Gardiner Foundation Community Investment Grants
Supporting Victoria’s Dairying Communities
Gardiner Foundation – 2025 Community Investment Grants
SUPPORTING Victoria’s dairying communities
Gardiner Foundation’s ‘Community Investment Grants’ provide multi-year funding for community resources and initiatives that positively address the adaptations and transitions occurring in Victoria’s dairying communities.
Victorian dairying communities are undergoing significant adaptation and transformation in response to the intersecting pressures of climate change, industry evolution, infrastructure development, connection and workforce dynamics. Climate change is altering seasonal cycles and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events. Farm numbers have declined as farms are getting bigger and more sophisticated, prompting innovation in business models, succession and sustainability practices.
Access to skilled labour in regional areas remains challenging and is reshaping community demographics and prompting the need for investment in regional community initiatives. Gardiner Foundation believes that dairying communities know best what they need to thrive.
Grants of up to $75,000 ($25,000 per annum x 3 years) are available for: seed funding; project or service delivery; data and regional metrics to inform community planning, policy and development; coaching, accelerators and program support; events and workshops; training and education; and equipment.
Before you apply, read the guidelines below or download here.
ABOUT gardiner foundation
Gardiner Foundation is a not-for-profit philanthropic organisation with a vision for vibrant, thriving Victorian dairy communities where people want to live, work and invest. From 2002 to 2024, Gardiner Foundation’s Community Grants program invested $2.4M across 601 community organisations in regional Victoria. In 2025, Gardiner Foundation Community Investment Grants will deliver $75,000 in grants to community organisations across Victoria’s dairying regions.
Guidelines
Eligibility
Who can apply
To be eligible for a grant, organisations must be either:
• A) Non-profit (with either an Incorporation Certificate and/or an ABN) servicing Victorian communities where the dairy industry is a primary economic and social activity (refer to eligible LGAs in the Defining Dairy Communities section); OR
• B) A Social Enterprise, Mutual or Co-op with models of moderate to high benefit for dairy communities.
Weighting will be given to enterprises of $500K or smaller that include collaboration or formal partnerships and those that demonstrate collaboration with other funders.
Funding considerations
Gardiner Community Investment Grants leverage the rich local knowledge and skills of Victoria’s dairying communities to support locally-led initiatives that explore creating and ensuring a positive and resilient future.
Approaches to adaptation and transitions may include, but are not limited to:
• Land usage change, farm aggregation and succession/sales
• Supporting skilled workforce – culture and ethnicity, proximity, longevity, etc
• Building and improving social infrastructure
• Addressing climate impacts
• Farming and science development
Adaptation and transitions include any wave of significant change that is impacting your dairy community.
Projects must seek to benefit disadvantaged or marginalised people or groups in Victoria’s dairying communities, particularly those that intersect with the dairy supply chain. These grants must directly benefit the wider community.
This multi-year funding seeks to support ambitious projects and will favour those working in partnerships and with other funding.
Grants of up to $75,000 ($25,000 per annum x 3 years) are available for:
• Seed funding
• Project or service delivery
• Data and regional metrics to inform community planning, policy and development
• Coaching, accelerators and program support
• Events and workshops
• Training and education
• Equipment
• Other
Gardiner Foundation will not consider funding for:
• Activities that are partisan or religious in nature
• Activities that are already funded by Gardiner Foundation
• Retrospective activities (activities that have already occurred)
• Fundraising activities for an organisation
• Advocacy and campaigning
• Capital works that do not directly support community wellbeing
• Sporting activities that do not have a focus on alleviating disadvantage
• Any commercial or business activity that detracts from the dairy industry.
Application process
To access and submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) and grant application, you must be logged into the Australian Communities Foundation Grants Portal and enter the access code GF2025.
Please create an account on the Australian Communities Foundation Grants Portal here. If you already have an account, please use your existing username and password. Make sure to note your username and password as you will be able to save and continue the form at a later date.
Preview the Expression of Interest Form here.
Preview the Application Form here.
Timeframes
- Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are open from 9am AEST, Monday 8 September 2025 to 5pm AEDT, Thursday 16 October 2025.
- EOI applications must be submitted by 5pm AEDT, Thursday 15 October 2025.
- Only applicants who have been shortlisted in the EOI stage will be invited to submit a full application. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by early November.
- Full applications are open from 9am AEDT, Thursday 6 November 2025 to 5pm AEDT, Wednesday 26 November 2025.
- Final recipients will be notified by mid-December 2025.
- Grants will be paid from mid-December 2025 onwards.
- Projects/initiatives to commence from January 2026 onwards.
All grant applications must be submitted in full, including any supporting documentation, by 5pm AEDT on the closing date. Any incomplete applications or applications received after 5pm AEDT will be treated as ineligible.
Need help?
If you have any questions in relation to the grant guidelines or require technical assistance with the application process, please contact Gabby Lam (Philanthropy Lead, Australian Communities Foundation) on 03 9412 0412 or email [email protected]. Australian Communities Foundation’s office hours are Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.