked for. Did you spend it the way you told us you would?
Yes? Thank you very much…next!
Although conventional philanthropy certainly has a legitimate place in the fundraising sector, it has faced critique for its limited capacity to permanently change the status quo.
Ironically, this is the very thing that the majority of modern change-makers are working to achieve!
In contrast, Perpetual is an industry leader in its adoption of catalytic philanthropy – a model that requires the leveraging of funding to create continued change, even beyond the project’s conclusion. We suggest having a look at Perpetual’s list of previously funded projects for some clues as to how projects can be framed as catalytic.
What this means for you: Knowing that Perpetual is an advocate for catalytic philanthropy dramatically changes your approach. For starters, in order to demonstrate your strong capacity to leverage lasting change, you’ll need to
(a) strongly emphasise data that backs your story of both need and organisational capacity, and
(b) demonstrate how you’ll achieve robust and ongoing measurements of your successes.
2. A lot of weighting is placed on your organisational strategy and capacity
One of the key pillars of catalytic philanthropy is the burden on donor organisations to take responsibility for achieving results. In the context of Perpetual, this has been translated into a rigorous investigation of your organisational mission, strategy, and performance indicators before even getting down to the nitty gritty of your proposed project! Some examples of what you’ll be asked about include:
Your organisational strategic priorities for the next 12 months;
Your KPIs and measurement tools in relation to how efficiently you use your resources -
and how effective you are at achieving your organisational mission;
What your current performance is according to the above KPI’s; and
Your understanding of external forces and trends and how you respond to them
This approach shows Perpetual’s clear preference for catalytic funding proposals that will be backed by robust organisational capacity, governance and leadership. If your application lacks a strong demonstration of these elements, your chances will be heavily reduced.
What this means for you: In additions to demonstrating strong governance and leadership, your application as a whole will need to
(a) Consistently present a strong alignment between your project and your organisation’s strategic goals
(b) Evidence how your project will further your organisation’s vision for change in the longer term and
(c) Demonstrate an strong capacity for robust outcome and performance monitoring.
3. Perpetual loves impact measuring and data
In case you hadn’t already noticed, your ability to collect access, present, and analyse comprehensive data on your performance and outcomes will be integral to achieving a successful application. Yet a 2019 report from the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Social Impact found that many organisations lack the financial resources to design and deliver effective outcome measuring practices.
What this means for you: Before you expend your valuable time and energy on writing your application, we suggest first working with your team to assess whether your data measuring capacities are at the expected level.
Without question, this is one of the key pillars upon which your success in securing Perpetual’s funding will stand or fall.
When you place the above three points into the context of both Perpetual’s funding guidelines and its application criteria, a bigger and much clearer picture begins to emerge of exactly what they’re looking for.
If you’re searching for further indicators of your likelihood for success, we suggest that you check out Perpetual’s 2019 round statistics (p.4).
Where you’re able to incorporate all of our suggestions and meet the prescribed assessment criteria, we can safely say that preparing a submission will be well worth your time and effort.
With applications due on the 6th December, you’ve even got plenty of time to polish and perfect your case for funding! But don’t wait too long to get started, with these types of applications racing against the clock is not advised.
And for those of you who would like assistance with your application, we specialise in taking our clients from strategy through to story and can work with your cause at any stage of the journey - from identifying the funding need, drafting the application, reviewing your submission or all of the above!
Reaching out to us is as easy as e-mailing us at hello@grantd.com.au.