The Mercy Foundation Grants to End Homelessness are available for seeding initiatives, services, projects, advocacy and research that will contribute to the goal of ending homelessness by supporting permanent housing, housing first and supportive housing solutions.
The Grants to End Homelessness program is now open.
>>> Download the Grant Criteria
This year, the focus of the grants program is ending homelessness for women from migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. Note that the Mercy Foundation has a special interest in ending homelessness for older women. The Mercy Foundation recently hosted a webinar on this issue. You can access the webinar here.
Expressions of Interest will be due in by Friday 29 November 2024. We strongly advise that you call us at least 2 weeks prior to this date to discuss your project before submitting your EOI.
Projects that focus on ending and preventing women’s homelessness especially chronic homelessness are priority areas for the program. We prioritise projects that provide lasting solutions to people’s homelessness.
Grants range from $5,000 up to $60,000.
Chronic homelessness is defined as an episode of homelessness lasting 6 months or longer or multiple episodes of homelessness over a 12 month period or more. People who experience chronic homelessness are likely to have ‘complex needs’, which usually means that they have one or more of the following:
- developmental disability
- traumatic brain injury
- serious physical health problems
- history of abuse or trauma
- mental illness
- mental disorder
- psychiatric disability
- addictions.
The Mercy Foundation acknowledges that the majority of people experiencing homelessness in Australia do not have high or complex needs. They simply need access to affordable housing and some supports may be required. People experiencing chronic homelessness are likely to have additional support needs.
Applicants must be able to specify measurable outcomes from the initiative. Those outcomes will need to show that the project has contributed to ending chronic homelessness or contributed substantially to increasing knowledge about the pathways into and out of homelessness – thereby increasing our understanding of how to prevent and how to end homelessness. All applications will need to outline their evaluation strategy and make clear how such outcomes will be measured.
Applicants must be a legal entity, such as an incorporated association or company, and not for profit. If not, the applicant will need to be auspiced by an appropriate organisation.
Unfortunately at this time, the Mercy Foundation is unable to fund services or projects which require recurrent or indefinite funding.
This grants program does not support food programs or short term or crisis responses to homelessness.
Note that successful grant recipients will be required to provide a copy of their Safeguarding Policy prior to the commencement of funding.
Grant Payments Schedule
Grants over $5,000 will generally receive 25% at the start, 50% following a satisfactory progress report and 25% at the completion of the project. The Foundation takes a commonsense approach to the release of funds. Organisations may negotiate to have their funding released in different proportions over the course of the contract if it is shown that the above funding component release would adversely affect their capacity to undertake or complete the project. Where possible, initiatives funded through the ‘Mercy Foundation Grants to End Homelessness’ will be visited at least once during their grant period.
The Mercy Foundation has an Expression of Interest Form (EOI) process. Please contact the Mercy Foundation on 02 9911 7390 at least 2 weeks prior to submitting you EOI to discuss your proposed project. This will give your project the best chance at progressing to the next stage of assessment.
This process has been put in place to minimise the amount of paperwork that organisations need to prepare to apply for one of our grants. If your EOI is successful, we will then invite you to submit a full application and proposal form. We will send you all the appropriate forms if your initial EOI is successful. Moving to this next round, (following this EOI process) is no guarantee that the Mercy Foundation will provide a grant for your project.
Important Notes
- Please contact the Mercy Foundation on 02 9911 7390 to discuss your project prior to completing this EOI. This will give your project the best chance of success.
- We receive a high volume of applications. It is your responsibility to ensure we have received your EOI. After submitting your EOI, please call our office if you do not receive an email to confirm that we have received your EOI.
- The EOI form and Criteria will be available shortly.
Grants to End Homelessness are only available for projects within Australia.
