WA's Grant Guidelines - Principles, Processes, and Best Practice

Western Australia's Grants Administration Guidelines 2025 (the Guide) set out the principles and a practical guide for consistent grant administration across government. For grant seekers, understanding the Guide is essential, not only to improve chances of securing funding, but also to ensure compliance throughout the funding lifecycle.

Purpose and scope

The Guide is designed to ensure that grants are awarded fairly, used for their intended purpose, and achieve value for money outcomes. It applies broadly to all forms of grants, including competitive programs, ad-hoc allocations and election commitments, serving both established frameworks and new grant initiatives.

For applicants, this means:

• Opportunities are competitive. Funding decisions must be transparent, so expect rigorous eligibility and assessment.

• Equity is central. Agencies must provide a level playing field, but you'll need to demonstrate how your project delivers public benefit, not just private gain.

• Consistency in processes. Regardless of the department, the core principles of assessment and accountability are broadly the same.

Tip for applicants: before investing time in applying, review the program's alignment with your organisation's purpose and make sure your proposal clearly supports a government policy goal.

What is a grant?

The Guide defines a grant as a non-reciprocal financial contribution given by the WA Government to organisations or individuals to help achieve government policy goals. Key criteria include:

• that the funding is paid to non-government entities

• that it is aligned with government policy objectives

• that it is not an exchange of equivalent value (ie not a purchase).

Examples of arrangements that are not grants include procurements, scholarships, loans, sponsorships and donations.

For grant seekers, this is important because:

• Grants are not contracts. You're not sellling a service to government, but receiving funding to help achieve policy outcomes.

• Some funding streams aren't grants.

Tip for applicants: check that your opportunity is truly a grant program. If instead it is procurement, you'll need to meet tender requirements, not grant guidelines.

Key principles - how applicants can align

• Investment principles Agencies ask: Is a grant the best way to deliver this outcome? This includes clarifying the need, and ensuring alignment with public benefit. For applicants, this means demonstrating: - clear problem / need. Show evidence of the issue your project addresses.

  - public value. Highlight benefits beyond your own organisation.

  - alignment. Link your outcomes to WA Government priorities.
  

Administration principles Agencies ask: Are we assessing grants fairly, consistently and efficiently? s a grant the most effective tool for achieving policy outcomes? For applicants, this translates to: - transparency in assessment. Expect documented scoring against published criteria.

- accountability. Your project plan, budget, and system for reporting obligations must be robust.

- value-for-money focus. You will need to justify costs, and understand other non-financial criteria assessed as part of value-for-money decision making. Tip for applicants: Frame your application in terms of impact + alignment + accountability. These are the lenses that will be applied by assessors.

Administrative Tools and checklists The Guide provides checklists, templates and sample agreements. While these are designed for use by the agencies themselves, they are useful for applicants: - Checklists - use them as if you were the grant officer to assess the strength of your application. - Approval letters and templates - understand what commitments you'll be asked to make if you are successful, and ensure you can meet these obligations. - Financial Assistance Agreement - familiarise yourself with conditions and obligations including reporting, audits and milestones. Tip for applicants: Treat the toolkit as a window into the assessor's process. By pre-empting compliance obligations and expectations you will be in a better position to position your application for success, and will have a better understanding of your obligations and possible risks. In summary

For grant seekers, leveraging the information contained in the Guide can bring a competitive advantage when seeking funds. They show:

• How funding priorities are selected

• How assessments are structured

• What obligations come with funding By aligning your proposal with these expectations - showing impact, demonstrating compliance and ensuring value for money - you position your application as the most compelling it can be.

Final tip: Treat the Guide as your "inside view" into government decision making. The more your application reflects the principles of investment, transparency and accountability, the better your chances are of success.