Funding and income sources for community organisations

Choosing to have volunteers spend endless hours fundraising instead of calculating the cost of each membership or participation experience is not a wise or sustainable approach.

Be clear about your membership and participation goals (e.g. increasing numbers or the range of opportunities). Hiring out to other providers and the multi-use of your facilities are other positive ways to increase your organisation's viability, whilst offering improved services to the community. 

Aim to provide a range of membership/participation options that offer good value for money and meet the needs of the target audience. You can include options to support people who may be unable to pay full fees by offering subsidies.

It is important to remember that it isn't only membership/participation fees you are striving to attract. You also need people's enthusiasm and support, which is best gained through active participation.

Ultimately, your membership/participant base influences and increases your capacity to generate income, provide programs and services, attract and inspire volunteers and generate referrals back to your organisation.

Your organisation's culture and the atmosphere created are dependent on your participation base. Read our attracting and retaining participants page for more information on how to increase your membership base.

Make sure all items you sell are appropriately priced and make a profit for the work that goes into providing them.

Consider generating income through the provision of additional services or programs (e.g. school holidays or seniors programs, social competitions).

You can also generate income from hiring out part of your facilities (e.g. kitchen, meeting space/s, clubroom, sporting fields) to other suitable user groups.

Encourage your members and participants to bring along their friends and family to support your event.

Think about ways you can generate additional income at your events (e.g. sale of food and merchandise, raffles, competitions, auctions offering donated prizes).

You can make your annual events more sustainable if you include sponsors and other partners/supporters to help with costs and spread the workload.

These arrangements are often considered an investment for the business. Businesses commonly either want to support community organisations to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility, or to use your name and/or member reach to help sell their products and services. Either way, be mindful to only enter into partnerships where both sides contribute and benefit.

You may choose to have several business sponsors who provide varying levels of support based on what you offer them in return (e.g. naming rights, venue signage, the inclusion of their logo on communication tactics such as newsletters or your website).

Again, it is important to note that these arrangements should not be relied on as primary sources of funding, as they may change based on business needs or other unforeseen circumstances.

To assist with the administration and promotion of donations, there are online donation platforms for not-for-profit organisations such as GiveNow that you can use to receive donations and support.

Make sure you give people a good reason to donate by clearly communicating your mission and future goals. Often individual donors are loyal and will give more money over time provided they can see the benefits of their contributions and are recognised for this.

It can take time and effort to track down potential donors who have funds available to contribute. Be mindful of their motivations for doing so and try to meet these needs to continue attracting their support.

Have your list of members/participants up to date so you can easily communicate with them about opportunities to donate and support your organisation's goals.

Crowdfunding is a great way to raise awareness of your goals and to attract a new audience of supporters.

GiveNow and GoFundMe are crowdfunding platforms you can use to attract funds for your projects.

GiveNow provides a free online donations service where you can also create a CrowdRaiser to raise funds for a specific cause or project. It can also help you to manage your fundraising and gain exposure.

The Australian Sports Foundation (ASF), founded by the Australian Government, provides a platform for organisations, sporting clubs and individual athletes to fundraise. You can use the platform for a range of fundraising activities including crowdfunding, community events, one-off donations and regular giving. The ASF also assists organisations to manage paperwork by processing online and offline donations, ensuring funds are properly used and providing resources to support fundraising efforts.

Rich video (e.g. video) communicating the benefits of your project to members/participants and the local community can help support a crowdfunding campaign.

There are usually set timeframes around when you can apply for grants and when your project must be delivered. Generally, late applications are not accepted and extensions to project timeframes need to be approved by the funding body. You must use the money as agreed and provide evidence of this (acquit your grant) upon completion.

Grants can be highly competitive. There are normally more applicants than there are funds and for this reason, they are not a guaranteed source of income.

All levels of government (federal, state, local) distribute grants, as do many philanthropic and community foundations, not-for-profit organisations and businesses.

To identify grants your organisation may be eligible for, you can:

• search the websites of known funding bodies (e.g. local government)
• subscribe to funding bodies for notifications of upcoming or future grants
• use funding databases.

Before you apply for funding, make sure you are eligible, can meet the selection criteria and have the capacity to deliver the project or program you are proposing, including any required monetary contribution.

To be competitive, your application should demonstrate your ability to deliver the project on time, as proposed and within budget.

Assign someone on your committee to take the lead and be responsible for your fundraising activities. This is a key role in your organisation. 

Ideally, you should also establish a sub-committee to support the funding coordinator.

Consider the success of your past fundraising activities.

Make sure you consider the resources each activity involved, profit and time and effort expended.

List all your income sources from the previous year and the percentage each source represents and whether they are a reliable, repeatable source, or a one-off, such as a grant.

Determine your highest priorities, your most profitable previous funding activities, and if any of your regular sources (e.g. membership fees) need to be reviewed and adjusted to meet your ongoing future costs or intended changes to your level of service. 

Invest time researching income-generating methods that have proven successful for other similar organisations. Explore how they could be applied to your organisation and adapted to suit your operations and member needs.

Determine who has, or could, support your organisation financially including businesses, individuals, and government departments.

There are often several income streams available to support an organisation. The focus you give to each one and their level of importance in terms of your overall funding strategy depends on the nature of your operations and service delivery.

Once you have completed planning, determined goals and responsibilities, reviewed last year's income sources and undertaken research, you need to determine your activities and set targets for each, including stretch goals. Identify the resources required and develop a timeline which includes deadlines for any grant opportunities.

Be realistic when setting targets, particularly for event attendees and membership numbers. Overestimation of numbers can result in overspend based on projected income.

When preparing your funding strategy, keep in mind your 'who, what, why'.

Consider how you can incorporate additional funding or awareness-raising activities (e.g. selling merchandise, displaying membership information at events). Be creative and consider new ways to make fundraising both feasible and profitable.

Your committee or board should approve the funding strategy and be clear about the role it plays in helping generate income.

Monitor your funding strategy regularly by making it a regular committee meeting agenda item. This enables you to track your progress and make changes if one of your tactics is not producing the outcomes you anticipated.

Update your members about your funding strategy, progress, and information about key activities and milestones via your website, newsletters and other communication methods. This ensures everyone in your organisation knows about your funding goals and objectives and how they can support you.

Keep up to date with funding and grant opportunities and be aware about when they open by subscribing to funding information sources.