What are Grants and What can they Fund?
Grant funding can be a real lifesaver for businesses. It helps to pay for difficult costs, which give a business the runway to take off, grow or innovate. Across Australia, there is an abundance of grants on offer. In this blog post, we’re going to run through what kinds of businesses are eligible to apply for grants in Australia, and at the same time, detail what types of grant funding can cover. Here’s an outline for grant funding in Australia: What types of businesses are eligible to apply for grant funding in Australia? What does grant funding actually pay for?
1. Who is Eligible for Grants in Australia?
Depending on the grant program, there are varying criteria for grant eligibility, which means that businesses in different sectors have different opportunities to access grant funding in Australia. These are the industries, and type of business models most eligible at the moment:
1. Businesses that seek to address a social or environmental issue through a sustainable business model usually have a range of grants available to them, because they are designed to have a positive effect on a community.
2. Community Assistance Providers: Non-profit and for-profit organisations that provide health, education, housing, social assistance or other services to communities can tap into a wide variety of grant programmes aimed at enhancing community welfare.
3. Sustainable and Environmental Businesses: Since there are increasing concerns that must be addressed now, a small business that has a missions involving issues of sustainability, renewable energy, waste reduction and other environment-friendly practices is highly eligible for grants.
4. Food and Beverage: Australian grants tend to prioritise businesses in the food and beverage sector, particularly those innovating in healthy foods, sustainable farming and food technology.
5. Arts and Culture: Transformational policies have seen the state provide generous grants for the arts and foster wider participation locally, regionally and nationally. Grants for the arts are funded under 13 categories, including visual arts, screen, community arts programmes, residencies etc. These grants and state-sponsored cultural activities serve to enrich people’s lives as well as promoting the creative economy.
6. Technology and Innovation: Businesses offering new products or services might become eligible for funding that specifically encourages technological smarts, such as startups and tech firms in health tech, edtech and green technology.
7. Organisations Serving Women Only and by Women Only: Grants for Women-Owned Businesses or Organisations That Benefit Women in the Community, for example.
8. Indigenous-Controlled Businesses: businesses that are Indigenous controlled are eligible for grants for ‘growing Indigenous economic development, culture and community’.
2. What can Grant Funding Cover?
If you’ve figured out that your business would be eligible for grant funding, it’s important to get a sense of what these grants can be used for. Of course, each grant scheme will come with its own eligibility criteria and objectives; however, here are some of the areas commonly funded by grant funding:
1. Research and Development (R&D): R&D grants help fund product development, market research and feasibility studies. This can come in very handy to a technology business looking to develop or enhance its offerings.
2. Equipment and infrastructure: Grants can help pay for the purchase of new equipment, for renovating existing facilities and for building new infrastructure. Such support can be crucial for businesses wanting to ramp up production facilities or improve service delivery capacity.
3. Marketing and Promotion: Some grants assist with entry and expansion into new markets by providing funding for marketing and promotion activities for your company, such as branding, advertising campaigns, website development or participation in trade shows.
4. Staff Training and Development: For industry growth, often training staff is a major expense. Grants can cover the cost of training in new skills, whether that be improving leadership capability, aiding up-skilling of employees or even providing apprenticeships.
5. Business Expansion: Grants can be used to grow the business either through getting a foothold in a new market, enhancing or launching new products, or at the very least, scaling up manufacturing to meet consumer demand.
6. Community Projects: Businesses undertaking community-focused projects will be able to offset costs spent on programme delivery, community engagement and impact assessment. Social enterprises and community service providers will find this beneficial.
7. Environmental Sustainability and Green Initiatives: Grants in this award theme offer assistance to organisations in reducing their carbon footprint through initiatives to reduce energy usage, cut waste, and/or develop new environmentally sustainable products.
8. Digital Change: Grants help companies improve their digital systems and make it easier to order things online. The grant landscape is complex and time-consuming which is why we are here to help you , firstly identifying and then writing the most suitable grant that best suites your business needs and lastly managing the complicated grant requirements through our Hustle Helper approach.
3. Our Services Include:
Grant Research and Identification: Determining types of grant funding best suited to your business, for what purpose, and geographic location.
Grant Writing and Submission: We craft customised grant petitions geared toward funding programs’ exact qualification guidelines.
Grant Management: We’re handling all the paperwork – that is, tracking deadlines and submitting reports.
Would you like Hustle Helper to win grants for your business? Go to hustlehelper.com.au to book your initial consultation!