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One hundred million dollars shared in WA

The new financial year got off to a great start as we celebrated having provided $100 million in grants to the community in 2008/09. The amount marked a milestone for Lotterywest and we invited 100 grant recipients from the last year to be profiled in a special advertising feature celebrating the work they do in our community.

The feature “$100 million shared, 100 stories to share” took the form of a journal and was run in the West Australian newspaper over the course of a week-long campaign focussing on the extraordinary range of initiatives being undertaken by our beneficiaries in the community. We’ve made this journal available for you in an electronic format. Go to the top right hand corner of this newsletter to download your copy.

Profiling our grants in the media

Most people will have seen the Lotterywest TV advertisements that profile the work of a selection of our grant recipients. We are planning to create two new advertisements to profile the work of Youth Focus and the Canning River Eco Centre, to add to the suite of TV commercials to be rotated throughout the summer period.

Deeper engagement with the community

In keeping with our desire to build stronger relationships with regional and local communities we are also placing advertisements about local grants in community newspapers. The ads will feature brief stories about grant recipients in a particular region, if you have a story (and a high resolution image) about a Lotterywest grant provided to your community, contact granted@lotterywest.wa.gov.au.

WA Business News

Each week Lotterywest places an advertisement about grants we have provided in the WA Business News. You will notice that this month we’ve included a link to one of the stories featured in a recent edition of publication which focuses on the Centre for Social Impact. Lotterywest staff attended the launch and we look forward to some exciting developments coming out of this initiative.

Lotterywest events

In recent months Lotterywest also hosted a number of events to showcase the work of our grant recipients. This included a breakfast at the Perth Town Hall where the Premier invited grant beneficiaries to share ‘the special moments they’ve experience that have made a difference to the lives of others’. It provided the Premier and other guests with an appreciation of the immeasurable value of the work undertaken in the community sector. Among the 10 beneficiaries that shared their stories, two have been featured as stories in this month’s edition of GrantEd.

Other events or ‘moments’ shared with grant recipients were offered by the WA Opera and WA Ballet. Both organisations kindly agreed to open up their dress rehearsals to our guests which allowed us to invite representatives and volunteers working in the community sector to see the Pearlfishers Opera and a ballet of Romeo and Juliet. We are very pleased that so many people were able to join us for these cultural highlights.

Broadening our support for organisational development

We have recently reviewed the support we provide organisations in relation to conferences and travel related activities. We have now extended our support to capture organisations running a conference outside of Western Australia which partner with a WA sector organisation where WA sector benefit is evidenced. The support we provide in subsidising travel and attendance costs to conferences can also be provided to organisations unable to cover these costs for their representatives, where attendance will achieve significant benefit to the organisation and forms part of the organisation’s strategic development.

Beyond conferences we can also consider support for interstate or overseas travel for representatives from community organisations where the activity provides clear benefit for the organisation’s strategic development that can’t be achieved locally.

Sustainability

At Lotterywest we’ve been exploring ways to encourage our grant customers to consider sustainable alternatives such as the purchase of energy efficient equipment or solar passive design when requesting a grant. We also want to provide our grant customers with the resources and information they may need to assist this process. We are building relationships with key holders of expertise and knowledge in the area such as the School of Sustainability at Murdoch University and the Australian Sustainable Development Institute at Curtin University to help us incorporate sustainability in our grant considerations. Through our shared expertise we look forward to being able to continue to support the West Australian community well into the future.

Regional visits

Two members of the Grants team recently visited the Pilbara region to discuss core issues presenting to the community. This helped establish relationships with key agencies and local government authorities in the Pilbara to collaborate on opportunities to improve the communities’ infrastructure and overall capacity.

This month Grants staff will present a grant information seminar in Subiaco and the coming months will see them visiting the wheatbelt towns of Wyalkatchem and Mukinbudin, as well as Mandurah in the Peel region. During these visits we will meet with community groups and provide information about applying for Lotterywest grants. See our website for confirmed dates, times and venues. To register your interest in meeting a member of the team to talk about grant opportunities in your area please call Marlene Walker on 08 93405122 or 1800 655 270.

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Contact Us

To discuss granted please email granted@lotterywest.wa.gov.au or telephone 08 9340 5207.