Landcare Australia - Funding

Funding

LAL receives funds from governments, corporate organizations and private donations. Prior to 1993 the Commonwealth government provided untied funds to cover LAL’s administration expenses. Since 1993 funds have been provided through Commonwealth departments (The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for Landcare and The Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts for Coastcare) for the support of both the Landcare and Coastcare programs. These grants support defined deliverables such as significantly improving the National Landcare Directory, National Landcare Awards, Quarterly Landcare publication, Landcare Week and Coastcare Week activities. The aim of these is to increase the level of community volunteering in both Landcare and Coastcare and to increase corporate sponsorship.

The State governments in Victoria and Western Australia support the operations of LAL through funds or in-kind resources to provide for outcomes specific to these States.

Funds are received from Corporate sponsors to support projects undertaken by groups operating under the landcare and coastcare ethos. These funds are disbursed via a combination of competitive and non-competitive grants. In order to manage this process and provide the appropriate reports and PR outcomes for the sponsors management fees are also charged to sponsor. These vary depending upon the type and extent of partnership.

Given the enormous community awareness of the work that landcare and coastcare groups do LAL has in recent years received individual donations and bequests. A policy has been developed that meets the wishes of the donors and provides for the use of these funds for predominantly on the ground work by groups.