Grants for Collaboration — Now open

Grants for Collaboration is the second stage of our two-year pilot grants program — a direct result of what the community told us matters most in our 2025 Grants for Conversation. 

We're offering grants of $5,000–$10,000 to support initiatives that reflect the priorities in our Roadmap:

  • Supporting stronger collaborations within and across sectors

  • Fostering creative ideas, support advocacy, story-telling and organisational sustainability

  • Growing community connection, shared local identity and greater social inclusion

Grants for Collaboration is designed to back in local leaders and the great work already being done throughout the City of Port Phillip. 

As the name implies, we're especially keen to support organisations that team up to tackle shared goals.

Applications close Friday 10 July at 5pm.

Before you apply

We encourage you to read our Vital Signs Report and Roadmap — they'll give you a strong sense of what we're hoping to resource and why.

📊 Read the Vital Signs report

🗺️ Read our Roadmap

📝 Read the five conversation reports

Ready to apply?

Find full eligibility details and the application forms to download here 👉

Applications close Friday 10 July, 5pm.

Email completed applications to admin@southsidecf.org.

Know an organisation or individual who'd be a great fit? Please pass this along — the more voices in the room, the better.

Grants for Collaboration Guidelines
Grants for Collaboration Application
Indicative Completion Report

Previous Grants

In 2025, we offered ‘Grants for Conversation’ aimed at bringing together agencies and stakeholders in key areas identified in our 2024 Vital Signs report. 

Our objective was for these conversations to lead to a stronger understanding of our community’s current and future needs. Our grant partners and Southside brought together up to 60 organisations to talk honestly about what our community needs to feel connected, to belong, and to flourish together. Those conversations shaped five detailed reports and our Roadmap that point the way forward. The outcomes inform our current grant-making ‘Grants for Collaboration’.

Our Grants for Conversation partners are listed below.

Grants for Conversation Partners

    • Grant Partner: City of Port Phillip Arts Collective (COPPAC)

    • Focus: As part of our Grants for Conversation, a $5,000 grant has enabled a collective of Arts organisations from across the City of Port Phillip to come together and participate in collaborative dialogue to explore how to deliver the best possible outcomes for artists and audiences in our community.

    • Grant Partner: Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc.

    • Focus: As part of our Grants for Conversation, a $5,000 grant has enabled 15 environmental organisations from across Southside to come together and participate in collaborative dialogue. Through a series of workshops and facilitated conversations, the group began mapping regional strengths and identifying shared challenges — including biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and nature disconnection.

    • Grant Partners: Port Phillip Community Group and Christ Church Mission Community Centre

    • Focus: A $5,000 grant from our Grants for Conversations program to further understand the scale of food insecurity in Port Phillip and ways the community can be engaged to ensure no one faces hunger or food insecurity in our community. Facilitated by Sustain, the Australian Food Network, 14 organisations came together to understand challenges, what is working well and opportunities to create change.

    • Grant Partners: South Port Community Housing Group and St Kilda Community Housing

    • Focus: A $5,000 grant to support the important work being done to address housing and homelessness. More than 40 leaders from the housing, health, community, and justice sectors came together at the St Kilda Town Hall to explore collaborative and actionable solutions to the growing housing crisis. A powerful reminder of what’s possible when passionate local voices unite for long-term change.

    • Grant Partners: First Step, SouthPort Community Group and Voices of Southside

    • Focus: A $5,000 grant from our Grants for Conversations program to focus on Mental Health and Well Being led by SouthPort Community Group in partnership with First Step. It includes conducting a number of focus groups and conversations with Voices of the South Side (participants with lived experience of mental health), First Step participants with lived experiences, clinicians and others. Desired outcomes include gaining an understanding of current wellbeing and mental health service provision concerns in our community and capturing a range of local voices including those with lived experience to explore local solutions and actions.