Grant Search Tips - ourcommunity.com.au

Searching the ourcommunity.com.au grants database

Each time you perform a search from the ourcommunity.com.au grants database, you are provided with a list of up to 10 currently available grants that have been publicly released. There is no way to get to the grants from 11 onwards without refining your search using the keyword search facility.

Please follow the search tips below to improve your search results.

Basic Keyword Search
Search Symbols
Tips on using keywords
Single word search
Multiple word search

Basic Keyword Search
Entering a keyword in your search criteria is always optional.

Use the Keyword section in combination with the Interest Category to help you find the most relevant grants.

The keyword text box uses whole word searching if you enter the word Fund it will search only for this literal word. It will not return word variations e.g. Funds or Funding.

If you enter multiple words separated by a space this is an "OR" search and the system will search for an occurrence of any of these words e.g. Searching for Education Community this will return:

Adult Community Education Grant
Community Grants
Education Fund

To minimise search results and refine your search symbols are used.

Search Symbols
Search symbols recognised by the search system are:

Terms separated by this symbol are searched for together regardless of the positioning of the words
e.g. entering Community+Fund would return the programs:

	Koori Community Fund
	Gambling Community Benefit Fund

Double quotes are used for phrase searching
e.g. Searching for "Community Fund" would return:
Koori Community Fund
It would not return Gambling Community Benefit Fund as the word Fund does not follow after Community as stated in the search criteria..

This is a wildcard this searches for extensions of words.
e.g. Searching for Fund* would return Community Funds and Environmental Funding

Tips on using keywords
A maximum of ten grants will be returned for each search, so it is better to try and refine your search before you start.

Make a list of possible keywords to describe your topic these should include specific narrow terms as well as broad general terms.
Word Variations
Keep in mind word variations, i.e. words that are related or spelt differently or are more general or specific. For example, keywords associated with sewerage could be waste water (related term), water pollution (related term), sewage (different spelling), waste management (general term), water management (general term) or public health (general term)
Shortened words use the wildcard symbol *
Only use the main stem of the keyword in conjunction with *.
Use
Health* not healthiness,
Employ* not employment.
For example, if searching for grants for volunteering then in the keyword area it is best to search for: volunteer* as this will return grants that include the words volunteering, volunteers, volunteered and volunteer.
Once you have made a list of terms then enter the appropriate terms into the keyword section.
Start a search with a specific term or terms using the required search symbols (see above), if this does not return enough or any grants use a broader term or terms for the search. The more specific the more relevant the grants search results will be.

For example if searching for grants for youth employment you can: Search in the Youth and/or Education, Employment & Training interest categories using words such as: jobs, work then try broader terms such as employment, training, unemployment, youth, young and then if this does not return enough or any grants just search the Youth and/or Education, Employment & Training interest categories with no keywords.

Other ways to improve your search results by using keywords are:
Single word search
If you enter a single word in the keyword section the search result will bring back all occurrences of this word.
e.g. Entering Red would return grants:
- Red Nose Day Appeal
- Red cross
Multiple word search
Using more than one word when doing a search, refines your search results even further but the more words you use, the more you could limit your search results.
Separate multiple words by + symbol e.g +youth+sport+disab* (stem)

If you enter two or more words, the system will bring back grant matches for grants that only contain ALL of these words. That is, the search engine thinks that you want a grant that is for all the words you have given it.

e.g. Entering red+green would return grants:
The Red and Green Society of Australia
It would not return grants with just the word RED or just the word GREEN.