Community Action Grants
2012-13

If you are successful, you will be responsible for managing your project within agreed timelines.

Funding obligations

What are the conditions of receiving a Community Action Grant?

If you are successful, you will be responsible for managing your project within agreed timelines. You will also be responsible for monitoring, reporting and acquitting your expenditure. For groups that are not legal entities, the organisation that has applied on your behalf (the sponsor) is legally responsible for ensuring all contractual requirements are met.

If the applicant organisation is registered for GST, the total budget including GST must not exceed $22 000. If the applicant organisation is not registered for GST, the total budget including GST must not exceed $20 000.

Applicants should be aware that, if they are successful, Commonwealth policy requires Australian Government Land and Coasts to publish information about the applicant on the Caring for our Country website.

Published information includes but is not limited to:

  • name of the community group and sponsor receiving the grant
  • amount of funding received
  • term of the grant
  • project description and funding location.

By submitting an application for funding under this grant program, the applicant consents to the publication of the above information by Australian Government Land and Coasts. All information in the application will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988. However, information may also be provided to other Commonwealth departments, government organisations, assessors, regional natural resource management bodies, members of parliament, the media and other stakeholders for the purposes of assessment, information dissemination or publicising projects.

Applicants are required to obtain all necessary planning approvals for their project, including the permission of the landowner or land manager for any project on private or public land.

Successful applicants will not be able to receive funding unless they have adequate public liability insurance for the period of the grant.

What are the monitoring and reporting requirements?

The Australian Government places a high priority on monitoring and reporting for all Caring for our Country projects.

Monitoring and reporting requirements for Community Action Grants are:

  • a simple progress report on your project at three months which outlines the activities that have been completed
  • a final report on project outcomes and financial expenditure.

Australian Government staff may conduct site visits to discuss progress, issues and opportunities.
The Australian Government will provide grantees with the required reporting format for the progress and final reports. At the conclusion of projects, the Australian Government may publish case studies of some successful projects, detailing achievements, information about the community group, what has been learnt and how the project will be sustained into the future.

Note: Failure to meet the required reporting obligations within the given time frame may impact on your eligibility for future Caring for our Country funding.

How will projects be acquitted?

If you are successful, one of your most important obligations as a recipient of public monies is to report on the progress of the project undertaken with the funds you have received. Once your project is completed, you will be required to acquit the Caring for our Country Community Action Grants funding you have spent.

This will involve having an independent qualified accountant examine your records and sign a certified statement that all funds have been expended in accordance with your funding deed.

You will also be required to sign a statutory declaration confirming that you have expended all funds in accordance with your funding deed. You will need to provide a final acquittal within eight weeks of the agreed completion date for your project.

Will I need to acknowledge Caring for our Country?

Successful applicants will be required to acknowledge the grant provided by the Australian Government's Caring for our Country Community Action Grants program in accordance with the Recognition of Caring for our Country Guidelines.