FRRR Grants Officer – Future Drought Fund Program

The Future Drought Fund (FDF) Grants Officer is responsible for supporting the effective administration of the recently established Future Drought Fund: Networks to Build Drought Resilience (FDF:NBDR)  grant program that will be offered nationally to agricultural dependent communities across remote, rural, and regional Australia. The Networks Grant Program received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

 The Future Drought Fund (FDF) aims to build drought resilience – helping farmers and regional communities become more prepared for, and resilient to, the impacts of drought. It is part of the Australian Government’s commitment to deliver the support that Australian farmers and communities need to be sustainable and productive. The program will offer three tiers of grants to non-profit organisations totalling $4.5 million over an 18-month period. The Grants Officer will play a critical role in ensuring the program is administered to an exceptional standard with a strong focus on high-volume information processing and customer service in this fast-paced delivery environment.

The purpose of the program is to build community capacity by strengthening social and community networking, support, engagement, and wellbeing. These actions will build an enduring resilience to the impacts of climate change, including drought, and enhance the public good in agriculture-dependent communities. 

Specifically, FRRR are seeking to achieve program outcomes such as:

• Improving the sharing of learnings amongst agriculture-dependent communities
• Increasing community connectedness and collaboration and social networking, support, engagement, and wellbeing through building community network members’ skills and social network diversity and strategic capacity
• Improving wellbeing and reducing social isolation by increasing participation in community networking events/conferences, stimulating higher rates of innovation in the local economy and the agricultural sector over time
• Improving community networks access to risk management information and training, increasing the capacity of community networks to participate in regional drought resilience planning
• Increasing community economic development and diversification opportunities
• Delivering small scale projects, such as improving meeting places for the network members, purchasing small equipment (such as computers, printers) to assist the management of the network, and community facilities

Key tasks and responsibilities include:

• Provide high quality support to the Future Drought Fund Program Manager in the day-to-day administration of grants, including due diligence, validation, grant assessments, preparation of Committee materials, grantee correspondence, and monitoring of grants across varying FRRR funding programs.
• Coordinate and process grant administration throughout the program cycle with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, including grant finance paperwork, grant/project reports and acquittals, correspondence with grant recipients, and general data maintenance of the grants management database and filing.
• Responding effectively and appropriately to grant seeker enquiries.
• Contribute to research and content for donor reports as required.

The organisation’s success depends on strong teamwork and streamlined business processes that enhance operational efficiency. A key responsibility of the Grants Officer will be to work in collaboration with others to coordinate and sustain those processes, as well as identify process improvement, as necessary.  

The role must also support FRRR to execute the Foundation’s mission. The role is suited to someone with a keen eye for detail, flair for administrative systems and processes, and interest in using their information management and customer relationship skills to improve opportunities in remote, rural, and regional Australia; and is keen to develop a knowledge of the Foundation’s programs and services.