Non-Profits – Melbourne Women's Fund

HOW WE SUPPORT NON-PROFITS

It's more than Grantmaking

We understand that robust non-profit organisations are crucial to ensuring the health and well-being of our society.

This is a major reason why we provide a Significant Grant and Nurturing Grant annually and do our best to make sure that all of our runners-up receive as much funding as possible by providing Merit Awards.

Because we conduct in-depth assessment and due diligence throughout our grants process, we are confident that every one of our finalist organisations is well-managed and positioned to make the most of any support they receive, whether or not they win our Signature or Nurturing grant.

However, it doesn’t end there. We aspire to support non-profits within our capacity beyond providing annual grants.

With the challenges confronting non-profits due to COVID-19, we believe finding ways to provide further support has become even more important.

Additional Support we provide our Non-Profits

Assisting

to strengthen overall grant-seeking capacity

Supporting

grant winners throughout the grant term and beyond

Building

awareness of our winners and finalists to help increase support for their work

Being available to consult, listen & answer questions through the grant submission process
Providing tailored, written feedback on every unsuccessful grant submission
Delivering one-on-one pitch training to our finalists
Facilitating site visits so members can see finalists' work first-hand

We are delighted if other funders use our grant research to inform their own granting directly to grant recipients.

These are Spark! Grants and you can find out more about them here

What our Finalists say

Just know that whatever the outcome is, you are already part of an amazing, connected, supportive community … A massive thank you to all of the Melbourne Women’s Fund members who have been in touch since we applied for the grant, and particularly recently. It has been a challenging time, but we really appreciate being part of this community

Hannah Brennan

Co-Founder and General Manager of Scarf, 2019 Nurturing Grant recipient, addressing MWF members and 2020 finalists during MWF Information Night

One of the great things that happened after we received the funding from the Melbourne Women’s Fund was that we received some additional funding from some other trusts and foundations. We believe that was directly related to the impact that your funding made on us, that your group is highly respected and others followed where you led the way. We also want to acknowledge the wonderful contacts we have had with many of the women in your giving circle who reached out to us throughout the year and offered their help

Michelle Michie

Philanthropy Manager of Lighthouse Foundation, 2019 Signature Grant recipient, addressing MWF members at the 2020 MWF Information Night

Melbourne Women’s Fund is a Charitable Fund Account of Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation