How do I get $8.1 million to fall from the sky?
The Age ran a story recently about ScoMo’s favourite charity getting $8.1 million in Federal funding. We dive into some key points from this article, explain what they mean, and help you understand how you can also secure funding in a similar way.
By Neil Pharaoh
Full disclosure: I have not worked for Together for Humanity; however, I will be analysing some of the key points in the article and what they mean. I will break down four key components of The Age article, and explain what they are, why they are important, and how you can do the same.
Successful pre-budget submission of $8.1M
Political connections and how to use them
Concept of leveraging funding
Ad-hoc and one-off pre-election grants (or $2.4M)
So, let’s kick off - what is a pre-budget submission?
Pre-budget submissions are made up to a year before a budget, as a proposal, overview or request for funding. They are often made by industry associations, lobby groups, advocates or individual organisations, and they effectively frame the who, what, why, where, when and how for a pot of money. Pre-budget submissions can be made to the department and public service, through backbench MPs and caucus, through Ministers, or even the PM.
A pre-budget submission sets the tone, formalises the paperwork, and “inserts” you into the process of getting funding. Government departments start this process merely weeks after the start of the new financial year, which means now (in July) is when people are starting their pre-budget submissions for July 2022. After the process works it way through departments, in parallel, caucus members are engaging in advocacy and activism in their electorates – encouraging organisations or identifying projects to put up ideas to them also. The department, public servants, and Ministers will also have their own ideas and suggestions, as will the political party (hint: these are the five stakeholder groups we use in all our mapping). These all start to come together as a massive bundle of pre-budget submissions, where the requests always outweight the money available, and so the culling begins.
Political connections and how to use them
Who are your political connections and how do you use them? Using Together for Humanity as an example, the article speaks to Scott Morrison as Patron, along with Dr Anne Aly, Julian Leeser, Natalie Ward, Jihad Dib (and others). It’s a comprehensive exercise in political stakeholder mapping when you add in their Chair, former Liberal Party president Chris McDiven (and also the high profile Labor representation on their board).
But wait, I hear you say, “we have a well-connected board” – in my experience this is usually well overstated. If your board member literally cannot pick up the phone (having that person’s mobile number) to text and call them AND get a reply, their connection isn’t as strong as they may think. Likewise, connections age, people leave and depart and distance grows, so it is always much better for the organisation to build structural and systemic political connections, across all five of those stakeholder groups.
Concepts of leveraged funding
Together for Humanity in their submission said they will match $2 from government funding, to $1 of community funding. Personally, I think they got off easily, as the most common “leverage” we see is either 1 for 1 (one government to one community) or 1 to 1 to 1 – government, earned or community, and philanthropic. The concept of leveraged funding is great for government, as it shows they get more bang for their buck.
While leverage isn’t everything in government landscape, it is important, and can be something which assists in tipping you over the edge into the funding bucket – so start to do mapping of your own leverage, where does your funding come from, what is the split, and how does this relate to current, and new government grants.
Pre-election money drop
One of the most tantalising bits of The Age article is the $2.4M one-off preselection grant given to Together for Humanity – I am sure every reader would love $2.4M dropped into their bank account just before the election. So how do money drops happen, and how do you assist in getting yourself into these positions? I won’t lie, it is hard work and good luck, in equal parts. The hard work is the time spent building relationships, making connections, engaging with stakeholders externally. As well as being clear on what you want, the impact of the funding, insights, research and details of the program internally. The hard work does take years, or in the best case many, many months.
There is also a good luck side to everything - being in the right place at the right time, or the right issue causing the right concern in politicians to which you or your project can provide a solution.
And let’s not kid ourselves, networks also matter.
This article first appeared at Pro Bono Australia as part of Tanck's fortnightly column, Happenings on the Hill.
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