The Gambling Community Benefit Fund (GCBF) is Queensland’s largest one-off community grants program and distributes approximately $60 million each year to not-for-profit community groups. The GCBF funding helps these groups to provide services, leisure activities and opportunities for Queensland communities.
This year, the GCBF program has 3 funding rounds available:
- $100,000 super round for all priorities—closed 31 March 2022
- $100,000 disaster recovery round for applicants affected by natural disasters and $35,000 available for all other applications—closes 15 July (combines 31 May and 31 August rounds)
- $35,000 standard grant round—closes 31 October.
Funding Priorities
Applications are prioritised by the committee in this order, where 1 has the highest priority:
- Items/facilities directly affected, damaged or destroyed by a declared natural disaster in the last 2 years
- Equipment or facility improvements
- Buses, cars, caravans, boats, tractors, trailers, large mowers, motorbikes and similar items
- Community events, training, workshops, festivals, publications and website development
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Organisations that have received more than $15,000 from the GCBF within the last 2 years
Other determining factors
These factors also contribute to the committee’s decisions:
- Financial position of organisation
- Age of organisation
- Value for money of the grant
- Other contributions, financially or in-kind, towards the grant
- Opportunities for the organisation to generate income
- Benefits to more than one organisation
- Number of applications by the legal entity (if sponsoring)
- Geographical location of organisation and benefit to region
- Target group being assisted
- Government priorities identified by the Minister
Eligible organisations
For your organisation to be eligible, it must meet the requirements of either a legal entity or a sponsored entity.
A legal entity:
- is incorporated or registered under an Act of Parliament
- has an active ABN
- has not-for-profit objectives
- has a bank account in the name of the legal entity
- must provide a bank verification form stamped by the organisation’s financial institution; if your financial institution is unable to complete the bank verification form, please contact us for assistance.
A sponsored entity:
- is unincorporated and not registered under an Act of Parliament
- has not-for-profit objectives
- requires a legal entity to sponsor its application
- may be a local ambulance committee, rural fire brigade or State Emergency Service group must be sponsored by their relevant government department.
Ineligible organisations
Organisations that are not eligible for the funding are:
- state, private or independent schools (as noted above, this excludes P&Cs and P&Fs)
- proprietary limited or public companies limited by shares or trusts where the shareholders are individuals or for-profit companies
- individuals (sole traders)
- organisations trading for profit.
You are also ineligible for the funding if your organisation:
- has duplicate registrations in the online portal
- does not provide information we request by the due date
- does not update the financial details registered with us before applying.
Registration requirements
Organisations must review and update their registration details each year as well as when applying.
Most importantly, the financial position of the organisation (to be taken from your financial statements within the last 2 years) must be up to date.
Failure to update this information by the closing date of the funding round will deem the organisation and application ineligible for that round.
We may request other documentation to verify eligibility.
While schools are not eligible, parents and citizens associations (P&Cs) and parents and friends associations (P&Fs) can apply.
Ineligible items
You cannot use the GCBF to fund items that were ordered, committed to (with a signed document or paid deposit) or purchased before the funding is approved. The other ineligible items, fees or costs are as follows.
Fees for services
- Grant writer or auspice fees (i.e. fees to manage grant applications and funding)
- Project management fees
Items
- Items purchased from a grant writer or their associated companies
- Purchase of equipment/services that benefit an individual
- Alcohol
- Gifts or prizes
- Items purchased from overseas suppliers (without prior approval from us)
Operating costs
- Contingency costs (i.e. money budgeted or set aside for costs not yet incurred)
- General operating/recurring costs
- Repayment of debts and loans
- Overseas travel costs
- Funding for member or staff social events
- Facility improvements to any community title, body corporate or retirement living scheme or similar entity (as determined by us)
Other types of income
- Subsidies (i.e. using the GCBF to acquire or gain eligibility for other grants or contributions)
- Sponsorship (i.e. using the GCBF to secure sponsorship for the organisation)
Unlikely-to-be-funded items
These items and costs are also unlikely to be approved for funding:
- salaries and wages
- rent and lease costs
- public liability insurance for events
- administration expenses such as stationery, postage and office supplies
- consumable items such as food, petrol, uniforms
- catering
- internal training not provided by a third party
- prepaid or store cards
- items to be purchased from overseas suppliers.
Overseas suppliers
The Queensland Government encourages you to buy local and support local suppliers.
If your application is successful, further approval must be sought from us to purchase from an overseas supplier. Any items purchased from an overseas supplier without prior approval from us will be declined and grant funds will need to be returned.
Eligible applications
An application is deemed eligible if:
- it is submitted by an eligible organisation (see above)
- the sponsored entity (if applicable) is supported by an eligible legal entity
- it demonstrates that it will benefit Queensland communities
- multiple quotes have been sourced; the actual quotes are not required to be submitted with the application but may be requested at a later date.
We may request additional documentation to confirm eligibility.
Ineligible applications
An application will not be eligible if the same organisation has previously applied for GCBF funding that is any of the following:
- still awaiting an outcome
- recently acquitted and within the one-round exclusion period
- for the legal entity or sponsored entity and not yet closed.
An application will likewise not be eligible if:
- it is incomplete
- information we request is not received by the due date
- all items requested are ineligible items
- it is submitted by an ineligible organisation
- the legal entity has submitted more than one application for the same location (as determined by us)
- the legal entity sponsoring an application has an overdue application in its own right.
Legal entity sponsoring an application
The legal entity sponsoring an application must:
- ensure that the sponsored entity has not-for-profit objectives
- agree to accept legal and financial responsibility for the grant
- agree with the sponsored entity about how the grant will be managed
- ensure they have no overdue applications in their own right
- ensure all legal and sponsored registration details are up to date including the financial position.
Local ambulance committees, rural fire brigades or state emergency services can only be sponsored by their relevant government department.
Other application requirements
To receive funding from the GCBF, your organisation must also:
- have appropriate insurance cover in place, if successful
- comply with local, state and commonwealth laws and regulations
- keep copies of all approvals and documents for 7 years to support the application.
We may request extra documentation at any stage of the application process.
