Until recently, under the banner of “Discretionary Funding”, responsibility for assessment and approval of funding applications by community organisations lay with the Mayor and Councillors.
Now re-branded as the council’s Community Donations Program, funding applications and decisions will be managed through an open and accountable assessment and governance process.
The program guidelines and assessment criteria are publicly available at www.ipswich.qld.gov.au/community/grants_sponsorships
The Community Donations Program recognises the significant role community organisations play in developing and delivering initiatives that encourage participation in community life, foster social cohesion, celebrate diversity, and contribute to a vibrant, healthy and sustainable city.
The new process is fairly straightforward, said Interim Administrator Greg Chemello.
Firstly, council officers in council’s call centre and Community Offices (formerly referred to as Divisional Offices) will continue to advise community groups regarding the availability of funding and how to apply for grants using council’s on-line Smartygrants system.
Secondly, an assessment will be conducted by an assessor/assessment panel made up of council officers who are not involved in the provision of that direct advice to organisations.
Each assessment panel member will be required to consider whether they have a conflict of interest for any application. If an assessor is aware of an actual or perceived conflict of interest, they will be required to formally declare this and refrain from any consideration of the application(s) in question.
A new assessment process against weighted criteria is being introduced. And new exclusion criteria will be applied meaning that the Community Donations Program will not be available to funding requests made retrospectively, projects or programs which have already received funding from council, or applications for a project or program more than 12 months out.
Mr Chemello described the new process as a “great step forward” and “empowering” for community organisations.
“These amendments give a transparent substance to the program. We are applying much more rigour, which will result in a fairer process; after all we are allocating ratepayers’ money to these projects,” he said.
Mr Chemello said there was still the opportunity to fine-tune the program in the future if necessary.
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