Funded Projects

The Foundation has developed a set of funding principles that guide how it operates. The Foundation does not run an open grants round and similarly does not consider unsolicited requests for funding.

The Foundation does identify particular areas where it will focus its funding. These decisions are informed by knowledge of issues facing the financial counselling sector, consultation with relevant groups and the Foundation's own research.

Current priorities include: prisons, increasing access for First Nations people, increasing access for women who have experienced or are at risk of domestic and family violence and vulnerable private renters.

Grant recipients must be a fund, authority or institution which is charitable and gifts to which have DGR status (as per item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 97).

Industry Donation

In May 2023 the Financial Counselling Foundation received a donation of $7.75 million from industry. The donation, the largest single contribution of its kind, comes from a group of companies in the banking, finance, insurance, energy, telecommunications and online gambling sectors. This will enable the Foundation to support existing grants that are about to expire and to implement new projects that meet the Foundations priority areas.

Grants for Specialist Financial Counsellors to Work with Small Business Owners

Financial counselling casework for small business owners I February 2025 - December 2026

In January 2025 the Foundation allocated $725,000 to fund specialist small business financial counsellors to assist small business owners and sole traders facing financial difficulty.

Grants were awarded to five agencies in five different States: Wesley Community Services (NSW), Business and Rural Solutions (Queensland), Uniting Care Wesley Bowden (SA), EACH (Vic) and Redgum Justice (WA).

Calls to the Small Business Debt Helpline, a national service, are growing rapidly but there are limited options for small business owners to access financial counselling casework if they need more assistance than the helpline can provide.

The funded agencies will provide state wide financial counselling assistance to small business owners and work with the Small Business Debt Helpline to assist those who need casework assistance.

Grants for Financial Counsellors to Work with People in Prisons

Financial Counselling in Prison Projects | January2024 - December 2026

The $7.75 million industry donation has enabled the Foundation to grant $2 million to extend seven specialist family violence financial counselling services for two years until June 2025. The agencies are Justice Support Centre NSW, CARE ACT, Women’s Legal Service WA, Women’s Legal Service TAS, Central Australia Women’s Legal Service and Jacaranda Community Centre. These services will continue to provide financial counselling to women who have experienced or are at risk of economic abuse and have highly complex financial and other needs due to family violence.

A Social Impact Evaluation Report has confirmed the achievements of these services and recommended that the program continue. Click on "read more" to read the summary report.

You can also read more about the achievements of the last three years in the Completed Projects section.

Financial Counselling in Prison Projects | January 2024 - December 2026

In August 2024 the Foundation allocated almost $3 million to fund financial counsellors to work in the prison environment with people on remand, sentenced and on parole. The grants are to seven agencies to employ a full time equivalent financial counsellor for three years. The agencies are Cultura (Victoria), Kempsey Neighbourhood House (NSW), Catholic Care (NT), ICAN (Queensland), Sero4 (Queensland), Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (SA) and St Vincent de Paul (WA). The agencies were required to demonstrate that they have experience working in the prison environment and the partner prisons were invited to participate in the reporting and evaluation of the project.

The grants build on the outcome from the grant from the Foundation to the Thriving Communities Partnership to undertake research to understand the challenges, risks and success factors for existing prison programs across Australia that are designed to support the financial stability of people in prison. This resulted in the, "Fostering Financial Stability for People in Prison Final Report" released in November 2022.

The Foundation also provided a grant to ICAN Learn of $200,300 to support all financial counsellors working in prisons through the establishment of a Community of Practice and the delivery of training modules.

Evaluation of the Financial Counselling in Prison Projects | April 2024 - June 2026

The Foundation has contracted ARTD consultancy to do a social impact evaluation of the financial counselling in prison project for $332,880 from April 2024 – June 2026.

The overall purpose of the project is to:

assess the impact of financial counselling for people in prison, on their financial and greater wellbeing; and
determine how best to provide financial counselling to the prison population in the future.

The outcome will provide insight into the delivery of financial counselling to the prison population and the effectiveness from the perspective of the client.

Grants for Domestic and Family Violence Financial Counsellors

Extension of Family Violence Financial Counselling Projects | June 2023 - December 2025

The $7.75 million industry donation has enabled the Foundation to grant $2.6 million to extend nine specialist family violence financial counselling services for 2.5 years until December 2025. The agencies are Justice Support Centre NSW, CARE ACT, Central Australia Women’s Legal Service, Women’s Legal Service Qld, Women’s Legal Service SA, Women’s Legal Service TAS, Women’s Legal Service WA, Micah Projects (Qld) and Jacaranda Community Centre (WA). These services will continue to provide financial counselling to women who have experienced or are at risk of economic abuse and have highly complex financial and other needs due to family violence.

A Social Impact Evaluation Report has confirmed the achievements of these services and recommended that the program continue. Click on "read more" to read the summary report.

You can also read more about the achievements of the projects from 2020 to 2023 in the Completed Projects section.

Financial Counsellor Wellbeing

Employee Assistance Program for financial counsellors I 2023-2026

The Foundation funded $38,610 to fund an employee assistance program (EPA) for the financial counselling sector over three years through the provision of up to 6 sessions per individual and prioritising nationally those financial counselling agencies that are small and do not have an EPA service.

Assisting First Nations People

Financial Counselling in Remote Indigenous Communities | November 2021 - December 2026

The Foundation is providing a grant of $1,382,833 to the Earth Garden Foundation to fund financial counselling in 10 remote Indigenous communities in the Pilbara region in Western Australia. Working with local Ranger groups, the financial counselling service will be delivered face-to-face by Broome-based Bush Money Mob over three dry seasons (April to October) from April 2022 to December 2026.

The Communities to be serviced include Pandanus Park, Yakanarra, Yiyili, Mowanjum and Bayulu in the Fitzroy River Valley, Punmu and Parnngurr in the East Pilbara desert and Imitji, Ngullaganda, Kupungarri in the Gibb River area. Communities that will be visited have either very limited access or no access to face-to-face financial counselling due to their very remote locations. Face-to-face delivery is important as it builds trust and makes the service more effective. Communication is challenging in very remote communities and many processes that are key to resolving debt and money issues take longer.

Social impact evaluation

In May 2023, the Foundation allocated $105,125 to Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, at the University of Technology Sydney to provide a social impact evaluation of the services provided by Bush Money Mob in these remote communities listed above.

The Final Report identified that Bush Money Mob was working effectively and clients surveyed spoke highly of the support and advocacy they received to resolve their financial matters. Recommendations include ongoing funding, the recruitment of Aboriginal staff and improved collaboration with other services.

The Executive Summary, Evaluation of the Bush Money Mob Initiative March 2024 can be accessed at "read more".

Persons interested in reading the Full Report of the Evaluation of the Bush Money Mob Initiative by Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research can access it via University of Technology Sydney.

2016 Dina Sayers

2014 Phil Powell

National First Nations Phone Financial Counselling Service | May 2020 - June 2026

The Foundation has supported Financial Rights Legal Centre (NSW) with $1,580,000 in grants to employ three financial counsellors and promote the new financial counselling service to First Nations people across Australia.

Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC) runs Mob Strong Debt Help, an established national telephone service providing legal advice and assistance to First Nations people. The addition of financial counsellors to this service will improve access to financial counselling services in under-served areas. Funding to promote the service will support take-up and usage through building awareness and trust within local communities.

The service began with a single financial counsellor in 2020. In 2023 and 2024 the Foundation increased the funding to support additional financial counsellor positions to address the significant increase in demand due to the collapse of the funeral insurance company ACBF/Youpla and growing awareness of the service.

Bridging Grants

Western Australia Financial Counselling Trainees July 23 – June 25

The Foundation, on rare occasions, provides limited bridging grants to enable the continuation of a financial counselling service during an identified gap, prior to being eligible for future funding. The Financial Counsellors Association of WA identified and supported a proposal to fund 5 trainee financial counsellors for a maximum of a year. The agencies needed to identify that they were delivering the service, and that future funding is highly likely from Government or other sources.

The Foundation held a select Expression of Interest process and Finucare (trading as Money Mentors), Moneycare Salvation Army, St Vincent’s de Paul Society and Jacaranda Community Centre (with two Aboriginal trainees) received bridging grants for a total of $537,942.

The grants were extended for an additional year to allow the services to apply for other funding.

Grants for Private Renters

Financial Counselling for Vulnerable Private Renters | 2021 - 2025

In February 2021 the Foundation granted $1.17 million for in-house financial counselling services for private tenants to the following organisations for three years:

Tenants Victoria
Tenants Queensland and
VERTO in New South Wales.

The grant provides financial counselling to help vulnerable renters in-house alongside tenancy support services to private renters who are struggling financially.

The Foundation identified an increased need for financial counselling services for private renters who in the current circumstances are faced with increased rents, a chronic shortage of available properties and tight vacancy rates.

The social impact evaluation of the grants, delivered in May 2023 found that the services had a positive impact on the financial situation and wellbeing of most clients and that their knowledge and understanding of their financial situation increased. Click "Read more" to read the report.

In February 2024 a further $874, 582 was used to expand the Private Renters grants to other States and Territories with two year grants to the following agencies:

Care Inc in the ACT
Darwin Community Legal Centre in the NT and
Circle Green Community Legal in WA
SYC Ltd in SA (commenced in June 2024)

These grants will fund the agencies to integrate financial counselling into their tenancy services or in the case of Care Inc, allow them to better assist struggling renters using housing services in the ACT.

The original three grants to Tenants Victoria, Tenants Queensland and Verto were also extended by 21 months so that all the grants end on 30 December 2025. A second part time financial counsellor was also funded, a total of $1.23 million.