When is the best time to search for grants

When is the best time to look for grants? Are there busy periods when more grants are available? What impacts the timing of grants?

Here is our advice on when to search for grants.

When shoud you search for grants?

The answer is: you should search for grants all the time.

Grants are announced throughout the year. Some grants are cyclical meaning they recur and their timing is predictable, while other grants are once-off with a strict deadline, and others can be applied for until funding is exhausted. 

Whatever the case - the key is to stay tuned in to new grant announcements and be ready if the right grant comes along.

Make sure you're grant ready

Before you search for grants, you need to be ‘grant ready’. If you’re not grant ready, you will lose valuable time and resources on grant applications.

A grant ready organisation will be established and have:

• An ABN

• Appropriate registration (e.g. with the ACNC if a charity)

• A bank account

• Governing documents

• A strategic plan outlining your mission and vision

• An operating budget

• A list of objectives that you need funding for

• Resources available to manage grant applications and acquittals.

Are there times when more grants are available?

March, June, September and December are popular grant deadline months because they fall at the end of each quarter. Deadlines are also more often on the last day of the month but can happen any day.

Your organisation probably makes strategic decisions based on which financial period income or expenses will fall under. Funding providers also consider carefully when they want to disperse grants.

From the date grant applications close, the approval process can take several weeks - or even months, depending on the funding provider.

For example, some funding providers will close applications in March with the aim to include first grant payments in the current financial year. Other funding providers work on a calendar year basis or make grants more than once a year.

Corporate and philanthropic foundations have Boards who are involved in final grant decision making and they may prefer to conduct this business as part of their quarterly meetings.

Government departments also follow strict procedures for approving grant decisions and these are likely to fall into regular financial cycles.

To sum up: the end of each quarter is usually a popular time for grant rounds to close - but grant deadlines occur every day of the year.

What else impacts grant timing?

National and international events affect the grants landscape in Australia.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on grants. New grant rounds were introduced, some grant rounds were extended, others were suspended, and funding providers changed the parameters of some grant programs. As a result, some grant and funding cycles remain difficult to predict, even if they were on regular cycles before the pandemic.

Natural disasters can likewise delay or bring forward planned grant program timing, or introduce new funding programs.

Other events that impact grant availability include state and federal elections. And - if there is a change in government, it can take longer for new grant programs to be announced. You should also keep an eye out for changes to department names and grant program titles.

How can you search for grants all the time?

There are many free tools that can help you track the latest grant announcements, including:

• Your own grants calendar

• Subscribing to funding provider newsletters for grant updates

• Following your local government representatives and Council for updates.

To make sure you’re on the front foot with your grants search: sign up for exclusive access to the latest grants, all in one place. As a The Grants Hub member, you can opt to receive tailored grant alerts via email, view full grant details for all grant listings, and access a range of time-saving features and customer support.

Using the above tools will help you save time and resources, so that you can put your best grant applications forward and find success with grants. Good luck!