COMMUNITY sector organisations need to get stronger at developing business cases to attract funding, according to Perpetual general manager of philanthropy Andrew Thomas.
Perpetual recently announced its discretionary trusts dispensed $9.1 million in funding to 166 charitable organisations last financial year from 1,100 applications.
Mr Thomas said competition for funding was growing, with organisations that provided sound business cases based on outcomes rather than emotion more successful in receiving philanthropic funds.
He said not for profits that applied to Perpetual were good at outlining their niche and plans for collaboration, but often struggled to demonstrate their efficiency, effectiveness and risk management.
“Funding applications are not about writing a donor appeal letter; they need to be tailored and link the money invested to defined community outcomes,” Mr Thomas said.
He added the not-for-profit sectors best able to strongly articulate community outcomes in Perpetual’s 2011 funding round were arts and culture and environment.
“It may be that the arts/culture and environment sectors are experienced in pitching for corporate sponsorship, and presenting a proposition using hard facts and clear deliverables. These same factors determine our funding decisions,” Mr Thomas said.
