2026 Palmer Wind Farm Community Fund (CEF)

This round will open at 8:00am 1 August 2026 (AEST) for submissions.

IMPORTANT: Please read the information below to assist you in completing your application online.

 Welcome to the Palmer Wind Farm Community Fund online grant application service powered by SmartyGrants.

 The aim of the Palmer Wind Farm Community Fund is to support small, Charitable and Not-for-profit organisations that offer broad, long-term benefit to the community. The key focus of the fund is to support initiatives that benefit:

  • Education
  • Youth
  • Environment
  • Health, safety and wellbeing
  • Community infrastructure
  • Arts and culture
  • Economic development
  • Social welfare

 The Community Fund is designed to support the community within 20kms of the Palmer Wind Farm with a focus on the communities of Palmer and Tungkillo.

 PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY

To be an eligible applicant to the Palmer Wind Farm Community Fund you are required to meet the following requirements.

 Applicant Eligibility:

  • You must be an incorporated or not-for-profit organisation with a valid ABN.
  • Have a project partner if you are not an incorporated organisation. A project partner is an incorporated community or not-for profit organisation that is willing to enter into the funding agreement on your behalf and help you to deliver the project
  • Have no conflicts of interest between your organisation and Tilt Renewables (or can be managed).

 Project Eligibility:

To ensure your project is eligible, it must demonstrate the following; (project could refer to event, program, initiative, purchasing of equipment etc).

  • Charitable in nature
  • Broad based community benefit

  Project Location:

  • To ensure your project is eligible, it must support the community within 20km of the Palmer Wind Farm. Priority will be given to projects that support the communities of Palmer and Tungkillo. Please view the eligibility map here before applying.

 Project Supporting Documentation:

Financials

  • Current signed Audited Financial Statements: for the Applicant Organisation and any Project Partner/s.
  • If your organisation is not required to audit your financials, please provide a profit and loss statement as a minimum and a balance sheet if available. Please also include a current bank statement.

 Project Budget

  • Please ensure that your budget and/or supporting documentation clearly shows how the funds requested will be spent.
  • Do not forget to include your contribution to the project and any in-kind support.
  • The fund has a maximum of $70,000 per year to distribute

  Quotes

  • Quotes are required for all budget items over $5,000.
  • If you have conducted this project/program before, include copies of invoices / receipts that substantiate this request.

 Project Outcomes:

Preference will be given to projects that not only contribute to one or more of the programs key focus areas (as outlined in program purpose), but that can also demonstrate the following;

  1. A clearly articulated impact on the community which can be measured and reported on.
  2. Enhance local cooperation and collaboration and involve multiple partners.
  3. Create sustainability which is capable of having long term benefits to the community.
  4. Are being managed by an organisation with a strong track record in delivering projects of a similar value and scale.

 APPLICANT QUERIES

For queries about the guidelines, deadlines, or questions in the form, please contact the Community Enterprise Foundation on 1300 304 541 during business hours or email foundation.mailbox@bendigoadelaide.com.au and quote your submission number.

If you need more help using this form, download the Help Guide for Applicants or check out Applicant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Navigating through the form

On every page of the form you will see a Form Navigation panel. This links directly to each page of the form, so you can click a page name to jump directly to the page you want.

You can also click 'Next Page' or 'Previous Page' on the top or bottom of each page to move forward or backward through the form.

Please ensure you save your form as you go.

Saving a draft

Your form will save each time you click ‘Next Page’, ‘Previous Page’, or any page name on the Form Navigation panel.

If you wish to leave a partially completed form, click 'Save and Close' and log out.

You can reopen your draft form and continue where you left off. When you log back in and click on the My Submissions link at the top of the screen, you will find a list of any submissions you have started or submitted. Click the submission number or the arrow icon to expand the list of associated forms, and click on the form name to continue filling it out.

You can also download any form, whether draft or completed, as a PDF. In the ‘My Submissions’ area of your account click on the submission number, then click the red PDF icon beside the form you want to download or, while filling out the form, click on the ‘Download PDF' button located at the top and bottom of the last page (’Review and Submit').

Submitting your form

You will find a Review and Submit page listed at the bottom of the Form Navigation panel. You need to review your form before you can submit it. You will not be able to submit your form until all the required fields are completed and there are no validation errors.

Once you have reviewed your form and corrected any errors you can submit it by clicking on the Submit button at the top or bottom of the screen.

Once you have submitted your form no further editing or uploading of supporting documents is possible.

When you have successfully submitted your form you will see a confirmation page, and you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of your submitted form attached. This will be sent to the email address you use to login, or the owner of the submission if you are collaborating on the form.

If you don't see a confirmation page or receive a confirmation email then you should presume that your form has NOT been submitted.

Hint: also check the email hasn't landed in your spam or junk email folder.

You can return to the My Submissions page of your account to view the submission status of the form.

Attachments

You may need to upload/submit attachments to support your application. This is very simple but requires you to have the documents saved on your computer, or on a storage device.

You need to allow enough time for each file to upload before trying to attach another file. Files can be up to 25MB each; however, we do recommend trying to keep files to a maximum of 5MB – the larger the file, the longer the upload time.

Collaborating on your submission

A number of people can collaborate on a submission as long as

  1. you have created a SmartyFile Organisation and
  2. only one person is working on the form at a time.

Ensure you save as you go.

Session time-out warning

For security reasons, your login session will expire after 20 minutes of inactivity. Saving your form or navigating to another page resets the timer.

You’ll be prompted 90 seconds before your session expires, with the option to extend your session or log out. If you don’t respond to the prompt in time, your form will be automatically saved before your session ends.

Even so, we recommend saving your form regularly – especially when working on longer responses – to avoid losing any work.