We want donors to be confident that your generous donations are passed on to local charities in a systematic and diligent manner.
Read on here to learn about our 6 Step Granting Process
STEP 1: Necessary Conditions to Qualify
We apply two tests when considering any charity that might potentially receive grants from NCF.
FIRST: the charity should use our grants for the local community. It might be a Noosa-based charity or an external one that guarantees NCF grants will be expended in the Noosa region
SECOND: it must hold DGR1 status as government regulations restrict us to these type of charities. This means that e.g. many school and sport groups are not eligible
STEP 2: Meets Size Criteria
Not too big:
We are less likely to grant to charities with substantial incomes and / or spend a significant proportion of their income on salaries. These charities already have significant revenue and our contribution will not have a very great impact. An exception is e.g. universities where the grants are passed onto students rather than the charity itself. And,
Not too small:
We are cautious about funding small budget charities. Our concerns are over their economic viability and that they may become overly dependent on our grants to carry out their operations.
STEP 3: Listing in our Charity Panels
We can assist donors to donate to a particular charity if that is your preference.
Generally, we ask donors to specify their Charity Panels of choice. In these Panels, we group all our charities with a similar purpose (e.g. Animal Welfare). When you specify a Panel of your choice, we will donate to one or more charities in that Panel.
This way, you are supporting the cause that is important to you but we have the latitude to decide which specific charities will benefit most from your donation this grant making round. This ensures your donation is used as productively as possible.
If you donate without specifying a Charity Panel preference, we allocate these as Untied Funds and their dispersal is described below.
STEP 4: Granting Untied Funds
If you don’t specify a Charity Panel of choice, we allocate your donation to our Untied Funds Pool.
These Untied Funds are disbursed at our discretion where we consider they will have the most beneficial effect. This might be;
- an emergency relief measure in the case of fire or flood
- education oriented where it can have a positive life-time impact on the student
- individual and family support and disability where it gives a better quality of life to those experiencing hardship with a goal of getting them back on track for a better life.
Untied Funds are also distributed with seasonal timing in mind. For example, funds for education are donated in time for the recipient charity to use at the start of the next teaching year.
STEP 5: Charities Use of Grants
Prior to making a grant, we discuss the possible use of our grant funds with the charities that we may support this grant round.
We are looking for projects that see the funds flow to the clients of the charities rather than its administration.
Other major granting bodies in the Noosa region call for competitive applications once or twice a year for their very worthwhile programs. To complement them, and provide our region with more choice, we have decided to take the different “by invitation” approach.
STEP 6: Due Diligence and Acquittal
- distributed 1,156 grants to
- 698 organizations and individuals
- totaling $37.4 million
- from 550+ funds and bequests
- total funds under management $220+ million
From the discussion above, you can see that we make the distribution of donated funds to local charities systematically and with appropriate due diligence.
If you have any further questions, please contact us on reception@noosa.foundation.