About the grants

The objectives of the QMHW Community Events Grant Program are to support the overall aims of QMHW, which are to:

• raise awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing
• increase understanding of mental illness and recovery
• reduce stigma and discrimination.

The QMHW Community Events Grant Program will have two separate rounds in 2022 – the (1) Community Grant Round, which is open to applications for a diverse range of events, and the (2) Youth Grant Round, which is solely open to applications related to events targeted at young people (aged 21 and under).

Community Grant Round applicants must submit the application form by 5:00 pm AEST on Friday 6 May 2022.

Youth Grant Round applicants must submit the application form by 5:00 pm AEST on Friday 13 May 2022.

It is recommended that you submit your application well before the closing time and date.

No, extensions will not be given.

If an application is late or CheckUP is requested to approve a lodgement after the closing date the late application policy available in the grant guidelines will apply.

Up to $100,000 (GST exclusive) is currently available for this grant opportunity. There has been $80,000 has been earmarked for the Community Grant Round and $20,000 earmarked for the Youth Grant Round.

Under the Community Grant Round, eligible organisations can apply for either $3000, $1000, or $500 (GST exclusive).

Under the Youth Grant Round, the amounts that are offered are $1000 or $500 (GST exclusive).

Further recommendations for what amount organisations should apply for are available in the grant guidelines.

Please keep in mind when submitting your application that those who apply for a higher grant amount and are not successful can advise on the application form whether they want to have their event considered for a lower funding amount.

No. Funding is for events to be held to celebrate QMHW 2022.

Events funded under the Community Grant Round must occur between 8 October – 16 October 2022 and those funded under the Youth Grant Round must occur during October 2022.

Organisations must have an ABN or be auspiced by an organisation with an ABN, hold Public Liability Insurance of $20 million, and commit to undertake the funded event in Queensland.

The following are eligible to apply for funding under the Community Grant Round:

• incorporated non-government organisations, not-for-profits, and community groups
• local councils
• Indigenous Knowledge Centres

The following are eligible to apply for funding under the Youth Grant Round:

• incorporated non-government organisations, not-for-profits, and community groups
• primary school and high school parents and citizens’ associations (state schools are government entities and may only apply via their P&C)
• local councils
• Indigenous Knowledge Centres.

Applications from consortia are acceptable and encouraged for both grant rounds, but you must have a lead applicant listed on your grant application who is accountable to CheckUP for the delivery of grant activities and is an eligible entity as per the list above.

If your organisation is not any of the above, or does not have $20 million in public liability insurance, you can be auspiced (sponsored) by an organisation or local council that meets the above criteria.

You are not eligible to apply if you are a/an:

• individual
• sole trader or partnership
• political or religious organisations (excluding religious not-for-profits that deliver community services and faith-based schools)
• State, Territory or Australian government agency/entity (state schools must apply via their P&C for the Youth Grant Round)
• unincorporated association
• You have received sponsorship from the Queensland Mental Health Commission in 2022 already for a QMHW event.

The predominant reason for the event must not be to fundraise for or promote the applicant organisation.

All applications and are acquittals are to be completed using SmartyGrants, an online grants management system. You can sign up for a free account or use your existing account at checkup.smartygrants.com.au.

CheckUP will not provide application forms or accept application forms for this grant opportunity by fax, email, or mail.

We encourage you to preview the application form for your respective grant round when it goes live to ensure you have all the information you need. Some of the information you will need, includes:

• your SmartyGrants login details. If you do not have an existing login, you can create a free account for your organisation by registering your details.
• a summary of your proposed event, the estimated number of participants, and target audience
• your organisation Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australian Company Number (ACN)
• digital copy of your organisations or auspicing organisations Public Liability Certificate of Currency showing the insured coverage amount as $20 million or more to submit to in the application
• bank details
• an outline of your proposed budget for what you will spend the grant funding on.

Please note that state schools applying for the Youth Grant Round should ensure they provide the ABN for their P&C, not their school.

You can only spend the grant for the purposes of implementing your event. Funded events can occur in-person, virtually, or a combination of both!

The below outlines eligible and ineligible grant activities for both the Community Grant Round and School Grant Round.

Eligible grant activities

Grant funding can be spent on a wide variety of items and fees that support event delivery. Examples include:

• venue hire and associated costs, such as equipment hire, permits and security
• catering (e.g., morning tea, bottled water, and other non-alcoholic beverages)
• guest speakers, temporary instructors and/or mental health specialists engaged specifically for your event
• engaging Traditional Owners and Elders for Welcome to Country, musicians and/or artists
• activity and workshop supplies (e.g., paints, craft materials, plants)
• printing and photocopying of QMHW materials or resources on mental health for distribution to event attendees (e.g., mental health bags).

Ineligible grant activities

Grant funding cannot be used to cover:

• fundraising, organisational running costs (e.g., staff wages), capital works, major equipment, or assets
• administration fees, including phone and postage charges
• computers or computer software
• cloth napkins or crockery
• gifts of any sort or raffle prizes
• costs otherwise not attributable to the implementation of your event.

Events or activities that are not eligible for funding are those that:

• promote or involve the use of alcohol or other drugs
• focus on product endorsements
• do not recognise or respect the diversity of individuals, families, communities, or cultures
• are delivered outside of Queensland
• are considered high risk or contravene the Queensland Mental Health Commission’s policies or policy intent
• seek to deliver or provide services that the organisation or other organisations routinely provide
• duplicate existing government and/or non-government programs or projects
• are the responsibility of Australian Government or Queensland Government agencies to deliver.

You can connect people to a range of events and activities, either face-to-face or online.

Your event could feature guest speakers talking about different mental health and wellbeing topics, centre around the arts, or focus on activities that boost mental health, using the building blocks of mental wellbeing as inspiration. We encourage creativity and innovation!

Many of the larger events that were funded by the grant program last year featured lived experience speakers and had stalls with mental health service providers among the stallholders.

Additional examples of activities/initiatives that were part of grant-funded events last year include:

• Affirmation and gratitude walls
• Animal visits with a discussion on the mental health benefits of pet ownership and/or volunteering for an animal welfare organisation
• Art and music therapy classes
• Art competitions and exhibitions
• Basket weaving
• Breakfasts, BBQs and morning teas with guest speakers and story sharing sessions
• Classroom activities, including poster creation and the utilisation of a books as stimulus
• Craft sessions, including the creation of hand-painted banners
• Cooking demonstrations from community nutritionists and bush tucker sessions
• Dance classes and dance battles
• Dramatherapy
• Equine-assisted therapy sessions
• Gardening
• Gratitude journaling
• Live music
• Mental health quiz
• Mindfulness activities
• Mural painting
• Music concerts with artists singing about their mental health journeys
• Nature drawing
• Poetry readings
• Psychologist meet-and-greets
• Scavenger hunts and obstacle courses
• Screen printing with positive mental health messages
• Sensory bags and fidget toys
• Smoking ceremonies
• Sound bath healing
• Stalls in high-traffic areas providing mental health resources
• Talks on mental health, nutrition, fitness, communication, domestic violence, and disaster recovery
• Totem design
• Walking, yoga, group fitness, tai-chi and pilates sessions
• Wellbeing packs, including information on local supports
• Welcome to Country ceremonies
• Workshops, webinars and video podcasts
• Yarning circles

You can read about the 2021 grants program and the successful applicants in this article on the QMHW website.

Please note that only one application per organisation per grant round is allowed. If your organisation is planning to host a couple of events (or the same event in multiple regions), you may want to apply for a larger grant amount.

Also, whilst we greatly encourage partnerships, two or more organisations cannot apply for the same event or activity. If a consortium is planning an event, please ensure you discuss which organisation is applying to ensure there aren’t multiple submissions.

Most grant programs, with the exception of a few, are competitive programs. This means you are competing against other applicants for the same pool of funds.

Only applications that meet all the eligibility criteria will be assessed. Those that meet the selection criteria (available in the grant guidelines) to the highest level will have the greatest chance of funding.

You can increase your chance of success by checking the below.

• Have you assessed your eligibility before applying? It is critical that you read the grant guidelines before starting your application.
• Is your explanation of your event clear?
• Have you added items into the budget that will help create impact or show value for money? Or have you included items that are not permissible (e.g., staff wages, alcohol)? Our guidelines state what the grant funding can and cannot go towards.
• Have you attached all the necessary documents? It’s critical to allow plenty of time to gather the necessary documentation as part of your grant planning.

General advice for grant writing is available via Business Queensland, here.

Applications submitted for the QMHW Community Events Grant Program are judged by Assessment Panels whose members are bound by confidentiality. The recommendations of the Assessment Panel are provided to the Queensland Mental Health Commission for approval. All decisions made by the Assessment Panel and the Commission are final.

Please note that individual feedback cannot be provided to applicants due to the volume of applications received. A feedback summary will be published on the Queensland Mental Health Week website.

State schools must apply to the Youth Grant Round either via their P&C or organise for their application to be auspiced by another incorporated organisation. Government agencies and entities are ineligible for this grant program.

If you are applying via your P&C the ABN and bank account details listed in the application must be for your P&C and you can get an office bearer to sign the final certification page.

For school staff who are working on the application with a P&C office bearer, please keep in mind you can save your application along the way and share your access with the office bearer so they can sign the certification page.

For schools who want to join together to host an event, please note that P&C associations may also develop partnerships with other P&C associations and submit an application that reflects these arrangements. This type of collaboration is highly encouraged.

The grant round is not exclusive to registered education providers. Please refer to the grant guidelines for the full eligibility criteria and selection criteria.

You will be notified of the outcome of your application at the end of the selection and assessment process via email. For probity reasons, to treat all applicants fairly and equally, it is not possible to give you information about the status of individual applications during the selection and assessment process.

It is estimated that applications will be notified on whether they are successful approximately 10 weeks from the closing date of each round.

Public liability insurance is designed for professionals who interact with customers or members of the public. It protects against claims of personal injury or property damage that a third party suffers (or claims to have suffered) as a result of your business activities.

Incorporation gives your group its own legal identity (the group becomes a ‘separate legal entity’ from its members) . The incorporated group can enter into contracts, sign a lease, employ people, and sue and be sued.

Incorporated groups are incorporated under law (which can be either state or federal) and report to the regulator responsible for their type of structure, for example the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Incorporated groups follow a particular structure, with group rules (or constitution), members, and a governing body (often called a board or committee).

Companies (public or private) set up under the Companies Act are incorporated, just as incorporated associations are.

Examples of an incorporated structure – proprietary limited company (profit), incorporated associations (nonprofit), company limited by guarantee (non-profit), Aboriginal Corporation (profit or non-profit), Co-operative (profit or non-profit).

Examples of an unincorporated structure – sole trader, partnership, unincorporated joint venture, unincorporated association.

An unincorporated group may be auspiced by an incorporated group (or another legally recognised entity).

If you are ineligible to apply for a grant, or your application for funding is declined, remember that other sources of funding may be available. Below are several ideas.

• Sell tickets. Using an event-ticketing platform like Eventbrite you can start selling tickets long in advance of your planned event date.
• Charge exhibition space. In the same way, you can sell tickets in advance of your event, you can also pre-sell exhibition stands and take deposits from exhibitors.
• Seek sponsorship from local businesses.
• Partner with another organisation to split the event costs.
• Consider contra deals. For example, a newspaper that is organising a community event could offer a catering company free print advertising in exchange for providing light refreshments.
• Host a fundraiser.
• Choose a community-minded venue or free online platform. Some venues might be willing to discount or even donate their space to be associated with a good cause.
• See if there is a Queensland Government grant you are eligible for with their Grants Finder.
• Contact your local council to see what grants they offer.