Attracting Funding for Gumnuts Early Learning Centre in Sale
Elbow Community Building was engaged to write the grant application for an expansion of Gumnuts Early Learning Centre in Raglan St. Sale. The grant was successful, and work has commenced on the new site.
Gumnuts Early Learnign Centre Inc is a community based not-for-profit childcare and kindergarten provider in Sale. The centre caters for 0-6 years of age as well as before and after school care programs in partnership with local schools.
Over decades the centre has expanded its footprint in order to continue to grow its value to the local community.
Recently there was an opportunity to expand by purchasing the house next door. Gumnuts recognised that the opportunity aligned with expanding their service to meet demand for the newly introduced 3 year old kindergarten program and decided to purchase the land.
Once the land was purchased attention immediately shifted to attracting funds to redevelop the site into a fit-for-purpose kindergarten facility. The Victorian School Building Authority’s Capacity Building funding stream was identified as an appropriate source.
By employing Elbow Community Building to complete the grant writing work, Gumnuts management were able to maintain their focus on running the facility. Durign this engagement Elbow staff researched the grant guidelines and studied the criteria and assessment rubric intently. They then undertook thorough research into each question and ensured that there was evidence provided for each point of assessment to maximise the score for the Gumnuts application.
The team has knowledge in preparing, scoring and even writing grant guidelines themselves which meant that this process was much faster and more efficient than trying to complete in house at Gumnuts.
The fact that the outcome of the grant was successful is a testament to the hard work of Gumnuts as an organisation for genuinely meeting the criteria in their day-to-day operations. The Elbow Community Building team simply executed the application based on all the best-practice material available from the Gumnuts general way of working.
We look forward to seeing the new building in action soon!
