As Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation looks towards Greater Melbourne’s future, we remain focused on opportunities to address the key issues and challenges facing communities now and beyond.
**Enquiries for 2024 Innovation Grants have closed. Please ensure you are subscribed to be notified about future grant opportunities.**
Whether it is piloting or scaling a new program, service delivery model, or social enterprise, or developing new research, Innovation Grants are to test, develop, and demonstrate new solutions, big or small.
About
Innovation Grants support projects or initiatives aligned with one or more Outcomes of the Foundation's Impact Areas:
Download the 'Examples of previously funded projects' document to better understand the types of projects that the Foundation funds.
The 2024 Innovation Grant round has two grant types:
Seed Innovation Grants
Up to $50,000
These grants support the researching, testing or piloting of a new idea or approach. This includes funding to:
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Test a new concept or idea that will lead to a service improvement or an advance in a major community issue
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Research and build understanding of an area or issue
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Inform program design or policy development, philanthropic investment or identify best practice
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Funding to support the initial development phase of a social enterprise
Note: Seed Innovation grants that demonstrate high impact may be considered for Scaling-Up Innovation grants in future years.
Scaling-up Innovation Grants
Up to $150,000
These grants support the expansion or replication of a proven innovation with the potential to be transformative on a broader community or systems level. This work can include:
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Piloting or scaling-up a new service model or developing social enterprise
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Applying a new approach to improving service effectiveness and/or service quality
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Increasing impact and/or service effectiveness through sharing space or back office support, or other forms of partnership, merger or collaboration
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Building an understanding of an emerging issue or area through applied research (i.e. research that has application in practice)