Congratulations to the 220 organisations who received a grant in 2017. Read about the amazing work they are doing in communities to improve the wellbeing of young Australians.
Our people chose one organisation with national reach to receive our National Grant. The grant includes $400,000 a year for three years and our people support a major annual fundraiser for the charity.
With skill, empathy and a whole lot of fun, these professional entertainers do so much for kids in hospitals around the country. As a founding partner, Commonwealth Bank has been proudly supporting the Clown Doctors since 1999.
Each year, the Clown Doctors help the lives of more than 240,000 sick children and their families by conducting ‘Clown Rounds’ in every major children’s hospital in Australia. And with the help of our people through the CommBank Foundation, the Clown Doctors continue to deliver fun and laughter across the country.
During April, you can help us help the Clown Doctors deliver more emergency fun by donating in any CommBank Branch or online. Each year, we aim to raise $150,000 in additional support for the Clown Doctors, which will create 64,000 magic moments with patients, families and staff.
Our people in each state and territory selected, via popular vote, an organisation that they will support with a grant ranging from $50,000 a year to $100,000 a year for a period of three years.
Our Grassroots Grants are selected by our people and are awarded to charities creating a better society for youth in our communities.
From 2017 - 2020, our people will award $6,013,371 in Grassroots Grants to 211 organisations. Read about the amazing work they are doing in our communities to improve the wellbeing of young Australians.
To be eligible to apply for a Community Grant your organisation must:
State based subcommittees made up of Commonwealth Bank staff assess each application against the judging matrix
DGR status is granted by the ATO. It allows entities or funds to receive tax deductible gifts and ensures that gifts and contributions are used appropriately to benefit the community. As well as holding DGR status your organisation must also be covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth), from the time of the application until the end of the Term.
Whether it’s your organisation or an organisation you want to encourage to apply for a Community Grant, you can check its DGR status by searching on the Australian Business Register (ABR) website.
Where possible, it’s best to search by ABN because some community organisations have multiple ABNs. When searching by ABN, enter the number without spaces or dashes. If your organisation has DGR status, its webpage on the ABR website will include a section titled ‘Deductible gift recipient status’ which will state that your entity is either ‘endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) or it ‘operates the following funds, authorities or institutions. Gifts to these funds, authorities or institutions may be deductible.’ Its status must also be covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act, 1997 (Cth) to be eligible to apply.
Whether it’s your organisation or an organisation you want to encourage to apply for a Community Grant, you can check its DGR status by searching on the Australian Business Register (ABR) website.
Where possible, it’s best to search by ABN because some community organisations have multiple ABNs. When searching by ABN, enter the number without spaces or dashes. If your organisation has DGR status, its webpage on the ABR website will include a section titled ‘Deductible gift recipient status’ which will state that your entity is either ‘endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) or it ‘operates the following funds, authorities or institutions. Gifts to these funds, authorities or institutions may be deductible.’ Its status must also be covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act, 1997 (Cth) to be eligible to apply.
Yes. When you apply, you must fill in the name field using the convention ‘(Your organisation name) under the auspices of (main organisation name).’
If you receive a grant, it needs to be paid into a bank account in the name of the main organisation because they are the entity with DGR status. In addition, a tax deductible receipt would need to be provided to us from the main organisation. The main organisation would transfer the sum of the grant to your organisation for the project you intend to run.
Organisations without DGR status are not eligible to apply for a community grant.
Organisations can apply for a Grassroots Grant of up to $10,000 each year over 3 years, totaling a maximum of $30,000. This may be supplemented with additional funding from other sources if required.
No unfortunately we cannot provide grant funding in advance. Grant funding will be awarded on an annual basis in equal payments no later than 1 October each year of the three year term. See Grant Guidelines section 2 a) for more information.
No our grants rounds will now be conducted on a three year cycle. Our next round of Community Grants will open in 2020.
Successful grant recipients must spend all funds within 12 months of receiving the annual grant funding. A feedback survey will be sent on the 1 June annually to confirm how the grant was used. The survey forms must be submitted before subsequent payments can be released. For organisations that submit the survey form by the 30 June annually, their subsequent payment will be released soon after the 1 July. For all other organisations, the second payment will be released once the survey form is received. All survey forms must be returned to us by the 1 October, 5pm annually to be eligible to receive subsequent payments.
The Community Grants are funded through donations from current and retired Commonwealth Bank staff that are matched dollar-for-dollar by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Only an authorised representative of an eligible organisation can apply for a grant.
No. In the application, we ask if the organisation is a customer for administration purposes only.
The question in the application ‘Where will the project occur?’ relates to the suburb or region where the project will take place, not a specific venue. If you don’t know the suburb or region, you could state the location where the majority of people the program will benefit live. If neither option is suitable, use your organisation’s address. Importantly, if the program will take place in a different state to where your organisation is based, you should list the state in which the program will take place, not the state you are based. This is because applications are assessed on a state-by-state basis. For example, applications for programs run in Queensland are assessed by a group of employees in Queensland alongside other Queensland applications.
Yes, as long as your organisation still meets all of the eligibility criteria.
An organisation can apply for multiple applications for programs if they’re run in separate locations or if they’re managed out of a distinct state or territory. Please see Grassroots Grant Guidelines Section 3 (b).
Applications are currently closed. To help prepare your application, you can preview the grant application questions. Only applications that are submitted using our online application form will be accepted.
When preparing your application for a Community Grant, we encourage you to:
When applying for a grant, follow these steps:
Once your organisation's ABN has been checked against the ATO to confirm DGR status, a username and password will be given to you. You’ll also receive an email with your username and password for your reference. If you don't complete the application at one time, you can use your username and password to log back on – remember to select ‘Save’ before exiting your application.
You may be able to retrieve your application information by visiting this webpage and selecting ‘Apply now’. This will bring up the first page of the application form, where you will be asked to resume your application if you’ve already filled out your details and been given a username and password. When entering your username and password, please type rather than copying and pasting them. If this does not bring up your application information, you will need to re-start your application.
Only applications submitted online via our website can be accepted.
Select ‘Preview the application’ under ‘Preparing your application’ section on this page. You can print this page if you need to.
Unfortunately, given the volume of applications we receive across Australia each year, we require applicants to fit within the character count, which includes spaces, for each question. Where possible, we encourage you to write your answers in point form to help reduce the number of characters in each answer. We are unable to accept or review supporting documents as part of any application.
Unfortunately, we’re unable to accept any late applications. Refer to the Section 5(b) of our Grassroots Grants Guidelines for more information. If you miss the application deadline, we encourage you to apply for a grant in 2020.
Committees of employees from around Australia assess the applications from each state using the judging matrix. Successful applications are announced via email. Successful applicants will receive their grant funding in the form of a bank cheque by 1 October annually.1
1Selected organisations may be invited to participate in Community Grant presentation prior to this date.
