The Mercy Foundation’s 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 permanent supportive housing solutions.
Grants are available for seeding initiatives, services, projects, advocacy and research that will contribute to the goal of ending or preventing homelessness. The focus this year is ending or preventing women’s homelessness. The Mercy Foundation also prioritises projects that end chronic homelessness.
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.
Funding Information
Grants range from $5,000 to $50,000.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications are accepted from not-for-profit community-based groups or organisations (not individuals) within Australia.The Mercy Foundation will only accept one application per organisation in any given year.
Organisations applying for funds must have a visible and accountable management structure that includes community representatives.
Organisations applying for funds must be not-for-profit and therefore exempt from income tax but are not required to have Deductible Gift Recipient status.
Applications are accepted for projects run wholly within Australia by organisations based in Australia.
Criteria for suitability of projects to apply for grants are derived from the aims and objectives of the Mercy Foundation and the criteria for the grants programs.
Applicants must demonstrate a capacity to implement the project.
Applicants must display competency in the field of the projects or have included appropriate capacity building in the project design.
Ineligibility
The Mercy Foundation does not fund:
Individuals
The core operating costs of an existing organisation or project on-costs
Vehicles
General fundraising appeals
Food parcels, crisis or emergency responses to homelessness
Deficit funding
Projects that will rely on recurrent funding from the Mercy Foundation
Other grant-making foundations
Projects that do not meet the identified criteria and priority goals of the Mercy Foundation
Projects located overseas
The Grants to End Homelessness program attracts a high volume of applications. All applications are assessed in line with the grants criteria and prioritised. Unfortunately, due to funding constraints, they are unable to fund all applications that meet the criteria.
