Guidelines

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What are the grants for?

The RAD Grants offer financial support for projects that will help Care Leavers and relevant Support Services find and access records created by non-government past providers of “care” from 1920 to 1989.

Why apply?

  • It’s easy. The online application is quick & simple
  • Support. We can guide you through the application, and provide assistance to complete your project successfully
  • Your organisation will benefit. Time spent searching for records will be reduced, taking some of the stress and frustration out of accessing records
  • Care Leavers searching for records will know what records they can expect to find, and where to go to find them

How much can I apply for?

Each project can apply for funding up to $15 000.

Organisations can submit multiple applications, providing each application is for a discrete project.

How to apply

Applications to be lodged online at www.RADGrants.smartygrants.com.au.

  • Applications open on 12 September 2018
  • You will need to register a user account with SmartyGrants to submit an application
  • The application will take around 30 minutes to complete online. You can save progress and come back to the application at any time until submissions close
  • Applications may be submitted at any time between 9am AEST Wednesday, 12 September 2018, and 9am AEST, Monday 22 October, 2018

Who Can Apply?

Australian not-for profit organisations that hold or have created records relating to children in ‘care’ during the period 1920-1989 are eligible to apply. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Incorporated Associations — incorporated under State/Territory legislation (commonly have ‘Association’, ‘Incorporated’ or ‘Inc’ in their legal name)
  • Incorporated Cooperatives — incorporated under State/Territory legislation (commonly have ‘Cooperative’ in their legal name)
  • Indigenous Corporations
  • Companies — not-for-profit proprietary companies or public companies, incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001
  • Organisations established through a specific piece of Australian or State/Territory legislation (except Universities); for example, many public benevolent institutions and churches

Your project may be eligible even if your organisation is not, as long as you partner with an eligible organisation – see the FAQs for more information

What will be funded?

Funded activities can include:

  • Staffing costs to document and describe records; eg conducting a survey of records, organising and listing records, etc
  • Creating indexes to assist in locating information about people, provided it takes place as part of a project to document and describe records
  • Preservation work on collections, provided it takes place as part of a project to document and describe records
  • Digitisation of collections, provided it takes place as part of a project to document and describe records. Any digitisation must be done externally
  • Innovative ways to use records that will assist Care Leavers develop a better understanding of their history in care, eg through photos, imagery or spoken word projects, etc

What will not be funded

  • In-house digitisation
  • Projects to document records that are not of significance to Care Leavers
  • Purchase of software, computers or other equipment
  • Work on records created by government departments
  • Digitisation or preservation projects which do not have a documentation component.

Closing date

Late applications will not be considered. Applications must be received through the SmartyGrants submission system by 9am AEST, Monday 22 October 2018.

All organisations will be notified of the outcome of their application. Successful applicants will be required to sign an Agreement setting out the responsibilities and obligations of the funds; and to provide an invoice for payment.

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Developing a budget

Organisations may apply for any amount to fund their projects up to the maximum $15 000. Ask for what is needed to complete the project successfully. Your application is more likely to succeed if your budget is realistic. Priority will be given to those who have costed their project appropriately and realistically, and not necessarily the lowest-cost project.

Include quotes and estimates to support your budget where possible.

Some tips on developing your budget:

  • Only ask for funding for activities that are described in your project plan
  • Include and clearly indicate any costs that will be covered by cash or in-kind contribution from your organisation, or which are to be paid for by other confirmed funding sources
  • Include material costs for rehousing records if required (eg, new boxes, new folders, specific materials required for particular formats eg photographs)
  • Include estimates for staff and volunteer costs, and indicate if these are to be grant funded or an in-kind contribution
  • For indexing that will be done in-house, use the formula provided
  • You will need a written quotation for external work
  • Purchase of software, computers or other equipment will not be funded by these grants. If your project requires the purchase of these items, these  should be included in the budget with an indication of how they are to be provided (in-kind contribution or other confirmed funding)

How to estimate staff & volunteer costs

Include staff and volunteer costs for: project management; cataloguing or indexing records; and any other project activities identified on your application. NOTE THAT IN-HOUSE DIGITISATION WILL NOT BE FUNDED.

Staff assistance should be calculated according to the intended time commitment and actual salary of the staff member. Include staff costs as a budget item (either grant funded or in-kind support) at the relevant salary or hourly rate.

Volunteer assistance should be included as an in-kind contribution calculated at $30.00 per hour.

For work that is to be completed by contractors or other suppliers outside your organisation, you will need to include a written estimate or quotation based on your project requirements.

How to estimate the cost of cataloguing (listing) records

The time required for a person with basic records/archives experience to catalogue archival material can be estimated at a rate of 3-4 record boxes per day. Additional time allowance should be made if the records need any additional work to ensure they are better protected such as unfolding paper documents or moving to better quality (acid-free) folders.

How to estimate the cost of indexing

Indexing may be far more time consuming than originally estimated. To budget for indexing, please estimate the number of staff hours that will be employed to develop the index, and cost as you have for staff costs (above).

For typed material that is well set out and easy to read, a rough estimate is that 50-70 index entries can be completed per hour (around one index entry per minute).

If the document is handwritten or is difficult to follow, the time will increase dramatically, particularly if the writing is difficult to read and needs some deciphering. In some cases, it may take 5-7 minutes per index entry, which will reduce the number of entries completed per hour to 10-12. Your budget will need to be adjusted accordingly.

In-kind and other funding support

If your organisation will be contributing to the project, include those contributions as in-kind support.

In-kind and other funding sources for your project might include: purchased items, volunteer assistance, donations, other grants, and any in-house staff costs relating to the project which are not intended to be funded from the RAD grant.

If your project costs are more than the $15 000 available under RAD grant allocations, you must clearly show other sources of funding or financial support that demonstrate how you will meet the full cost of the project.

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Assessment of applications

The assessment process will first determine that organisations are eligible for funding. Applications will then be assessed by a panel of experts comprising representatives from Find and Connect, Care Leavers, and people with archival expertise.

Assessment criteria

Applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for funding. All criteria are equally weighted. Applications must demonstrate that the project:

  • Improves access to records created between 1920 and 1989 that are of importance to Care Leavers
  • Improves the documentation and management of records which have a high impact on living Care Leavers
  • Gives value for money, is feasible and achievable (as evidenced in the budget and project plan provided in the application)

The assessment criteria are mandatory and equally weighted.

The decision of the assessment panel is final. For feedback regarding the decision of the assessment panel, or the application process, please contact rad-grants@unimelb.edu.au.

Workshop

Grant recipients will be required to attend a workshop which may involve interstate travel.  In the case that travel is required, funding will be provided for one person from each successful organisation to attend the workshop. The workshop will be held in 2019, at a time and place to be confirmed.

YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ATTEND THE WORKSHOP PRIOR TO STARTING YOUR PROJECT. It is anticipated your project will be underway by the time the workshop is held.

The workshop will be an opportunity to increase your knowledge and skill-base on supported records access, network with other organisations from around Australia working in the field, and to report on your project to date. Find & Connect staff will be available to assist with any difficulties you may encounter in completing your projects.

Providing information for www.findandconnect.gov.au

At the conclusion of the project, successful applicants must provide the following information for publication on Find & Connect:

  • Name of organisation in possession of the records;
  • Name of organisation responsible for authorising access to the records (if different from above);
  • Contact point through which Care Leavers, their representatives, or other parties may request access to records;
  • Standard access conditions or restrictions;
  • Key information about the records: who created the records, the dates they cover quantity, formats and types of records;
  • Summary description of records – what purpose were they created for, and what sort of information do they hold;

Note: Not all of the information documented in your project can or should be public. The Find and Connect website publishes information about what type of records an organisation holds, not the records themselves.

How to acquit the project

To acquit the grant, your organisation will need to provide an evaluation of the project as well as a financial acquittal. Both are completed on SmartyGrants.

The evaluation allows you to respond to how you performed the activities & and achieved the outcomes you planned in the application, how successful you were, and how your project benefits Care Leavers.

For the financial acquittal, you need to report on your budget line-by-line.

We will need proof of expenditure of the $15 000 grant money to ascertain that it was spent how it was approved to be spent (ie matches the budget in the application); and also to know that any in-kind support detailed in the application was provided as that may have been a factor in deciding which applicants were successful.

For external services, such as digitising, please provide receipts. You don’t need to provide evidence (ie receipts) of in-kind support.

If you have included staffing in your budget, you will need to clarify how the grant funding was spent (ie, how many staff/contractors, the total hours worked they worked, and at what level & rate). As you will sign off on that information being true & correct, you don’t need to provide any other proof of expenditure.

You only need to acquit the actual grant amount (up to $15 000).

RAD Grants Apply Now

CONTACT US : rad-grants@unimelb.edu.au