Grants to celebrate volunteering

Australia’s volunteers have been given another boost with the Minister for Community Services, Larry Anthony, announcing the second round of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV) Small Grants Program today.

“Round two of the Small Grants Program will see $3.2 million go to more than 1,400 organisations around Australia. This will bring Federal Government funding for the Small Grants Program to $5.4 million.

“This Program has now funded almost 2,200 organisations nationally with amounts up to $5,000 to stimulate events, activities and projects that support, celebrate and congratulate volunteers for the fantastic work they do.”

Some projects to receive funding include:

• Training and development projects that improve volunteers’ skills;
• Projects that encourage people who haven’t volunteered in the past to give volunteering a go;
• Radio segments that will bring the community’s attention to the outstanding work done by volunteers; and
• Projects that bring the community together to thank their volunteers for the extraordinary contribution they have made.

“A huge number of communities across Australia will greatly benefit from these grants as they directly help to further the volunteering movement.

“It is estimated that there are 2.6 million volunteers doing a staggering 430 million hours of work, contributing between $24 and $31 billion to the Australian economy each year.

“The Federal Government is very proud of these volunteers and we will continue to support the fantastic and invaluable work they do for the Australian community,” Mr Anthony said.