SmartyGrants COVID-19 Grantmaking Survey 2020

A total of 87 grantmakers responded to Our Community’s two-week survey. Grantmakers from local and state governments made up the largest cohort of respondents, however responses were received from grantmakers representing a broad range of sectors, including federal government entities, philanthropic and corporate trusts and foundations, and educational institutions.

Grantmakers providing funding in the larger eastern states of Australia dominated the sample, however responses were received from grantmakers providing funding in all Australian states and territories, as well as to New Zealand and other overseas locations.

In terms of grant spend, responses were received from grantmakers of all sizes, however the majority of respondents (89%) were small and medium sized grantmakers (granting less than $10 million per annum).

Grantmakers indicated a diversity of focus areas for their funding, with many respondents reporting multiple focus areas. The largest area of focus was Community Development, (selected by 71% of respondents), followed by Arts and Culture, (53%), Economic Development (43%), Environment (43%), and Sports and Recreation (43%).

Unsurprisingly for a survey of grantmakers, cash grants were the dominant form of support provided (selected by 90% of respondents). However, respondents also reported providing a range of other non-grant supports including awards, scholarships and contracts/tenders.

“A large focus previously was on Community Run events; obviously these cannot take place or be planned for at present”

“Have focussed on sustaining own and partner organisations”

“Our Quick Response Grants program focus was changed to prioritise applications that assisted vulnerable people and community members affected by the COVID-19 restrictions and helped community organisations to provide a safe environment for volunteers and staff. Initiatives that supported the community to address social isolation and support social cohesion were also considered.”

“Only in the short term we are looking to directly support organisations who can demonstrate increased need due to Covid or require funding to adapt existing programs to comply with current restrictions. We have retained our regular grant programming but delayed closing dates and project completion dates.”

“We used to train women in groups but changed webinar and WhatsApp group networking”

“Ensure recipients could provide the program, event or use the equipment funded by the grant with social distancing in place”

”There has been a focus on improving grants available to businesses plus an effort to do a 'health' check on the program to ensure it is streamlined and best practice.”

“Increased focus on stimulating economy through small to medium businesses, provide resources to enable groups to reactivate community spaces; focus on enabling community organisation to recommence activity and look at new ways of doing things to enable communities to stay connected.”

“Funding for grant program has been provided through an organisation requiring certain COVID-19 recovery related outcomes. However, the priorities around supporting arts and cultural projects has not changed.”

“Funding priorities that are not normally included in our annual round were material aid and equipment (eg laptop etc for communication purposes)”

“Focus on ability to deliver promised activities and engagement of the community”

“Giving handouts to anyone eligible rather than to address the organisation's strategic priorities (building sector resilience and creating compelling content).”

“Grants for interstate/international travel have been redirected to be more localised due to travel bans and social gathering restrictions.”

“We have had to look at life after COVID-19 and extra support services for the financially vulnerable”

“Greater emphasis on material aid, but we do still have community building priorities too.”

“Unfortunately, businesses across the state will close as a result of COVID-19. Further work will be undertaken to identify impacted industries, regional needs and future opportunities to rebuild and stablise a strong economy. There are some businesses / industries that have thrived during COVID-19 and will be able to capitalise on this growth without grant funding, others who may have closed or partially closed, yet have a strong business plan and future prospects, may need a helping hand to move forward. We will be looking for these state owned and operated businesses that have strong future prospects and good jobs opportunities / growth. Although this criteria played a part in our grant making in the past our focus becomes more around the local ecomomy, local produce, local manufacturing and assisting businesses to be able to adapt to market changes, along with new safety protocols.”

“We contacted organisations by email and by telephone to gauge when their funded project is likely to be postponed. Results were entered into a form in SmartyGrants to capture who needed what variation. Variations were drafted outside of SmartyGrants but emailed to them thru SmartyGrants. In an ideal world, we would upskill ourselves and our processes to send and receive documentation through SmartyGrants and not externally by email.”

“Variation forms and funding agreements”

“Created a project variation application form to be completed by the grantee.”

“Applied a grant variation form to those applicant requiring changes to approve grants”

“Mailout informing grantees of decision, recording keeping in Standard Fields and updating reporting due dates”

“Only to change the date on acquittals due.”

“Applied a grant variation form to those applicants requiring changes to approve grants”

“6-month extension was put in as a file note (less onerous for recipients). All other variations are submitted via a project variation form (application form) on SmartyGrants. Having all recipients complete a project variation for the 6-month extension was thought to be added pressure given the social climate in early March.”

“They requested an extension to their project finish time, which we approved. Not sure where we'd note that in SmartyGrants.”

“New questions added to applications, reopened submitted forms to apply the changes. These changes allowed us to deliver the change in policy in a blanket basis”

“We have an acquittal form called "Variation Request" and an internal administration form to assess and approve the variation”

“We used the "stage" system to help us indicate where projects were at, email system to inform grantees and the Acquittal area to adjust the due date of acquittals”

“Previous rounds (prior to Oct 2019) had less of a reliance on SmartyGrants features, so most contact happened through emails. Only mass communication went via bulk emails from SmartyGrants.”

“How efficient e-meetings can be; especially when there is a bigger physical distance between the parties. Meeting online removes wasted travel time.”

“A slowing down allowing time for a more strategic and considered approach to the way organisations work.”

“The ability to be more creative and flexible operating in a virtual environment.”

“Undertaking procedures to finally work paper-free. Working remotely has forced us to find alternatives to physically signing and scanning documents and moving towards a digital-only environment.”

“As grantmakers we can be responsive, dynamic and adaptable in our grant programs without compromising best practice in grant making, good governance or community outcomes.”

“A slowing down allowing time for a more strategic and considered approach to the way organisations work.”

“Working from home flexibility.”

“Being able to go to work in the spare room in my ugg boots, elasticised pants and fluffy jumpers and still be 'seen' as a professional who knows what she's talking about. Also a bring your dog to work policy would be awesome and probably result in better behaved and socialised dogs in our community - not to mention better behaved humans with improved mental and physical health. Yayyy!!”

“A focus on what really matters. Good health, social connections and a recognition of the importance of the helper in times of crisis.”

“Don't assume you know what the community needs. Find out by contacting them and listening.”

“We’ve had to rethink and look at different approaches to getting things done such as using online tools to do business and to connect with others. We should continue this rethinking and develop tools and resources to draw upon when we need to adapt to future societal challenges and disruptions.”

“To have a grants program that is agile and able to respond to community needs.”

“The ability to combine efforts with groups outside of our organisation. I hope me maintain the level of community involvement and support Post COVID.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the governance role of grants. We are looking to improve the contracts, policies and documentation to maintain good governance but ensure it is simple and responsive.”

“The ability to combine efforts with groups outside of our organisation. I hope we maintain the level of community involvement and support Post COVID.”

“ Flexibility in workplace and also in the delivery of projects. Opportunities for future programs and projects to be accessible both live and digitally to capture a larger audience or number of participants. I hope that people will be more understanding of the restrictions that come with working remotely now they have experienced this and adapt their programs to be more accessible to people who have always operated in that space.”

“The separation due to Covid-19 within the community groups has clearly increased in the passion and desire to be connected and more engaged. The explosion of the use of collaborative digital tools has shown how individuals have adapted to the isolation and reaching out to each other. These new found tools will hopefully ensure future connectiveness and support."

“That we will show kindness and support to those in any kind of need, and continue to build up our local communities and neighbourhoods.”

“Capacity and drive to change. As a business we work best in ‘incident mode’. Collaboration and innovative solutions are supported.”

“The need to support your local community (both economically and socially) has really been highlighted during the pandemic. We've always practised this, however it's been so great to see this message being promoted far and wide, over the past few months. Let's hope this continues for many years to come!”

“Workplace flexibility.”

“That by slowing down you can achieve more. Take a breath, be in your garden, play Lego with your kids and then come to work and find everything just flows instead of building up and tensing in your shoulders. It's much easier to work with someone, client or colleague, after you see their humanity. Their cat/kid/dog/spouse walking through the back of the Zoom meeting has made me realise everyone is actually in same damn boat as me!”

“We need to be collaborative, flexible, adaptive to change, open to new ways and have a good understanding of risk at all levels to enable us to move forward in these unprecedented times. 'Luck is where opportunity meets preparedness'.”

“The ability to change/adapt on the run when required. Overall, we have done a good job in changing the focus, maybe fine tuning it as well, to deliver better against the needs of our community through the grants we provide. It would be nice to think this focus and fine tuning can continue into the future without a disaster forcing us to consider change.”

“COVID-19 has highlighted the pride my team take in being supportive and flexible in our approach to funding community projects, and the acknowledgement from the community that we will try to make grant funding easy and as customised as possible to their needs.”

“More contact with community groups to find out how they are going, and the creation of a monthly hard copy Council newsletter and therefore targeting people who are not connected to the internet or are not familiar with computers.”