December 18, 2019
South Burnett volunteer organisations will find it much harder to secure a Volunteers Grant from the Federal Government in 2020.
The popular annual program provides grants of between $1000 and $5000 to not-for-profit community groups to help them acquire small items of equipment such as shade structures or laptops; pay fuel costs; or undertake training.
In 2018, the program had a total funding pool of $20 million and any registered volunteer group could apply.
But this year, the total amount of funding available for each Federal electorate has been capped at a maximum of $66,000 and the total funding pool has been slashed by more than half.
In addition, all volunteer groups now have to be nominated by their Federal MP before they can lodge an application.
The changes mean only about a dozen community, sporting and service groups in each Federal electorate will now receive funding.
Expressions of interest in applying for a 2020 grant – ie. applying to local MPs David Littleproud (Maranoa), Ken O’Dowd (Flynn) or Llew O’Brien (Wide Bay) – to take part in the 2020 Volunteers Grant program will close at 5:00pm on January 28.
Selected organisations will then be invited to make a formal application in February, and successful applicants will be announced in May.
For more information about the grants, visit the Community Grants Hub website
