NGO Grants Program: FAQs, additional information and resources

Local or community organisations can apply if they meet the requirements for NGOs and are incorporated under relevant legislation.

Applications should be for grants between $320,000 - $800,000 ($80,000 - $200,000 per year), as outlined in the eligibility criteria within the grant guidelines. Grants for amounts outside of this will not be accepted.​

Funding within the first financial year of the program (FY 2023/24) maybe provided on a pro rata basis relative to the implementation plan and budget provided within an individual application. This will be assessed on a case by the case basis and written into the grant agreement.

Projects may include but are not limited to creation or delivery of resources, programs and initiatives that address one or more of the objectives of the grants program.

In addition to this, grants must: meet one or more objective/s of the End of Life and Palliative Care Grants Program as outlined in the grant guidelines be used to fund projects or initiatives within NSW not duplicate the work or objectives of existing programs or resources covered under an existing funding agreement with Federal, local or NSW Government be used for initiatives that align with the NSW End of Life and Palliative Care Framework 2019 – 2024 and Future Health: Guiding the next decade of care in NSW 2022 – 2032.

Grants cannot: be used to fund an individual or a Federal, State or local government agency or body be used towards capital infrastructure or administration.

This is an open and competitive grants program. Applications will be assessed and competitively ranked against the assessment criteria outlined in the grant guidelines and application form.

Following an initial eligibility check, assessment panel members will individually score each application, then the panel will meet to finalise consensus scores and develop an order of merit.

Applications with the highest scores are most likely to be funded, however the assessment panel will undertake a strategic review when choosing the final pool of preferred applicants from the order of merit to ensure a diverse breadth of projects are selected that align with the overarching aims of the grants program (listed under section 1.1 in the grant guidelines).

Organisations may submit applications anytime from 12pm 5 February 2024 to 12pm Monday 18 March ​2024.

Applications received after the closing date will be registered as a late response. The Ministry may allow assessment of late responses if there is evidence that the late submission is due to circumstances outside the control of the applying organisation and the integrity of the process is not compromised.

The Ministry will provide confirmation of each received application via return email to the applying organisation. It is the responsibility of organisations to contact the Ministry if they do not receive confirmation of receipt of their application.

Applications must be submitted to the Community Care and Priority Populations, Health and Social Policy Branch via email to ​ MOH-PalliativeCare-NGOGrants@health.nsw.gov.au​

Applications must be submitted in full, inclusive of all completed required documents, in Microsoft Word format (with file name ending in “.doc” or “.docx”) or Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf).

Applications must include approval from a person or persons in the organisation that has the delegated authority to provide grant application endorsement and approval.

Please visit the End of Life and Palliative Care NGO Grants page on the NSW Grants and Funding Finder for further information on eligibility and how to apply.​

All correspondence and queries must be submitted to the Community Care and Priority Populations, Health and Social Policy Branch email: MOH-PalliativeCare-NGOGrants@health.nsw.gov.au.

In-line with the NSW Grants Administration Guide, the Ministry is required to provide all applicants with the same information throughout the application period. Questions related to the grants program will be provided a standard response and will be responded to via the Frequently asked questions.

Grant funds will be made available following sign-off of the grant agreement with each individual grantee. Pro rata payments may be considered for first-year funding depending on budget expenditure in line with the applicant's implementation plan. This will be included in the grant agreement.

Signed grant agreements must be received by NSW Health by 30 June 2024 to be eligible to receive first-year (FY2023/24) funding. Grant agreements received after this date will forfeit their first-year funding. The Ministry will liaise with successful grantees to assist where possible for grant agreements to be completed and received by NSW Health by this date. ​

As above, proposed projects should not duplicate any existing work, or objectives of an existing program that is funded by Federal, local or NSW Government.

Organisations may apply for grant funding to expand a new or novel arm of an existing program that has new or separate activity and objectives. ​​

Each organisation can submit one application either as an individual organisation or as part of a consortium. Note, all parties within a consortium are liable for the full performance of the grant agreement as per Administration of NSW Health Grant Funding for Non-Government Organisations.

The grants program aims to support new and improved collaboration and partnerships in palliative and end of life care between communities, services, programs and organisations. As such, letters of support for another NGO or collaboration and informal partnerships are supported and do not constitute a 'joint application.'

Organisations are encouraged to provide responses within the word limit. Organisations may refer to and provide links to supporting documents, however these must be of appropriate recency and relevance to the eligibility or assessment criteria, the requirements of the program, or to demonstrate partnership with other organisations. Responses that excessively exceed the word limit may be considered ineligible.

​The grants program runs on financial years from FY 2023/24 – 2026/27

​Yes that is correct. Year 1 of the program is FY 2023/24.

Given the timeframe for grants administration and to expend funding this financial year (FY 2023-24), grants may be awarded on a pro rata basis within the first financial year, dependent on the nature of the project, its budget and implementation plan. Proposed budgets and implementation costs must be realistic and specific to the project. Following this, grants will be paid biannually for the remainder of the four-year grants program, pending receipt of 6-monthly progress reports from the grantee.

Further to this, concession may be given for carry-over of funds by NGOs where applicants can justify how unspent funds will be used in the following year and this does not exceed [20%] of the grant available to the grantee in a financial year.

Grantees will need to request carry over of unspent funds in writing to the Ministry and these requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis in-line with the long form grant agreement template found within Administration of NSW Health Grant Funding for Non-Government Orgnisations​.

To ensure the grants program is fair and equitable, we are required to provide all grant applicants with the same information at the same time. We can provide further advice on specific questions related to the program, to the extent that this advice does not disadvantage other applicants and is in-line with the grant guidelines, however we cannot provide assistance with individual applications.  

​Administration costs related to the grant are in-scope and should be outlined in an applicant's budget under the “project budget" assessment criteria. Programmatic administrative costs that are included within the project budget should directly relate to the delivery of the project, service or activity to achieve the outcome intended. Any administration costs that are not directly related to the applicant's proposed grant activity are out of scope, for example administrative costs that support the day-to-day operations of an organisation.