Non-competitive grant editing guide

Before you start

To build and edit grants using the nsw.gov.au templates, you will need to get access to our content management system and complete the online training.

There are 4 easy steps to adding grants to the finder:

1. Apply for access
2. Create your grant in the nsw.gov.au template
3. Send to the Content Operations team for review and publish grant
4. Add grant recipients

Note: If your team has been onboarded to OneGMS (SmartyGrants), you must build, edit and publish your grants and recipients in SmartyGrants. They will appear on the finder within 30 minutes. 
Email the team: [e-mail]

Types of non-competitive grants

Non-competitive grants:

• are not open for applications (for example, closed, ad hoc, one-off or discretionary grants) and
• do not have a requirement for an 'apply now' link.

Note: if your grant requires an 'apply now' link, you should be using the regular grant template.

Our Best practice grant examples page will help you understand this distinction (with reference to the Grants Administration Guide).

Non-competitive grants must:

• be published on the Grants and funding finder
• include grant recipients of that funding.

Overview of the non-competitive grant template

The non-competitive grant template on nsw.gov.au contains a set of content fields, categories and tagging options that help you lay out your grant. 

Important: this is one of three Grant templates that can be selected based on the type of grant you are publishing. You will need to choose the 'Grant: Grant non-competitive' sub-type at the very start of the content creation process:

Using the guide

This step-by-step guide takes you through the non-competitive grant fields and how each work.

You can either work through the full template as you are building a grant or jump to a specific item in the list to refresh your memory.

For an interactive online summary, go to the Grants CMS editor training module in the Learning Hub.

Non-competitive grant: step-by-step

Logging in and adding a new non-competitive grant

1. Login to the CMS
2. Scroll down to Quick Actions and click +Add Content
   
   
    
3. Choose Grant: Grant non-competitive, then click Submit:
   
   

Fill in the Key information fields

The Key information field includes basic information that is seen on both the grant finder and the grant details page, such as the amounts offered and the grant’s status.

For non-competitive grants, the status defaults to 'Not open for application'.

This means people understand they can't apply for the grant but can read about where the funding went and which recipients received financial support.

The Key information fields are as follows:

• Grant name: name of the grant program/fund. This forms the title of the page and also sets the URL. Suggested limit for this field is 50 characters. See OneCX general component guidelines for page titles.
• Summary: why the grant is available; Suggested length 200 characters or less. Hard character limit is now set to 250 characters.
• Category: what type of grant program it is; can choose multiple selections from a list of options
• Grant audience: who can apply for the grant. You can choose multiple selections from a list of options
• (Optional) Fund: the funding program the grant is a part of (you can request a new Fund if one does not already exist).
• Agencies funding this grant: select the agency or agencies that funded the grant from the list provided. In some cases, this will be the same as the administering agency that you will tag later, but in other cases may be a different or additional agency. This will display both on the grant details page under Program objectives and on any grant recipients of the grant.
  
  Screenshot of new field:
  
  
• Grant amount: the amount the recipient/s will be awarded. Required field. The available amount fields will vary depending on what is selected:
  • Minimum amount: the minimum value awarded
  • Maximum amount: the maximum value awarded
  • Single amount: a single amount every successful recipient will receive
  • Range: from an amount to an amount
  • Note: the amount fields cannot have special characters; for example, 10 thousand dollars must be entered as '10000' rather than '$10,000'

(Optional) Text override for amount display: displays a text message rather than a figure for the Grant amount. For example, 'Receipts up to $1000'. This is only available to content administrators.

Note: you must add an underlying amount so that the filtering function works. People can find your grant by using the amount filters.

• Date fields - these will not display as the grant is not open for application.
• Location - Disaster Declarations: only use this location field for disaster relief grants that are funding recipients in a Disaster Declaration area or areas. 

Select where the grant details will appear

• This function is now only available to Content administrators.
• As of 19 September 2022, all grants must be published on nsw.gov.au. However, there are some historic cases where you need to maintain a grant listing that will link to an external website.
• The default is to appear on nsw.gov.au. Old grant listings can be switched over (or archived if they can be redirected) to a full-content grant. For non-competitive grants, you won't be able to directly switch over - you will need to transfer content to this template and then redirect the old listing to it.
• Contact us using the Add or update a grant form if you need to work with a grant listing or change it to a full grant.

Add the Program Objective content

• The Program Objectives (required) field outlines what the grant program is trying to achieve. It is usually included as the introduction to the grant guidelines. It can include high-level information on broader program or fund aims, and how the program might achieve goals for its recipients. The language should be clear and easy for applicants to understand.
• Note: as part of the program objective, the agency owning the grant is identified with the phrase ‘This grant is administered by [agency name]’. The agency name is drawn from the Grant owner tag in the CMS. Tagging is done at a later editing step. In addition, the phrase 'This grant is funded by [agency name]' will also appear in same location (see details further down in the 'Add Tags to the grant' step).

Add the Decision maker content

Fill in the Decision maker textbox. This details who the final decision maker for funding the grant. For example, this could be a minister or an assessment panel.

Note: This is used for transparency and will also be shown on any grant recipient records alongside the actual decision maker for that grant round (in the case that the actual differs from the intended). There are additional fields available in grant recipients to record the reason for different decision maker plus any discretionary decisions made by a minister.

Check privacy requirements for this grant

If your grant has recipients that need to be de-identified, you will need to check the box. Find out more about how to de-identify grant recipients for privacy.

Add the Support and contact content

This details the phone, email address and postal address (as applicable) for customers who would like to ask about the grant.

It can also contain information about other sources of information, such as videos or links to other websites where appropriate.

1. Delete details that are not applicable. For example, if there is no postal address or phone number.
2. For phone numbers and email addresses, take the extra step of linking the number/email address so that visitors who click on the details can call or send an email straight away. This can be done using the first link icon on the editor bar.
3. Delete any spaces for phone numbers when setting up the link.

Add the Program evaluation content

For information to do with program evaluation after a grant has been awarded and projects completed. You may want to include PDFs or other links.

Add an image to the grant

Scroll back to the top of the Grant editing screen and click on the Media tab. Add in a thumbnail image associated with the grant from the media library by clicking on Add media. The image should give people searching the finder some information about the kind of grant program that is being funded.

Add Tags to the grant

Scroll back to the top of the page and click on the Tags tab. Fill in the fields as required.

1. Agency: choose the Agency or Cluster that the grant belongs to

This also sets the 'This program is administered by...' on the grant details page as part of Program objective.

If this Agency:

is the same as the 'This program is funded by...' agency tagged earlier on the Content tab, it will display as:

• This program is funded and administered by [same Agency tagged in both places].
  
  

is in addition to or different to the 'This program is funded by...' agency/ies tagged earlier, it will display as:

• This program is administered by [Agency tagged in this Tags tab] plus This program is funded by [Agency tagged in Content tab] 
  
  

2. Topic: choose the most relevant topics that apply to the grant.

3. Location: only use this field when your grant is targeting specific regions of NSW. Use the dropdown option to add locations line by line. Don't use this field for Disaster Declaration targeted grants. You will have already added these in the Key information area.

Set up editing access (editorial group)

On the right-hand side, expand the Governance accordion. Fill in the Editorial group for the grant. This dictates which editors will have access to edit the grant. These are usually grouped by cluster, team or specialty.




 

Sending your finished grant for review

When you have added or edited your grant, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and change 'Save as' from Draft to Needs Review.

Top tip: preview links help you share drafts

If you need to share your draft grant with your team before sending for review, the CMS has the capacity to create a shareable preview link.

Learn more about our publishing workflow, including how to create a Preview link.

This is how the grant is submitted for review by our content team.

1. Click on Save. A preview of the grant page in draft will be opened.
   
   
2. The grant is then sent off for final checks and the user who submitted the grant will receive an email notification once it has been checked, has been published, or has been returned requesting for additional information.
3. If the grant needs to be updated, click on the Needs Review button on the top-right of the page, and click on Edit content. The details for the grant will then be opened. Once the updates have been made, scroll down and click Save.

Head to the Grants page for more articles on editing your grants, or adding recipients so they appear on the funding finder.