How to apply for a grant
- Apply for a grant from the Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP Salary Trust
- Fact sheet for the Trust
- See a full list of past grants
Weave provide art workshops for young people who are socially excluded and/or suffering from dual diagnosis
Setting up the trust
My decision to run for Lord Mayor in February 2004 was made in extraordinary circumstances. The City of Sydney and South Sydney Councils were sacked and forced together just seven weeks before the Councils’ elections were due.
I gave an early commitment that if elected I would not accept the Lord Mayoral salary and that I would donate it to charity.
After the election, I looked for the best way of meeting that commitment.
I recognised that finding charities with worthwhile projects, deciding how much they should receive, making the payments and accounting for them would be demanding if I tried to do all this myself.
So with the help of two lawyers, Richard D’Apice and Gerard Gooden, I set up the Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP Salary Trust. My Lord Mayoral fees are donated to the Trust, which is responsible for managing these funds and distributing them to worthwhile causes.
Gerard and Richard gave their time freely to draw up a Trust Deed and set up an incorporated association as the Trustee to manage the Trust. They organised bank accounts, and dealt with the Office of Fair Trading and the Australian Tax Office to ensure it met legal requirements to accept and make donations.
This took some time and while I was waiting for the Trust to be established, I donated the first three months of Mayoral fees (almost $30,000) directly to the Come-In Centre in Paddington.
The Trust was formally established in October, 2004. It is a public trust, which means it can receive donations from members of the public. All donations to the Trust are tax deductible. This also means that organisations receiving grants from the Trust must have Deductible Gift Recipient Status.
The Trust Deed does not allow the Trust to accept donations from property developers. This is consistent with my longstanding practice of not accepting campaign donations from developers.
Richard D’Apice, Gerard Gooden and Marcelle Hoff continue to be involved in the Trust as members of the Trustee committee, along with myself and my Electorate Officer, Roy Bishop, who has extensive experience with community-based welfare organisations and is familiar with my values as well as my commitment to finding compassionate solutions to complex social problems. Robyn Kemmis was also a member of the Committee when she was a Councillor.
Cadre Project Cheque Handover
Making grants
This committee manages the Trust, receiving applications, and most importantly, ensuring my Lord Mayoral fees are directed towards:
- supporting organisations operating within the City of Sydney;
- helping people to rebuild their lives, particularly people struggling with alcohol or drug dependence, mental illness or homelessness;
- helping disadvantaged young people and young people at risk;
- promoting animal welfare; and
- supporting community environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Where possible, my fees are used to support innovative, cutting edge projects that needed seed funding or have difficulty getting funds from other sources.
Awarding grants in 2011.
Where the money has gone
Since 2004, the Trust has enabled my Mayoral fees to support some 53 worthwhile projects, totalling $1,129,290.98.
The full list of grants can be found here: http://www.clovermoore.com.au/lord-mayor-trust-grants/
Being able to use my Mayoral fees in this way has been a rewarding aspect of being Lord Mayor. It has been possible through my Trust, and I’m fortunate to have a group of dedicated people who have helped in this important work. I am very grateful to them.
I believe that in an affluent society like ours, each of us needs to ask how much do we really need, and how much we can give to those in much greater need. The work of my salary trust has been one response to that question.
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