Macquarie Sports’ grantmaking goal is to harness the power of sport to foster opportunity for young people. This aligns to the Macquarie Group Foundation’s broader grantmaking focus of breaking down barriers to employment.
Our grantmaking framework supports sports-focused organisations that provide education, training and employment opportunities to young people aged between 12-20 in Australia. Focus areas might include:
school engagement and attainment
mentoring and tutoring
literacy and numeracy
industry engagement
work readiness
work placement
We are now accepting expressions of interest (EOIs) for multi-year grant funding.
We welcome submissions from eligible organisations until Thursday 24 April 2025, 11:59pm AEST.
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 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 Sports grant in Australia, please create an account in our grant management platform Versaic, answer the eligibility and EOI questions and submit by the deadline.
Our grantmaking process goes through several stages:
| 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 Sports 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 Sports grantmaking team will work alongside successful organisations to develop their grant application. | August - October 2025 |
| Grant consideration | Grant applications will be reviewed by the Macquarie Sports Advisory Committee and successful recipients will be advised. | November - December 2025 |
| Funding dispersed | Grant funds disbursed | By March 2026 |
Organisations eligible for grants must have sports as part of their core activities. Sports must be referenced within their mission statement or objectives or clearly demonstrated through existing programs. National Sporting Organisations (NSOs), State Sporting Organisations (SSO’s), sports academies, sports institutes, charities and peak sporting bodies are eligible to apply. Organisations must have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR1) status, or willing to partner with a registered non-profit with DGR1 status (a “contracted entity”).
We are a sporting organisation without DGR1 status and no affiliation with a contracted entity, are we able to apply?
Macquarie Sports requires that the applying organisation has DGR1 status or is willing to partner with a contracted entity with DGR1 status to obtain the grant. If your organisation needs guidance on this matter, please email macquariesports@macquarie.com
We are based outside of Australia – are we eligible to apply?
Macquarie Sports is only funding programs delivered in Australia, by organisations headquartered in Australia.
Macquarie Sports total grants budget is approximately $A150,000 in 2026, which may be split amongst 1-3 grant partners.
We are expecting to provide grants annually over a period of two to three years.
Applications will be assessed on their merits rather than the amount sought.
There are no other EOIs confirmed at this stage.
Yes.
EOIs will be reviewed by Macquarie Sports staff against a consistent reviewing methodology to reduce bias.
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 Thursday 24 April 2025 at 11:59pm AEST.
The EOI is a two-page form which has been designed to capture the minimum amount of information required for the Macquarie Sports 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.
Yes, details about current grant partners and programs are available on the grants section of the Macquarie Sports webpage: https://www.macquarie.com/au/en/about/community/macquarie-sports.html
Please email macquariesports@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 Sports team.
We are unable to re-assess EOIs.
