Charities providing services for families in the Catholic Diocese of Sale are invited to apply to Catholic charity Trinity Families for 2021 project funding. Deadline for submissions is 30th September 2021.
Applications must be from registered charities with deductible gift recipient status.
Trinity Families Executive Officer Ms Mary Winter said this year’s disbursement would mark a milestone in the charity’s service to families as it will take the amount distributed to more than $1.7 million.
For over 20 years more than 90 different charities had benefitted from Trinity Families funding.
To be eligible to apply there are three things an applicant must be able to show. It must be a registered charity with DGR status, it must be using the funds to support families which align with Catholic values and the project must be within the defined area of the municipalities of Cardinia, Casey, Baw Baw, Latrobe, Wellington, Bass Coast, South Gippsland and East Gippsland.
Recent recipients have included a charity who assists children going into foster care, a disability advocacy organisation to assist them with advocating for disabled people impacted by the bushfires in 2020, and to a Foundation undertaking an early learning and literacy program in the Latrobe Valley.
Ms Winter said Trinity Families often supports charities which for various reasons have not been able to attract funding from other sources.
When Bishop Jeremiah Coffey established the trust in 1997 as he saw major national charities raising millions of dollars in the region, at the time, and he felt that little of the money was finding its way back to fund grass roots programs here.
He saw little value in duplicating the services of other charities already doing good work here, so he decided to create a charity to support other charities working in the region.
“We provide the funding so they can put more of their endeavours into providing the various needs for families, rather than fundraising.”
Ms Winter said that Trinity Families was a philanthropic trust, allocating earnings from its investments each year, and while it was a Catholic charity, it was there to serve all charities no matter whether they had a religious affiliation or not.
Charities wishing to apply for funding are encouraged to download the fillable application form and send it back.
Further information is available on the website www.trinityfamilies.org.au or by email at trinity@sale.catholic.org.au.
