Paul Ramsay Foundation joins ACF to announce national open grant round for ECEC

The Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) and the Australian Communities Foundation (ACF) have announced a national open grant round for programs and organisations working with families with children in the prenatal to two years of age range.

The grant round is part of PRF’s Strengthening Early Years, a program which aims to support families and children to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive upon school entry.

In particular, the program focuses on the critical importance of the developmental period between conception and age two, aiming to ensure that parents are well supported to flourish during the early years of their child’s life.

PRF Program Lead and Senior Associate Hannah Barber explained that to achieve its goals, the Foundation was seeking to source, seed, and support ‘promising programs’ that are working with families with children in the target age range.

“We are thrilled to launch this open grant round to help us make inroads into strengthening the early years of children’s lives by supporting those who do fantastic work with children and families all around Australia,” Ms Barber said.

“One of the primary objectives of this nationwide open grant round is to extend PRF’s reach into communities with which the Foundation does not have a long history of partnering. We’re seeking to support innovative practices which lead towards success in ensuring parents and caregivers are supported, and building strong positive relationships in children’s lives that support physical and mental health and wellbeing.”

The Foundation reached out to ACF, which it says has played a critical role in helping to reach the right programs and organisations.

“By partnering with ACF, we are able to expand our reach into those communities that are often underserved by funding opportunities. ACF brings a long history of high-quality, community-based partnership and we are thrilled to be working alongside their team,” Ms Barber added.

There will be two grant types available:

Large Grants: between $250,000 and $750,000 (total) for a period of up to five years are available and amounts will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Small/medium Grants: between $50,000 and $250,000 (total) for a period of up to five years are available and amounts will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Georgia Mathews, ACF Director of Philanthropic Services, expressed ACF’s enthusiasm for the work.

“We’re pleased to be able to work with PRF to identify organisations showing leadership in this important space and look forward to seeing the positive outcomes of some carefully placed funding for parents, their young children, and the community more broadly,” she said.

“It’s wonderful to see a foundation like PRF working with us to leverage our deep networks across the country and using them to achieve a positive result.”

Applications may be made here.

Find out more about the Paul Ramsay Foundation here.