NSW council boosts community's grantseeking power
Posted on 07 Feb 2024
Cumberland City Council in the western suburbs of Sydney has enhanced the economic capacity of the local community by integrating the grants database SmartySearch into its website, a strategic move away from its previous time-consuming monthly newsletter system.
SmartySearch, a product of the Funding Centre, an Our Community enterprise, helps councils to share funding opportunities with community and business groups.
Funding Centre manager Stef Ball said, "The goal of developing SmartySearch was to enable councils to support their community and business groups while providing easy access to grants information for grantseekers."
SmartySearch is a customised version of the Funding Centre’s comprehensive grants database, which hosts over 1500 live grants at any point in time from grantmakers across Australia. To create SmartySearch, the Funding Centre generates a tailored database using location parameters based on a council’s local government area and other customisable filters.
Cumberland City Council grants officer Vivian Li coordinated the database integration, noting, "We appreciated the hands-on support during the set-up. It's a smooth process overall."
Database integration required only a simple line of code to be embedded into the council’s website.
SmartySearch has allowed Cumberland council to allocate resources more effectively.
"We don't send the funding newsletter any more,” Ms Li said. “The tool has been a time-saver."
Now, community members, business and other groups, schools and individuals within the Cumberland area can easily browse grants for free on the council’s website, with no registration, no log-in and no search limits.
"We don't send the funding newsletter any more,” Ms Li said. “The tool has been a time-saver."
Located about 25 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD, the Cumberland City Council area is home to over 230,000 residents, 53.2% of whom were born overseas.
Ms Li highlighted the ease of use and effectiveness of SmartySearch, saying, "It streamlines the process for those seeking grants."
She actively promotes SmartySearch within the council and externally, showing community groups how to use it to find grants on their own.
"It's just typing what you're looking for and clicking search, that's pretty much it."
For councils looking to save time and money and enhance the capacity of their community and business groups to find funds, SmartySearch offers a practical solution. An annual subscription starts at $1500 for SmartyGrants local council customers, and $3000 for other councils in Australia.
The video above showcases Cumberland City Council's SmartySearch in action.