Community Grants

$100,000 for tomorrow’s change-makers – today. 

Every year, we give up to $100,000 in community grants to support and fund innovative projects in our community. Applications are open to any private sector, community group, charity, social enterprise, or group of passionate, like-minded individuals ready to make a change. Crescent Foundation has created:

$37K

Islamic Community
Project Funding

80+

Years in Refugee
Scholarships

60+

Career
Mentorships

2K+

Care Packs
for the Homeless

Applications for our 2023 community grants are now closed. 

Thank you to everyone who applied. We will reach out to each applicant with their respective outcomes.

Our Focus

Our ‘Community Projects’ initiative funds grassroots programs and our high impact projects support transformative, scalable and sustainably funded programs designed to make an impact in four key areas of impact:  

CA-Peter-UNHCR-talk-1

Education & Refugees

Programs that focus on the education, empowerment, and employment of people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

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Civics, Youth, & Democracy

Initiatives that empower our youth to be the leaders of tomorrow.

CI-Multicultural

Islamic Art & culture

Projects designed to foster community harmony and develop an understanding of the values and contributions of Muslims to Australian society.

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Helping the Homeless

Solutions to help homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people positively change their lives.

About Crescent Community Grants

Crescent Community Grants is an open-source competition that will enable any entity – whether private sector, third sector or group of individuals – to apply for funding of up to $30k from Crescent Foundation.

Our strategic objectives include

1

To support & fund initiatives that have a catalytic impact on the target segment

2

To inspire others to act in a catalytic manner

3

To catalyse funding from a wider section of partners, institutions and donors

Meet some of our previous grant winners

Tasnia Alam and Fariha Chowdhury were awarded a Crescent Community Grant in 2021 and have gone on to found Arise Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation providing support to victims of financial abuse.

Through the provision of no-interest loans, employment programs, job placement, and access to a network of mentors and service partners, Arise Foundation is dedicated to empowering survivors of financial abuse and creating sustainable pathways to financial freedom. 

Find out more
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A breakdown of the annual $100,000 prize

  Grant amount Total funding allocated

Community Projects

 (2 x $5,000) $10,000
High Impact Projects (3 x $30,000) $90,000

Timeline

CA-Grant-Timeline

Key Features

Selection

After careful deliberation based on transparent selection criteria, Crescent Foundation’s board will choose the initiatives it will fund in FY 2023-2024.

Performance

Up to 5 grants with a total pool of $100k will be allocated annually & payable over three years, subject to mutually agreed performance milestones.

Availability

It's the board's discretion whether to fund all 5 grants, the Foundation may choose to not fund any initiatives depending on submission quality.

Conditions

A summary of the selection criteria

CA-Grant-Criteria

 

Causes

Funding initiatives related to Refugees, Homelessness, Islamic art and culture or Civics, youth and democracy – initiatives outside of this core mandate may be funded if they are seen to be unanimously and overwhelmingly deserving by the Board.

Organisations

Must be set up as an organization before receipt of funding. Individuals may apply as a group so long as they can demonstrate that they can set up an entity to deploy the funding upon receipt.

Australian

Only for Australian registered entities

Board's Ultimate Discretion

While the board utilises the criteria, the board reserves the right to choose outside of these criteria where they believe some projects are more deserving as the board sees fit. ​

Criteria Elaboration

CA-Grant-Criteria-Elaboration
Bob Carr CA-Bob-Carr
Bob Carr
Judge
Talal Yassine Professor-Talal-Yassine-OAM
Talal Yassine
Judge
Maha Abdo Maha-Abdo-OAM
Maha Abdo
Judge
Samira Baqatada Ms-Samira-Baqatada
Samira Baqatada
Judge
Katherine Bennett Katherine-Bennett
Katherine Bennett
Judge
Affy Bhatti Mr-Affy-Bhatti
Affy Bhatti
Judge
Craig Foster Craig-Foster
Craig Foster
Judge
Ben Wong Ben-Wong
Ben Wong
Judge
Amen Zoabi Amen-Zoabi
Amen Zoabi
Judge

What we are looking for

 

The Crescent Foundation Board is looking to spark and accelerate the change-makers of tomorrow.

You might have a rough proposition, but you know you can do it because you’ve done awesome stuff before. We want to be the catalysing force that backs you to make that decisive transformation that will change the condition of your target segment.

We’re looking at individuals, groups, teams and organisations who will use our funding to catalyse other funding, preferably sustainable sources such as generating revenue through the sale of goods or services.

We’re looking at teams that will be a catalytic force on the target segment and not just solve the immediate symptom.

We’re looking for role models that will inspire the future generation of change-makers.

Are you ready to spark change?

Do you have an idea worthy of a Crescent Community Grant? Subscribe to our newsletter to hear when the next round of applications is open