Grants
The Helen Macpherson Smith Trust makes grants to support the needs of the wider community of Victoria across a range of targetted program areas. The Trust’s grantmaking goals are to support the immediate and long-term needs across Victorian communities to build capacity and affect long-term change towards a better quality of life.
Mindful of ever-changing needs in society, the Trust reviews from time to time, the target areas for support.
Target Program Areas
As of October 2011, we will consider applications for support within the following areas:
Education and Vocational Training: programs that assist the Victorian community to improve the educational and vocational outcomes for the community and so to provide opportunities for people to contribute to society.
Rural and Regional Victoria: programs to strengthen rural and regional communities.
Land Stewardship: support for programs that enable community organisations to undertake land care activities. The Trust wishes to target funding at bringing organisations together on projects so that more effective outcomes can be achieved in environmental management.
Arts and Culture: the main thrust of the Trust’s grantmaking in this area will be an Arts Prize. This major program is in development. In the interim, some minor arts and cultural grants may be made.
Health and Medical Research: the Trust will only make one healthcare and medical research grant at a time and this will be substantial. The Trust will award a research Fellowship once every five years with funding up to a maximum of $250,000 per annum. The Fellowship is designed to attract a mid-career researcher. The Fellowship will be awarded to an approved Victorian research institute or university.
The Trust channels its grant funds into two streams:
Small Grants – to a maximum of $25,000
Impact Grants – grants above $25,000