The James N Kirby Foundation oversee a breadth of grants that impact the future educational and technical development of young Australians, the health and welfare of Australians in need, as well as the Arts and the Environment.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome within a month of the Board Meeting held in May. It is preferable for applicants to apply earlier in the process rather than leaving it to the last minute of the closing date. 

Small Grants are the most popular bracket of funding either requested from applicants or eventually distributed by the James N Kirby Foundation. Please note Small Grants encapsulate funding from $3,000 to $15,000 inclusive.

The Foundation considers requests under the following four categories, seeking to support organisations and programs whose work benefits:

1. Education and Technology
2. The Environment
3. Health
4. Social Welfare, and The Arts

Taking into account the philanthropic objectives outlined above, the Foundation seeks to support projects and organisations whose work:

• is innovative in nature;
• will be capacity building;
• will inspire and provide lasting social change.

The James N Kirby Foundation makes distributions within Australia only, with priority given to organisations in NSW or, in some cases, to national level programs whose work primarily benefits NSW.

The Foundation are proud of the programs and projects they have contributed to. Visit this page for a selection of stories from recent grant recipients.

Eligibility criteria

Charitable status

The James N Kirby Foundation can only consider requests from organisations with current Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) endorsement. The Foundation does not make grants to auspiced entities (i.e. an organisation that applies for funding through another organisation which has DGR status.)

Funding conditions

• Funds can only be applied specifically for the purpose as outlined in the original application. If not, the funds must be returned immediately.
• With a few exceptions, the Foundation does not provide multi-year funding or make grants that constitute the sole funding of an initiative.
• They fund specific projects and may allow a small proportion of administration costs in any project on a selective basis.
• They do not consider applications for grants of less than $3,000 or more than $15,000 within a 12 month period other than those who are invited to put forward a large grant.
• Recipients are required to provide an acquittal report at the end of the project.

The Foundation does not provide funding for:

• Organisations whose DGR status has lapsed or is due to lapse.
• Organisations that are not based in Australia or mainly work overseas.
• Generic public fundraising appeals.
• Capital or endowment funds established to provide a corpus for institutions.
• Emergency requests or disaster appeals.
• Individuals.
• Travel and accommodation costs (other than for the provision of services to regional, rural and remote communities).
• Projects which obviously duplicate existing services.
• Political projects and/or lobby groups.
• Event fundraising, marketing and promotional expenses.
• Festivals.

• Address: Second Floor, 86-90 Bay Street BROADWAY 2007 NSW
• Phone: (02) 9212 2711
• Email: information@kirbyfoundation.com.au