ING Foundation Grants

ING DIRECT's Community Impact program aims to make a positive and meaningful difference in the community. As an innovative company, we believe in supporting social innovation - new and different ways to address pressing needs in our community. Just as we seek to make it simple and straightforward for our customers to deal with us, we also want to ensure we make it easy for charities to apply for grants through the ING Foundation.

As such, we have re-designed the ING Foundation grants program to ensure that charities can focus on what charities do best - helping those in need. We have made our selection criteria more specific to help charities to determine if their application is aligned with the aims of our grant program to allow them to focus their energies where their applications have the best chance of success.

What are the major changes?

  1. New selection criteria, including new, more specific focus areas (see below)
  2. From 2012 Grants will only be awarded once per year, in April. Application deadline is 5pm 1 March 2013
  3. Three grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded each year

2013 applications are now closed. The next grant round will open in January 2014.

Selection Criteria

Applications must meet all of the below selection criteria to be considered for an ING Foundation grant:

  1. Must be registered with the Australian Taxation Office as an approved charity (Deductible Gift Recipient covered by item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997)
  2. Must be innovative in the way it delivers programs/services to young people in need;
  3. Must address at least one of the below focus areas*:
    - Youth Disadvantage
    - Education
    - Youth Health and Mental Health
  4. Must help young people to 'realise their potential'
  5. Nb. We understand that it can be difficult to secure funding for' under-represented issues or smaller grassroots organisations, so don't be shy to apply if you feel you have a unique program or idea, even if it has never been funded before!

Grants will not be awarded for:

  • - Sponsorship of individuals
  • - Assistance with fundraising projects
  • - Support for Foundations that allocate funds to other charitable organisations

Additional Information

If your application is successful, you may not apply for funding from the ING Foundation again for 12 months.

Congratulations to the successful applicants from the March 2012 funding round.

Camp Kookaburra

Camp Kookaburra's mission is to support children who live in a family affected by mental illness by providing an early intervention and mental health education program focusing on building resilience and coping skills through camps and other activities.

Batyr Australia

In a typical Australian year 12 classroom with 30 students, 7 will have experienced a serious mental health issue, 2 will seek professional help and 1 will attempt suicide. By sharing personal experiences, by young people to young people at various schools and universities, Batyr targets the 5 in 7 young people who do not currently seek the necessary and available help to address their mental health.

Starlight Children's Foundation (livewire.org.au)

livewire.org.au is an innovative online community connecting more than 5000 young people living with a serious illness, chronic condition or disability. Funding will go towards training the chat hosts that help members interact, develop social skills and gain maximum benefit from the community.