FAQs

Leader Local Grants is an initiative by Leader Community News. $1,000 micro grants are being provided to help support ideas that will improve your local community.

If you have an idea that will cost a maximum of $5,000 to fund, you can apply for a $1,000 grant. Once your idea has been checked it will be uploaded to the Leader Local Grants website for the duration of the application period where it can be viewed and commented on. Up to ten (10) ideas for each Leader masthead will then be shortlisted for voting – your friends and neighbours can support your idea by voting for it during the voting period. The idea with the most votes in each Leader paper area will receive the funding.

In each grant cycle, up to $26,000 worth of grants can be awarded. This is broken down into 26 grants of up to $1,000 (one for each of Leader’s 26 mastheads).

Applications and voting dates for the ninth cycle are:

APPLICATION PERIOD
16 April 2018 – 11 May 2018

VOTING PERIOD
28 May 2018 – 8 June 2018

Leader Local Grants is open to residents of Victoria who are over 18 years of age and eligible community groups in the Leader distribution area of Melbourne. For more information, read our Terms and Conditions.

Yes. As long as your idea complies with our Terms and Conditions, employees of Leader and their family members may participate.

No, any idea you submit is yours, though you will need to agree to certain Terms and Conditions when applying for funding and implementing your idea.

You can start sending in your ideas when the grant application cycle opens at 9am on Monday April 16 2018.  Applications close at 5pm on Friday May 11 2018.

Ideas can only be submitted by making an application through our website. You will need to register to create an account and then use this account to send in ideas and vote.

Anything that you think will make your local community a better place to live.

We are looking for ideas that are:

• Beneficial to your community
• Achievable
• Constructive
• Ready to go

All applications must comply with our Terms and Conditions.

We only need to know about the budget relating to your specific project idea. We need to know how you would spend the $1,000 grant. If your idea costs more than $1,000 we also need to know how you will raise those funds. We do not need to know the whole budget for your community group.

You can save your application as a draft, but make sure that when you are finished you remember to submit your application by the due date, otherwise you will miss out!

When putting together your application, make sure you include a budget (a breakdown of what each of the parts of your idea will cost) and show how you will get your idea completed in time.

Any details you share with us will be used in accordance with our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy.

Potential applicants should have a look at How it Works.

Don’t forget to read our Terms and Conditions for rules and regulations.

Your project should be submitted for the local newspaper where you (or the community group if relevant) are based.

We will send you a confirmation email to the email address provided.

If you do not receive this confirmation email it means your application has not uploaded successfully and you should re-submit your application again. Please make sure your photo sizes and word limits comply with the website requirements. Failure to do so will mean your application will not successfully upload and your application will not be received.

Once your application has been assessed to make sure it complies with our  Terms and Conditions, it will be uploaded to the website for the application period where it can be viewed by registered users in the Current Ideas section. A maximum of ten (10) finalists for each local paper in each grant cycle will then be short-listed on May 25, 2018 and will remain in the Current Ideas section of the site for voting. Check our Terms and Conditions for more information.

We will notify you by email if your idea is short-listed for voting.

Once the voting period is complete, votes will be tallied and the top three finalists will be sent an invitation to our breakfast gala event where winners will be announced. The winning ideas for cycle 9 will be posted on the Leader Local Grants website and across Leader Community Newspapers following the event in week commencing Monday 30 July 2018. Winners will be required to sign a grant agreement within a specific timeframe. Further details are available in our Terms and Conditions.

All grants are inclusive of GST. You will need to seek advice about any potential tax implications.

Grants will be sent out via Electronic Funds Transfer into your nominated bank account (or the bank account of your community organisation).

You will have nine (9) months from receipt of your grant to complete and implement your idea. In your application you will need to demonstrate how you will finish your idea in this time frame.

Yes you can. As the application questions differ slightly between the previous cycle and the current cycle, you will need to re-submit your project again.

No.

Voting is open to all who register to vote on the website, who are 18 or older and live in Victoria.

Voting opens at 9am Monday May 28 2018 and closes at 5pm Friday June 8 2018.

To vote, simply register and log in.

Review the ideas by clicking the “current ideas” link in the menu at the top of the screen, and you will see a full list of finalists.  Ideas can be filtered to your area by selecting your Leader Community Newspaper from the drop down menu.

Under each idea is a green voting panel where up to 10 votes can be assigned per idea.

You can assign up to 10 votes for any idea, or share your votes amongst a few.

Each person who registers is allocated ten (10) votes per grant cycle to vote on any idea or ideas they support.

You must vote through our website.

Any votes left over at the end of each cycle will not be rolled over to the next.

Absolutely! You can encourage your friends, family and neighbours to vote for it as well.

No. This is covered in our Terms and Conditions. Any breach of this may end up with your application being disqualified.

If you happen to find a conflict, please refer to our Terms and Conditions.

No they have all been updated. Please refer to the information for cycle 9.

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