Grants
Eligibility
Eligibility of your organisation
Under the terms of the deed of The Ian Potter Foundation and the taxation laws, The Ian Potter Foundation can only make grants to organisations with BOTH Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) and Tax Concession Charity (TCC) status. TCC status was formerly called Income Tax Exempt Charity (ITEC) status.
Please ensure that your organisation has DGR and TCC status before writing your application.
The Australian Government's Australian Business Register Online enables you to search your organisation's name or ABN and see whether it is endorsed as a DGR and TCC.
Please also note the following advice regarding DGR status:
- Organisations must be EITHER endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as a DGR, or they must be specifically named in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1977 as being a DGR.
- If an organisation uses more than one name (for example, a legal name and a trading name), then the application to us should be made in the name which has DGR status.
- Some organisations also have DGR status only in respect of a fund which they operate, or for only one part of their activities. Applications from such organisations should only relate to the fund or activities for which DGR status has been endorsed/approved.
Accordingly, each applicant must provide:
- a copy of the applicant organistion's "Endorsement as a Deductible Gift Recipient" issued by the ATO, OR
- the item number in which the applicant organisation is named in Subdivision 30-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997; AND
- a copy of the applicant organisation's "Notice of endorsement for Charity Tax Concessions" issued by the ATO on or after 1 July 2005.This notice will describe your organisation as a charitable institution, charitable fund, public benevolent institution or health promotion charity.
The Ian Potter Foundation cannot make grants to other ancillary funds or to prescribed private funds.
- If your notice of endorsement as a DGR states the "Provision for gift deductibility" is "item 2 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997", your organisation will be an ancillary fund and therefore not entitled to receive grants.
ALL organisations applying to the Foundation must also advise their ABN.
More information about DGR and TCC status can be obtained from the ATO Non-Profit Organisations website. This website includes advice on who is eligible to obtain DGR status and how to apply.
It is important to read each section prior to downloading the form.
Download Application Form
Eligibility of your project
Please note that there are general guidelines and specific exclusions for each of our Program Areas. You should check these before beginning to write an application.
General Exclusions
The Foundation will not fund retrospectively and does not normally support:
- Recurrent expenditure for which no future provision is in sight.
- Capital or endowment funds established to provide a corpus for institutions.
- Research for Undergraduate, Masters or Doctoral students, except in special circumstances at the Board's discretion.
Geographical constraints on grants
The Foundation is limited to providing money, property or benefits for public charitable purposes in the Commonwealth of Australia. It is therefore not permitted to make grants for such worthy causes as the relief of famine in Africa, nor tsunami relief in India. Such grants would be for public charitable purposes outside the Commonwealth of Australia.
However, the Foundation is able to provide a grant for activities outside the Commonwealth if the grant is made for a public charitable purpose in the Commonwealth. For example, a grant might be made to an Australian university to enable it to fund an overseas study tour by an Australian researcher engaged by the university.
A note on Auspicing
Auspicing refers to the practice of an organisation which does not have DGR and TCC status applying to the Foundation under the name of another organisation which does. Auspicing arrangements are excluded under the Foundation's guidelines.
The organisation applying to the Foundation must be the organisation which would run the project or program for which a grant is being sought. The only exception to this exclusion is the support of heritage places and objects via the National Trust of Australia.
