We think too many people are wasting hours scrolling through irrelevant funding opportunities because they’re typing “find grant funding” into Google and scrolling through pages and pages of weak data and unhelpful blogs.
If you’re spending your evenings trawling through websites and hoping to stumble across the perfect grant, you’ll be pleased to know that here at Whitney Consulting, we think there’s a better way. There’s so much rubbish on the internet nowadays, we think you need to upgrade your digital grant finding strategy, and this means by doing as much as possible to build systems that bring the right opportunities directly to you. Keep on reading to get some tips on where to go for automated opportunities.
GrantConnect at grants.gov.au is the closest thing Australia has to grant-hunting magic. This federal government platform lets you send up a notification that sends relevant grants straight to your inbox. Setting up your profile is quick – You’ll input your location, and any keywords that might apply to your sector. Once that’s done, you’ve essentially hired a digital assistant who never forgets to check for new opportunities.
Federal websites are generally excellent. They’re well-organised, regularly updated, and designed with users in mind. State government websites are also excellent for finding new funding. Each state has its own approach to grant information, some have a newsletter that you can sign up to and get opportunities sent straight to your inbox, whereas some have a funding or news page. If there isn’t a newsletter, set yourself a regular calendar reminder to go and check out the website for updates.
State governments also have departments which govern over different sectors, so we’d suggest the same advice for these too. Go to the sector’s webpages and either sign up to newsletters or set yourself a calendar reminder to check for updates. The key here is to think a little outside the sector box when looking for grants. For example, you may be a dairy farmer, but maybe an R&D or tech grant might be appropriate. Maybe you’re in housing, but are planning on setting up a project to do with educating new builders so the education departments might have some funding you can access.
Often government grants get all the attention, but private foundations, banks, and corporations offer substantial funding too. The Big Four banks offer various business funding initiatives and mining companies often fund regional development projects.
The only problem is with this kind of funding is that there’s no central database for private funding. You’ll need to research individually, which is why creating a systematic approach matters.
Start with organisations already connected to your business. Which bank do you use? What suppliers do you work with regularly? Large corporations often have community investment programs that smaller businesses never discover. You should also sign up for newsletters from other relevant industry bodies and major funding organisations as well.
We also (as most professional grant writers do), have a subscriber newsletter, because we understand that the best opportunities often come from sources you wouldn’t think to check regularly. An important part of our jobs is to stay ahead of the funding environment and aware of the opportunities that non-professionals might miss.
Whitney Consulting’s monthly newsletter compiles opportunities from multiple sources to give you curated, relevant opportunities. We also include business tips, project design tools, organisational time-savers, and any other exciting information we find to help your business or organisation thrive.
Yes, your inbox is about to get busier. Yes, it’s worth it.
The key is creating a dedicated email folder for grant newsletters. Scan them regularly, but you don’t need to read every word immediately. When you’re ready to search for funding, you’ll have months of opportunities archived and searchable.
You can also turn social media into your intelligence network. Every major grant provider maintains active social media accounts. Following them could transform your casual Facebook or LinkedIn doomscrolling into productive research time.
Federal departments regularly post grant announcements on social media. State departments do the same. Regional development organisations share local opportunities. Even smaller providers like community foundations announce their funding rounds through social channels. Part of the beauty of social media monitoring is that updates appear in real-time. You’ll know about new opportunities immediately. Whitney Consulting often posts about funding opportunities on our Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Create Your Set-and-Forget System
- Here’s how to combine these digital resources into an efficient monitoring system:
- Set up your GrantConnect profile with good keywords.
- Follow relevant social media accounts and group them for easy monitoring.
- Subscribe to key newsletters and create email rules to automatically sort them.
Choose one day each month to review new opportunities. During this session, scan your newsletters, check your followed social accounts, and review any GrantConnect alerts you haven’t acted on. Make sure you choose systems that fit your routine and stick with them consistently.
You don’t need to monitor every possible source. Just be smart about your digital monitoring so you stay informed about relevant opportunities, don’t get overwhelmed by irrelevant ones, and stop wasting time scrolling to page 97 on Google “just in case I’ve missed something”. Set up your systems properly once, and they’ll serve you for years.
Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter here and get a whole heap of grants sent straight to you each month. It’s free and there’s no obligation to sign up for any of our services. We just want to connect more people with more funding opportunities as we know how lifechanging it can be for both business and community growth.
