Recognising that many people around the world face systemic barriers to employment, the Macquarie Group Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on breaking down these barriers and building pathways to greater economic security.
In Australia, we support non-profit organisations helping young people access jobs that prepare them for a better future. As outlined in our grantmaking framework, we focus on:
encouraging employers to take an active role in creating opportunities;
employment pathways for the future of work; and
increasing entry points to employment.
For those organisations that align with our grantmaking framework, a key consideration will be whether lived experience of the beneficiary community is embedded within the organisation.
We are now accepting expressions of interest (EOIs) for multi-year grant funding.
Eligible Australian non-profits that align with our grantmaking framework are now invited to submit EOIs until Thursday 24 April 2025, 11:59pm AEST.
We acknowledge the time and effort non-profits put into grant applications and, as part of our efforts to make our grantmaking more equitable, we have tried to make this process as straightforward as possible.
1. Review your eligibility: Check whether your organisation is eligible to apply by reviewing the eligibility criteria outlined in the FAQs.
2. Create a Versaic account: We are accepting EOIs via our grant management platform, Versaic. To get started, select the ‘Submit your EOI’ button below, then follow the prompts to create an account on Versaic.
3. Submit your EOI: Once you have completed the eligibility and EOI questions, select the ‘submit’ button at the end of the EOI form. You will then receive an email from Versaic confirming your submission was received. You won’t be able to make any further changes at this point. A copy of your EOI responses will be saved in your Versaic account, where you can also download a copy for your records.
If you would like to submit an EOI for a Macquarie Group Foundation grant in Australia, please create an account in our grant management platform Versaic, answer the eligibility and EOI questions and submit by the deadline.
| Action | Details | When |
|---|---|---|
| EOI submission | EOIs open | Monday 24 March 2025, 9am AEDT |
| EOIs close | Thursday 24 April 2025, 11:59pm AEST | |
| EOI review | EOI review period will involve multiple reviewers and a consistent reviewing methodology to reduce bias. All organisations will be notified of their EOIs status via email, with successful organisations moving to the shortlist. | May - July 2025 |
| The shortlist process involves gathering additional information from shortlisted organisations. This may include a virtual call with the Macquarie Group Foundation grantmaking team to better understand your work. All shortlisted organisations will be notified of their status via email, with successful organisations moving to grant application. | ||
| Grant application prepared | The Macquarie Group Foundation grantmaking team will work alongside successful organisations to develop their grant application. | August - October 2025 |
| Grant consideration | Grant applications will be reviewed by the relevant Macquarie Group Foundation grantmaking committee and successful recipients will be advised. | November - December 2025 |
| Funding dispersed | Grant funds disbursed | By March 2026 |
The minimum requirement is that an organisation is a registered charity on the ACNC register, has Australian Taxation Office Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR1) endorsement and is covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
Additionally, we are also willing to consider organisations that are partnering with a registered non-profit with Deductible Gift Recipient Item 1 status (the “contracted entity”). This organisation would be responsible for the financial receipt and/or management of the grant.
N.B. In relation to individual work integrated social enterprises (WISEs), or other individual social enterprises aligned to our grantmaking framework, we are limiting eligibility to those are acting as intermediaries or field builders in the WISE space for young people. This is because the Macquarie Group Foundation is separately funding individual WISEs through our membership of the Work Integrated Social Enterprise (WISE) Collaborative Funders Group. The main essential difference between non-profits and social enterprises is that non-profits rely on public funding through donations. Social enterprises are businesses; they generate their own profit to keep themselves running.
If your organisation’s income is largely sourced from trading revenue not donations, we would consider you to be closer to a WISE and therefore ineligible for this grant funding round.
We are only able to consider applications from organisations that have DGR1 status at the time of EOI submission. As noted above, we will consider EOIs from organisations that are being (or will be at the time of EOI) auspiced by DGR1 organisations.
Applying organisations must confirm they align with our grantmaking framework. Within that, the following types of organisations are excluded:
houses of worship or strictly religious organisations
educational institutions (other than universities)
political organisations
professional associations
sporting groups (except via Macquarie Sports grants)
organisations funding military activities
media outlets
private and corporate foundations
Additionally, we are not accepting EOIs from individual work integrated social enterprises (WISEs), or other individual social enterprises aligned to our grantmaking framework, unless they are acting as intermediaries or field builders in the WISE space for young people. The Macquarie Group Foundation separately funds individual WISEs through our membership of the Work Integrated Social Enterprise (WISE) Collaborative Funders Group.
We will preference EOIs from organisations who can clearly demonstrate a greater focus on young people (15-24 years) via their stated mission, vision, strategy and programs (alongside clear alignment to our grantmaking framework).
We welcome applications from organisations who can demonstrate they are exploring opportunities in growth industries or as mentioned in the research we commissioned in 2021, ‘the economy of the future’.
We have approximately $A2.2 million for allocation by the end of March 2026.
We expect to support up to eight organisations through this funding, with individual grant amounts ranging between $A250,000 - $A500,000. Our preference is for fewer larger grants versus multiple smaller grants.
All approved grant applicants will then have an equivalent amount pledged for FY27 and potentially FY28 also.
We will not ask you to specify an amount in the EOI. Instead, we will assess the request for funding against other requests to determine the approximate grant amount we are able to provide in the context of our overall grant portfolio.
Yes.
There are no other EOIs confirmed at this stage.
EOIs will be assessed by several reviewers from the Macquarie Group grantmaking team against a consistent reviewing methodology to reduce bias.
We will preference EOIs from organisations that best align with our grantmaking framework. For those organisations that do align well, a consideration will be whether the organisations are reflective of the identities and lived experience of the community they are trying to serve.
In line with the ‘pay what it takes’ approach, we have no particular preference around how organisations wish to spend our funds, although it should be both based in and supporting communities within Australia.
No. We will only consider one EOI per organisation.
Please add noreply@system.versaic.com to your safe sender list to ensure you receive communication from our team regarding the outcome of your EOI.
Yes, you are encouraged to regularly save your EOI responses prior to submission. Please note, the period of inactivity before you are timed out is 20 minutes, so please save your form regularly. Once you click the ‘submit’ button you will not be able to make any further changes.
Yes, you can view the questions you will be asked during the EOI process here.
We will only consider EOIs submitted via our grant management platform Versaic and these need to be submitted by the deadline.
The EOI is a two-page form which has been designed to capture the minimum amount of information required for the Macquarie Group grantmaking team to assess alignment with our grantmaking framework. To continue to improve and refine our approach, we encourage you to share your feedback on the EOI process via the comments box at the end of the EOI form.
Please email foundation@macquarie.com with any queries (there may be a delay in response if there is a high volume of correspondence).
We will update our FAQ section with additional information for recurring queries, so please check back as appropriate.
Please note that to be fair to all applicants, we will not be able to provide individual feedback or review your EOI ahead of the submission deadline.
We know feedback is helpful for organisations wanting to understand why their request for funding was unsuccessful. We will aim to share general insights and provide feedback where possible.
Personal or organisational details provided in this EOI form will only be available to the Macquarie Group Foundation team.
We are unable to re-assess EOIs.
