Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR)

The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR), in partnership with the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF), proudly delivers the Regional Drought Resilience Plan (RDRP) Social Outcome Grants. This necessary funding program helps not-for-profit organisations in distant, rural, and regional Australia to strengthen social capital, wellbeing, and connectedness—serving to communities put together for and adapt to future drought situations.

The grants are a significant part of the Future Drought Fund’s Communities Program, which invests within the long-term energy and sustainability of agricultural communities. By empowering native teams to take motion at a grassroots stage, this system ensures that rural communities can determine and tackle their very own drought preparedness priorities in ways in which greatest go well with their distinctive social and environmental contexts.

Program Overview

The RDRP Social Outcome Grants intention to allow domestically pushed initiatives that foster group connection, resilience, and preparedness. Recognising that social wellbeing is on the core of drought resilience, this program funds initiatives that strengthen relationships, networks, and native capacities to adapt to altering weather conditions.

By specializing in social outcomes reasonably than direct financial or environmental measures, this system acknowledges that communities with sturdy bonds and excessive ranges of cooperation are higher outfitted to handle stress and alter during times of drought.

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Key Program Details

• Applications shut: 11 December 2025
• Funding announcement: Late April 2026
• Round 1 funding pool: Approximately $2 million
• Grant quantity: Minimum $1,000 – Maximum $100,000 (in $1,000 increments)
• Eligible candidates: Locally based mostly, not-for-profit organisations
• Eligible areas: Up to 50 accredited RDRP areas throughout Australia
• Next rounds:
  • Round 2: Opens May 2026, closes June 2026 (awarded by October 2026)
  • Round 3: Opens February 2027, closes March 2027 (awarded July 2027)

Program Objectives

The RDRP Social Outcome Grants are designed to help initiatives that ship measurable social advantages and construct long-term group resilience. Specifically, funded initiatives ought to reveal clear linkages to drought preparedness by fostering:

1. New or strengthened community-based networks that enhance social connection and mutual help.
2. Enhanced communication and collaboration between native teams, organisations, and people.
3. Increased information and understanding of drought, its impacts, and preparedness methods.
4. Improved entry to group sources, infrastructure, and providers.
5. Inclusive participation throughout numerous group members and organisations, together with younger individuals and First Nations communities.
6. Strengthened management and native functionality to plan, handle, and ship group initiatives.
7. Greater adoption of place-based practices tailor-made to native wants and situations.

In the long run, these outcomes contribute to stronger social capital, wellbeing, and connectedness, guaranteeing that regional communities are extra cohesive, adaptive, and resilient within the face of drought and different challenges.

Funding Priorities

The FRRR and the Future Drought Fund have established a transparent set of priorities to information funding choices. Preference will probably be given to initiatives that:

• Strengthen social resilience and group networks as a basis for drought preparedness.
• Focus on long-term social connection and capability constructing, reasonably than short-term reduction.
• Clearly reveal linkages between challenge outcomes and drought resilience.
• Are domestically designed and context-specific, reflecting the distinctive wants of every area.
• Are recognized in a Regional Drought Resilience Plan (RDRP) or aligned with considered one of its social resilience themes.
• Build upon earlier Future Drought Fund initiatives, sustaining momentum and deepening group impression.
• Show sturdy group readiness and collaboration, partaking a number of organisations.
• Include energetic participation from younger individuals and First Nations communities.
• Avoid duplication of different FDF or group resilience applications.

What Can Be Funded

The RDRP Social Outcome Grants fund easy, one-off, or seed-type actions that instantly contribute to this system’s social resilience objectives. Funding could also be used for:

1. Community Networks and Collaboration

• Initiatives that strengthen the capability, functionality, and collaboration of community-based networks or domestically based mostly not-for-profit organisations.
• Activities that join teams throughout sectors—resembling farmers, group teams, colleges, and councils—to share experiences and plan collaboratively for future droughts.

2. Community Events

• Field days, conferences, boards, and summits that encourage the trade of drought-related information, promote social cohesion, and encourage collective motion.
• Workshops or storytelling periods that construct consciousness of drought dangers and showcase profitable native adaptation examples.

3. Training and Capacity Building

• Skill improvement applications in group threat administration, planning, and challenge supply.
• Training in management, communication, and group engagement that helps people contribute extra successfully to native resilience efforts.

4. Small-Scale Community Infrastructure

• Modest enhancements to group assembly locations, halls, or amenities that enhance utilization and social interplay.
• Purchase of minor tools important to operating native gatherings, coaching, or occasions.

5. Development and Learning Initiatives

• Programs that promote private, skilled, or management improvement in drought-affected areas.
• Initiatives that improve understanding of local weather change impacts and adaptive practices.

Each of those classes goals to strengthen native relationships and construct the human and social belongings obligatory to resist future droughts.

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What Cannot Be Funded

To guarantee efficient and equitable use of funds, sure challenge sorts and bills are ineligible below this system. These embrace:

• Projects situated exterior of distant, rural, or regional Australia.
• Activities that fall inside the core tasks of presidency entities.
• Projects that primarily produce financial or environmental outcomes reasonably than social ones.
• Applications that re-grant funds to different organisations.
• Sporting membership actions except they reveal broad charitable profit and clear drought resilience outcomes.
• Projects targeted on animal welfare, business ventures, or personal profit.
• Initiatives already funded by means of different authorities applications.
• Activities which have already commenced or been accomplished previous to funding choices.
• Major capital works, land purchases, or infrastructure building.
• Political advocacy, alcohol purchases, or extreme hospitality prices.
• Merchandise manufacturing, prizes, or trophies.
• Core operational bills like lease, salaries unrelated to challenge supply, or administrative overheads.

However, affordable program coordination and supply prices are eligible, so long as they instantly help the implementation of the funded exercise.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the RDRP Social Outcome Grants, organisations should meet the next situations:

1. Be a not-for-profit organisation with a legitimate ABN or Incorporation Certificate.
2. Have initiatives that serve charitable functions and supply a transparent public profit.
3. Be based mostly in and ship actions inside an eligible RDRP area in distant, rural, or regional Australia.
4. Submit solely one application per grant spherical.
5. Propose a challenge that both:
   • Is explicitly recognized within the area’s accredited Regional Drought Resilience Plan; or
   • Aligns with a social resilience theme in that Plan.
6. Preferably be an organisation that contributed to the event of the RDRP.
7. Ensure the challenge instantly advantages agriculture-dependent communities.

Ineligibility Conditions

Applications will probably be ineligible if:

• Submitted by people, sole merchants, or for-profit entities.
• The making use of physique lacks authorized standing and has not offered written consent from a governing associate.
• Required monetary documentation is lacking.
• There are overdue studies from earlier FRRR grants up to now seven years.
• The proposed challenge has already occurred or begun earlier than funding choices are introduced.
• The application is incomplete on the time of submission.

FRRR advises candidates to contact the grants crew for clarification if unsure about eligibility or submission necessities.

Application Process

Applying for the RDRP Social Outcome Grants includes the next steps:

1. Review the Program Guidelines:
   Carefully learn the official pointers to substantiate eligibility, alignment with program aims, and required documentation.
2. Prepare Your Application:
   • Clearly outline your challenge objectives, anticipated outcomes, and the way they hyperlink to drought resilience.
   • Demonstrate collaboration and group help.
   • Include a practical finances and challenge timeline.
3. Submit through the FRRR Online Portal:
   Applications should be submitted by means of the official portal earlier than the deadline.
4. Await Assessment:
   Applications are reviewed competitively based mostly on alignment with priorities, group profit, and challenge feasibility.
5. Notification and Funding Agreement:
   Successful candidates will probably be notified in April 2026, and should enter right into a funding settlement earlier than challenge graduation.

If you expertise difficulties with web entry, you might contact the FRRR crew to discover various submission choices through telephone or electronic mail.

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Contact Information

For any queries concerning the RDRP Social Outcome Grants, candidates can attain out to the FDF Communities crew:

Ruth Stevens
RDRP Social Outcome Grants Coordinator
Call: 1800 170 020
Email: futuredrought@frrr.org.au

For normal FRRR enquiries:
Call: (03) 5430 2399
Email: information@frrr.org.au

Learning from Experience: The Power of Shared Knowledge

As previous droughts have proven, information sharing and collaboration are crucial for resilience. One grant recipient from the earlier Networks to Build Drought Resilience Program famous:

“Lessons learnt from previous droughts shared amongst the network are of such high importance. This funding has created a platform for us to share real and raw drought stories—giving others the insight, energy, and safe space to think differently about drought preparedness.”

These testimonials spotlight the significance of peer studying and group storytelling as highly effective instruments for change. By offering native teams with the sources to facilitate these conversations, FRRR and the Future Drought Fund are serving to communities construct confidence, capability, and compassion within the face of local weather uncertainty.

Inspiration from Past Projects

GroWQ’s Lifesaving First Aid Initiative

The GroWQ Association’s Rural First Aid Training program empowered 188 individuals throughout Central West Queensland with lifesaving abilities tailor-made to distant environments. This challenge demonstrated how a easy, well-targeted initiative can save lives and strengthen group ties.

Participants gained confidence in managing medical emergencies in remoted areas—abilities that additionally contribute to group resilience throughout instances of drought or pure catastrophe.

This challenge, like many others supported by FRRR, showcases how small-scale initiatives can have a profound and lasting social impression when they’re community-driven and context-specific.

About FRRR

The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) is Australia’s main philanthropic basis targeted on the long-term vitality of rural communities. By connecting funding companions with native initiatives, FRRR bridges the hole between authorities, company, and grassroots efforts to maintain rural life.

Through its broad vary of grant applications, FRRR has supported hundreds of native initiatives that foster resilience, innovation, and wellbeing throughout Australia’s numerous regional panorama.

Acknowledgement of Country

The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal acknowledges the Dja Dja Wurrung individuals because the Traditional Custodians of Djaara Country (Bendigo), the place FRRR is predicated. We prolong this acknowledgement to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, notably within the areas the place we fund group initiatives. We pay our respects to Elders previous and current, and to the continued custodial, cultural, and academic practices of Australia’s First Peoples.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are suggested that this text could comprise photos, audio, or names of people that have handed away.

Conclusion

The Future Drought Fund Communities – RDRP Social Outcome Grants signify a forward-looking funding within the coronary heart of regional Australia. By supporting social connection, management, and native capability, these grants allow rural communities to adapt, get well, and thrive—not solely by means of drought however in all future challenges.

Through collaboration, studying, and inclusion, FRRR and the Future Drought Fund are serving to communities flip uncertainty into alternative, and isolation into energy.

For extra alternatives, go to: opportunitiesforyouth.org

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