Healthy Focus grants - Round 1 guidelines

To be eligible for a Healthy Focus grant, your organisation must:

• Be an incorporated not-for-profit legal entity, or be sponsored by an incorporated not-for-profit legal entity. This includes local government.
• Have an office, branch or presence in Tasmania and plan to do your project in Tasmania.

If your organisation is not an incorporated not-for-profit legal entity, but you meet all other eligibility criteria, your application can be sponsored by an organisation that is.

If your application is sponsored, you must provide the sponsoring organisation's details and a letter of support in your application form.

Eligible organisations funded by Healthy Tasmania Fund grants in the past can apply.

The following are not eligible to apply or sponsor an application:

• individuals
• for-profit organisations
• schools (including Schools Associations) and universities
• libraries
• Child and Family Learning Centres
• other State or Commonwealth Government departments.

While individuals and the above organisations are not eligible to apply for a grant, your organisation may work with them to deliver your project.

Healthy Focus grants are for preventive health projects that address one or more of the focus areas of Healthy Tasmania. In some cases, your projects may address more than one of these focus areas, since they overlap. You don’t need to address all of the focus areas.

Preventive health is the term for activities that help protect, promote and maintain health and wellbeing. Equity is an important part of health and wellbeing. Equity is about giving all people a fair chance to reach their full potential, and making sure no one is disadvantaged by our efforts. This may include extra support to overcome barriers.

You will notice many of the application questions relate to equity.

Healthy Focus grants support action on Healthy Tasmania focus areas:

• Priority populations
• Health literacy
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Active living
• Eating well
• Smoke-free communities
• Reducing alcohol harm
• Climate change and health.

For more information about each of the focus areas see Focus areas.

Staffing and Subcontractors

Healthy Focus grants can be used for short-term staffing or subcontracting to specialists or experts where required and where organisations cannot deliver their projects without this support.

You will need to explain how subcontracting will provide a legacy for your community and/or organisation, for example, a building or other infrastructure for the community's long-term benefit and/or increasing the skills and knowledge of your organisation and the community.

Land or Building Projects

Your proposed project may involve changes or improvements to land or buildings. If so, you must include evidence of ownership and/or leasehold arrangements of the land or buildings in your application. If you are not the owner of the land or buildings, written evidence of the owner's permission to make the changes or improvements is also required.

Before submitting your application, you are strongly encouraged to discuss all relevant planning and development permits with the relevant council. You may submit your application before receiving permits. However, priority may be given to applications that have the required permits. If you have not obtained the required permits, you must provide a letter of support from the relevant council or authority.

The following activities will not be funded:

• provision of clinical treatment services
• projects that produce a financial benefit to a specific business or person(s)
• items or services that the applicant is already contracted to provide
• construction or refurbishment of areas that will be leased or sub-leased to individuals or businesses for commercial gain
• purchase of real estate or motor vehicles
• provision of loans, sponsorship, donations or fundraising
• retrospective payments or deficit funding
• projects that are done outside of Tasmania
• ongoing operational costs of the organisations.

Healthy Focus grants are from $20,000 to $100,000.

You can apply for any amount from $20,000 up to $100,000.

Projects can be up to two years.

Funds for successful applicants will be paid in May/June 2023.

Recommendations for partial funding will not be made.

A total of $2 million is available in this grant round

GST

Healthy Focus grants exclude GST.

You will need to list the amount of funding you are requesting in your application. Do not include GST in this amount.

You will also need to provide your organisation's ABN, or your sponsoring organisation's ABN if your application is being sponsored. This will indicate whether your organisation or your sponsoring organisation, is registered for GST.

If your organisation is GST registered, you will be paid the grant amount requested plus GST.

If your organisation is not registered for GST, you will only be paid the grant amount requested.

Applications will have a greater chance of success of funding if the activities:

• are inclusive and engage those most in need
• seek to address barriers to health and wellbeing for those most at risk of poorer health outcomes
• have realistic and achievable timeframes
• are well thought out and supported by evidence
• follow best practice.

Best practice includes ways to make your organisation and programs more inclusive. This includes being culturally respectful and responsive to health literacy. We can support you to understand and show this best practice in your project.

Think about:

• Which Healthy Tasmania focus area/s does your project address? What will you do and where? What do you hope to achieve?
• Who is most affected by this issue and how will you engage them in your project?
• What are the barriers to health and wellbeing and what activities might help?
• Is there evidence to support these activities and are they realistic in the timeframe you have?
• How will cultural respect and health literacy be reflected in your project? Are there any specific areas you may need support with? Have you identified someone who can help you?

Applications will have a greater chance of success of funding if the project seeks to address a proven need in the community. We like projects showing a good understanding of your target group's lived experience and self-identified needs.

If you have consulted in your community or are using evidence from a consultation report, consider whose voices were heard and whose voices may be missing. There may be ways you can create partnerships to hear these voices.

Think about:

• How do you know this project is needed?
• Who have you spoken with?
• What do people with lived experience of this issue say about it?
• What does the data tell us about who might be left out or disadvantaged by this issue? 

Local government and community organisations are well placed to identify local health and wellbeing priorities for action. We want to fund all kinds of organisations, big and small.

Projects are likely to be more successful when they have:

• skills, knowledge and capacity
• a strong connection and trusting relationships with their community
• genuine networks and partnerships to support the project.

You can include letters or emails of support from other organisations in your application. We encourage joint letters or emails of support.

We know that things don't always go as planned and the success of projects can depend on the organisation being adaptable and flexible when needed. In the application we want you to think about this and describe how you will adapt if things don't go as expected. For example, what will you do if you lose your project officer or if one of your strategies isn't working?

Think about:

• How have you built trusted relationships within your community?
• How have you been adaptable and flexible in past projects?
• Which partners can help you reach different groups in your community?

Successful projects will have benefits that continue beyond the life of a project. You should focus on the effect or impact of your project rather than the project itself.

Think about:

• How will the existing resources be used in an ongoing way after the funding?
• Which new networks will you develop?
• How will these networks allow you to better reach different groups in your community?
• How can any knowledge or skills gained during the project continue to be shared with the community?

It is important to think about what changes (outcomes) you expect with this project and how you might measure this. 

Using a simple approach called Results Based Accountability (RBA) we encourage you to measure:

• how much you did
• how well you did it
• if anyone is better off as a result of your project.

Successful grant recipients will be required to report on their project’s progress against these questions (sometimes known as key performance indicators).

But we don't just want numbers. When reporting back on your project, we want to understand the challenges, wins and insights you saw while running your project. It is also important to us that we know what did not work so well. This will help us to learn what we and others could do differently next time.

Think about:

• Who or what will be better off as a result of your project? (eg has there been any change in behaviour, skills or knowledge? Are your participants now more socially connected than before?)
• How will you measure this? (eg surveys, case studies or success stories from any stakeholders)
• How much will you do? (eg how many participants? How many sessions?)
• How well will you do it? (eg how well did participants engage in and respond to sessions?)

Value for money means looking at the link between the proposed outcomes, benefit to the community or target group and the amount of funding being sought.

We will be asking you to clearly describe how much money you will need and for what purpose. Try to describe all of the items and activity you will need money for and avoid using terms like contingency, sundry and miscellaneous. 

We also want to know if you are applying for some funding from us and some from another organisation.

You will be asked to describe how your project meets each of the criteria in the application form.

Think about:

• What is the total amount of funding you are applying for?
• Will your project be using any subcontractors?
• Will your project receive funding from any other sources?
• Will the project receive financial or in-kind contributions from other sources?

Grants from $20,000 to $30,000:

• Certificate of Incorporation.

Grants from $30,001 to $100,000:

• Certificate of Incorporation.
• Certificate of Currency showing:
  • Professional Indemnity ($10 million per claim)
  • Public Liability ($20 million per claim)
• Annual reports for the last two financial years.
• Audited financial statements for the last two financial years.

If the Department of Health already funds your organisation, you do not need to provide the documents listed above.

If your organisation does not currently have the required levels of insurance, you must commit to increasing your insurance if successful. Additional insurance costs may be included in your project budget.

If your application is sponsored, your sponsoring organisation will need to provide:

• the relevant documents as listed above
• a signed Agreement to Sponsor letter (view template letter)

Local governments do not need to provide the supporting documents listed above.

Successful grant recipients must sign and return a Funding Agreement before any funds can be paid. Grant recipients must return the signed Funding Agreement within four weeks.

The Funding Agreement outlines the project outcomes, agreed funding amount, timelines for delivery, reporting and acquittal of the project, and needs for acknowledging the Healthy Tasmania Fund as the source of funding.

The Funding Agreement must be signed by two people who are authorised to sign on behalf of the applicant organisation.

If your organisation is not an incorporated not-for-profit legal entity, the sponsoring organisation will sign the Funding Agreement.

Successful applicants must have procedures to ensure that all persons engaged are fit and proper persons. This includes current registration cards issued under the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act 2013 and/or police history check, where appropriate.

Projects must be completed according to the description in the grant application, or with any additional details as noted in the Funding Agreement. Any variations in your project must be approved in writing by the Department of Health.

If the organisation is not an incorporated not-for-profit legal entity, payment will be made to the sponsoring organisation.

Reporting about your grant is an important part of the Healthy Tasmania grants process.  It is an opportunity, through storytelling and data, to evaluate both the individual grants and the grants program to learn what has worked and for whom.

Detailed information about reporting needs for successful applicants will be available in the Funding Agreement. Templates and guides will be provided to help successful applicants with the reporting needs. Grant recipients must also provide any additional information requested by the Department of Health. Any recipient that has not completed their reporting needs will not be considered for future rounds of funding and will be deemed to be in breach with the Funding Agreement.

Service delivery reporting

Grant recipients must complete a report every six months of the project and a final report on completion of the project. This report will address the measures that you identify in your application. You can also provide other supporting material to tell us about the project and its results, such as media clippings, photographs, advertisements, programs, written responses to your project, etc.

Project reports help us monitor the progress of your project, as well as show the wider community how the Healthy Focus grants have improved the health and wellbeing of Tasmanian communities.

Financial reporting

Successful applicants will need to show that their grant has been spent as agreed in the Funding Agreement. Grant recipients must keep accurate financial records and be able to provide evidence of all expenditure.

This includes keeping a list of all expenses and copies of all invoices. If your grant is audited, you will be asked to provide your financial records and evidence of expenditure.

If you receive a grant for $30,001 and over, you must also provide the following documents each year, for the duration of your project:

• a copy of your organisation's annual report
• an Annual Grant Financial Accountability Report (if your organisation receives more than $100,000 each year in total from the Department of Health, this must be certified by an approved auditor)
• a copy of your organisation's Annual Audited Financial Statements.

Quality and Safety Reporting

If you receive a grant for $30,001 and over, you must demonstrate continuous quality improvement and safety activity.

Grant recipients must acknowledge the Healthy Tasmania Fund as the source of the funding in all materials, correspondence, publicity and signage for infrastructure produced as part of the project. This acknowledgement requires the use of the Healthy Tasmania graphic device and the words 'This project was funded by the Healthy Tasmania Fund through the Tasmanian Government.'

The same acknowledgement of funding is a requirement for project sponsors, partners and subcontractors. A style guide will be provided to successful grant recipients.