Zoe Moffatt
Macedon Ranges council has updated its grants policy in an effort to streamline the process and improve access equity and transparency, while clarifying the guidelines.
Councillors adopted the Community Grants Policy 2024 at a meeting on April 24, which brought additional programs under the policy, including small project grants, Australia Day grants, environment group support grants and Neighbourhood House Funding Program.
A review of the Community Funding Scheme (CFS) and Small Project Grants (SPG) program was also undertaken, and its guidelines were updated to clarify that private schools are not eligible to apply for grants under these programs.
In the agenda, council said “public schools remain eligible to apply, as long as they can demonstrate broad community benefit and participation in their project beyond the school community.
“However, private schools have been deemed ineligible to apply, as they are considered for-profit/commercial organisations.”
Speaking to the motion, councillor Jennifer Anderson said it’s important to review the policy each year, to finesse it and make it easier to follow.
“We already had some good policies in place, but [it’s important] to get uniformity and make the whole process simpler for people,” Cr Anderson said.
“We now have a program in the background that helps to track these programs and assist with our applicants.
“I think putting everything together and [makes] it very clear to applicants how the process occurs.
“It’s a really great open, transparent, well governed process and I think it improves from year to year.”
The review has also added a statement in the grants policy to indicate that failure to comply with funding conditions may render organisations ineligible for further funding until resolved.
Cr Rob Guthrie said the grant programs are important and council runs them for the benefit of the community.
“I think it’s good to have these guidelines, I think it makes it very clear for people,” he said.
“The guidelines make it very clear what is required [and] sets out how these projects are assessed, which is very important and that councillors aren’t actively involved in that assessment.
Cr Guthrie said the next stage of the process is to provide education for residents on how to write the application for the grants.
