Have You Applied For The 2014 Westpac Community Grants?

Is your NFP working to improve the lives of disadvantaged Australians?

Could you do with a boost to your funding?

The 2014 Westpac Community Grants might be just what you need.  The grants have been designed for specific purposes.  This is an extract from the Westpac page.

What we do fund:

• Projects that build on a community organisation’s core work
• Running costs, including salaries, to ensure that community organisations can maintain and develop their core work and services.

What we do not fund:

Organisations that do not have a Deductible Gift Recipient Item 1 status with the ATO, or are not auspiced

• Charities that mainly work overseas
• Hospitals, hospices or medical centres
• Medical research, funding for medical equipment or medical treatments
• Rescue services
• Schools, colleges and universities
• Sponsorship or funding towards a marketing appeal or fundraising activities
• Capital projects, appeals and refurbishments
• Projects that support animals or to promote animal welfare
• Programs promoting religion.

The Westpac Foundation has already provided over one million dollars of funding for community grants. These grants have helped over 113 Not for Profits to expand their operations.  That is a very impressive record.

This year there is a total of $530,000 in grant money available to groups who can meet the funding requirements.

If you have never applied for a grant before, take the time to read the documentation on how to apply and check the selection criteria.  Both are found on the information page.

Applications are open until March 31^st and grant recipients will be announced in June. Please visit the Westpac Foundation to discover more about the grants and to make your application.

Free NFP Success Course

How successful is your NFP? If it’s struggling, you could probably do with some help. That’s where Westpac comes in.

7 Steps to Successful NFP is a free course offered by the Davidson Institute as part of Westpac’s commitment to financial education. The course offers an introduction to key financial management concepts in an easy to follow, practical format.

The course description says:

“This short course will provide you with valuable tips and tools that can assist you in understanding the key financial drivers of a successful organisation.”

At only 1 ½ hours in length, this course won’t eat into your day but it will make a difference to the way you operate.

The course is being presented around the country during the first week of July and places are still available.

To check the dates and locations of this course visit the Davidson Institute now.

Westpac and Organisational Mentoring.

It's always good to see large companies giving back to the people, and Westpac has launched a program that will have on-going benefits for many in the broader community.

The Organisational Mentoring Program is designed to support and encourage Not For Profit (NFP) management officers and staff through skills transfer and coaching from Westpac staff.

Westpac are understandably proud of their upcoming 200 year anniversary, and are keen to share their knowledge of business sustainability with close to fifty NFPs, Indigenous organisations and social enterprises throughout Australia that they have already included in this program.

Westpac hopes that the general skill development that their program offers will have a positive influence on the wider community.

Our Governor General, Quentin Bryce, was at the launch of The Organisational Mentoring Program and she applauded the bank's move to help develop the leadership, HR processes and work culture of the organisations they have taken under their wing.

Leading on from Westpac's successful pilot of The Organisational Mentoring Program in 2008 with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) they have further developed their innovative skills transfer initiatives.

This mentoring model is seen as an opportunity for Westpac employees to develop leadership and coaching practices while helping to influence improvement and business sustainability through an exchange of management tools and methods for ongoing business improvement.

Not only do the mentors offer skill development in financial sectors, but they coach in better workplace practices, engaging employee commitment and reducing the sometimes high levels of employee turnover.

We hope that this scheme broadens even further, allowing many more Not For Profit groups to benefit from the intitiative.

Well done Westpac.

Talking Finances

I recently came across a booklet of ‘101 top tips’ from successful Australian entrepreneurs offering reflections of what they’ve learned on their journey.

A recurring theme amongst the entrepreneurs was the co‐existence of three key principles – high‐quality delivery,great people, and strong financial management – three pillars that are a valuable blueprint for organisations of any size.

One of the first pieces of advice a banker will provide to any organisation is that the key to strong financial management is to never take your eyes off the cash flow.

To do this successfully you need an effective accounting system, plus simple to follow processes that make it easy for your staff or treasurer to record the everyday transactions of your organisation.

Here are a few ideas that will help to ensure your books stay in good shape:
􀂾 Everything has to add up: adopt a methodical and reliable accounting system. Make the most of its software and processes to record all transactions relating to monies coming in and going out.
􀂾 Time savers: if needed, investigate additional products such as tools to manage invoicing, superannuation and payroll. Your banker can help here.
􀂾 Sound administration: keep a separate file for each project, make sure your internet banking forms clearly identify their purpose, and keep a hard copy of receipts and budget spreadsheets as a back‐up.
􀂾 Never let your accounting processes slide: no matter if you’re a larger organisation with auditing requirements or a smaller group (auditing requirements vary from state to state), you’ll need to keep accurate and up‐to‐date records for taxation reasons.

Setting up a full and documented accounting system and easy to follow processes will also reduce the potential for fraud or simple mistakes like miscalculations which can be damaging to your organisation.

Also, your Treasurer may change overnight through accident, retirement or new election, and the newcomer will quickly need to extract everything they need from your organisation’s records.

Effective accounting is not only the foundation of a sustainable organisation, but ultimately a time saver that will free‐up your time so you can focus on providing your services where they’re needed most.

Article by Vanessa Nolan-Woods, Head of Community Markets at Westpac. Reproduced from the Our Community newsletter.

Westpac Internet Banking

A Westpac Community Solutions Account is accessible via internet banking and is ideal for not for profit organisations with multiple signatories to simply receive and make payments. This tailored solution is FREE to set up with no monthly service or transaction fees for activities such as BPAY, Direct Entry, and cheque and branch transactions. If you’re paying a bill without BPAY using online banking you would use the “Pay Anyone” facility at $0.25 cents per payment. That’s cheaper than a postage stamp and envelope!

To open an account for a community organisation you’ll need to provide either:

• a certificate of registration/certificate of incorporation for community groups; or
• an ATO income tax exemption certificate; or
• a Memorandum and Articles of association stating ‘not for profits’ status, or
• Meeting Minutes.

For internet access you’ll also need to set up Business Online to allow multiple signatories (with various authority levels available) to access accounts and transfer funds online.

To start paying bills using Westpac internet banking just follow these simple steps:-

1. Open a Community Solutions account (remembering to provide one of the items listed above to open the account);
2. Each signatory provides 100 point identification (if they are not already known to Westpac);
3. Complete a Business Online form, outlining the number of signatories;
4. Each signatory is allocated an access level and a userid/password;
5. The treasurer logs in and creates a payment;
6. It sits in a Pending List waiting for authorisation;
7. Another signatory logs in with their userid to authorise the payment (assuming they’ve seen the invoice you’re paying);
8. The payment is then automatically submitted when it is authorised (if only two signatories are required for example).

To set up an account for your community organisation, simply visit any Westpac Branch and talk to a Business Banker.

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