IMPACT philanthropy funding program – Q&A with Perpetual Wealth
The Perpetual Wealth IPAP 2027 round will open 4th November and close 4th December. The Strategic Grants team has supported organisations to prepare IPAP application for years, and we understand the work needed to prepare a strong application. To assist organisations that are planning to submit an IPAP application, we recorded a vlog with a special guest.
One of the Philanthropy and Non-Profit Services Managers from Perpetual Wealth, Alissa Bermingham joined us to answer 5 questions, and share her insight and advice for IPAP applicants.
Questions:
- What are some simple ways organisations can strengthen their application?
- What advice would you share with organisations in assessing their own capacity to submit an application in the IPAP round?
- Do you have any advice for organisations who have been shortlisted a few times but are yet to be successful?
- What advice would you give to organisations submitting an IPAP application for the first time?
- What advice would you give organisations using AI to prepare applications?
To find the answers to these questions, listen into the vlog or read the full transcript.
Transcript:
Q&A Vlog recording.
October 27, 2026, 3:17AM
Strategic Grants: Bianca Williams, Head of Client Services
Perpetual Wealth: Alissa Bermingham, Philanthropy and Non-Profit Services Manager
Bianca Williams 0:09
Hello and welcome to all. The Perpetual Wealth IPAP 2027 round will open the 4th of November, that’s next week, and close on the 4th of December. And here at Strategic Grants, we have supported organisations prepare IPAP applications for years. And so we understand the background work that’s needed to prepare a really strong application.
So we decided to record a vlog to assist all applicants in the lead up to submitting an IPAP application this year. However, the most qualified person to talk to this, is one of the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Services Managers from Perpetual Wealth, Alissa Birmingham.
Alissa joins us for a Q&A session to provide insight into how Perpetual approach the IPAP application process and offer advice in what needs to be considered before preparing an application. Alissa, thank you so much for giving your time to record this vlog and for providing your tips and experience to IPAP applicants.
Now, I have five questions for you, so it will be short and sweet, yet without doubt, incredibly helpful for so many organisations. And so let’s get started.
First question, what are some simple ways that organisations can strengthen their application?
Alissa Bermingham 1:33
Thank you, Bianca, and thank you for having me. It’s always such a pleasure to get to chat with the Strategic Grants team. I would say that the simplest ways that organisations can strengthen their applications are really taking a close look at their responses to the KPI questions, so around both their organisational efficiency and effectiveness, and making sure that in the first half of each of those questions where you’ve got the KPIs, you’re putting targets against them, so that it’s really clear in the second-half how you’re tracking against them. I think the other piece there, though, is that we don’t want organisations to feel like they have to be tracking at 100% and only positively against those KPIs, because what we’re assessing there is that you are actually tracking and that you’re measuring that data as an organisation.
I think one of the other ways that organisations can really tighten up their applications comes to the outcome section of your project. And in that instance, what we’d like to see are organisations that are making their outcomes, ensuring that they’re measurable. And one of the frameworks that we suggest organisations consider that through is the SMART framework. So outcomes that are: Specific, Measurable, Attributable, Relevant and Time bound.
I think that for some organisations, it can be really difficult to put targets or make their outcomes measurable, but considering it through the SMART framework can just help you to articulate with real clarity the impact that the project’s going to have.
Bianca Williams 2:58
Excellent. That’s amazing. Thank you. And so very important to keep in mind, again, the SMART acronym. And so making sure to apply that in relevant questions and responses, particularly with the project section. Now, question two, what advice would you share with organisations in assessing their own capacity to submit an application in the IPAP rounds.
Alissa Bermingham 3:24
A great question and one that my colleagues and I around the country get a lot. And I suppose one of the ways that we really encourage organisations to think about is that it actually is an organisational capacity and governance decision around whether you apply. Organisation, obviously capacity and resourcing really varies.
And it’s making sure that you’re getting in early, you’re reading all of the guidelines, getting a really clear sense of all the information that you require to complete the form and making an informed strategic decision around whether you as an organisation have the capacity to pull that together by the application due date. We aren’t able to accept late applications is the other thing to just reiterate to any folk who are listening, but we really want organisations to, through the process of preparing the application form and seeing the information that they require, be able to make a decision around whether it is the best use of your resources at this point in time to invest in putting the application together.
Bianca Williams 4:24
Wonderful. Thank you. Now moving on to question three.
Do you have any advice for organisations who have been shortlisted a few times but have essentially not been successful yet?
Alissa Bermingham 4:39
Another question that we get a lot, it’s an incredibly competitive process. So if we look back on the 2026 round, we had a success rate of about 16%. So the need far outweighs the capacity through the round. So one of the things that I would suggest organisations to think about is to not take the fact that you’ve applied and that you’ve made it through, you didn’t get that low scoring e-mail in March, you’ve kind of made it through to that stage of the assessment process. It is not a reflection on the value of the work that you as an organisation are doing. It’s just that the landscape is incredibly competitive. And I think that probably comes back to what we spoke about in the earlier question, which was making an organisational decision around whether you have the capacity to apply and the resourcing to apply at this stage. But we don’t ever want organisations to think that them applying and not getting funding is a reflection that the work that their organisation is doing isn’t amazing and isn’t having incredible impact for the community.
We are really privileged in our roles to see a huge depth and breadth of work that’s happening across Australia and amazing work for communities. It’s just that, unfortunately, as I said, capacity far outweighs need.
Bianca Williams 5:56
Wonderful. Okay, question 4, and this will be helpful for a number of organisations out there, I believe. What advice would you give to organisations submitting an IPAP application for the very first time?
Alissa Bermingham 6:11
So my first suggestion would be to jump onto our website and review all of the collateral. So guidelines, FAQ, there’s a webinar on there that takes you through the process top to bottom. And we also give you some examples of some of what high scoring responses to those assessable questions look like. So I’d really start there. I’d also take a really detailed look at the eligibility to make sure that you are, as an organisation, eligible to apply. I think the other piece would be, I guess, to understand in terms of positioning yourselves as an organisation, we are assessing the organisation’s capacity to deliver on your mission.
And so we want organisations to feel empowered to put forward their area of greater strategic need and not try to think about what may or may not resonate with the trust and foundations and philanthropists that are sitting behind the program and funding through the program. So it’s about as an organisation telling your story and using those key assessable questions in order to do that and demonstrate that you are the best place to deliver on your mission, which is why, you know, the project that you’re putting forward is going to enable you to do that. So I know it’s a lot of information for organisations that are going through it for the first time. If you have questions about your eligibility as an organisation, particularly if you’re a registered charity who is awaiting DGR or if there’s any sort of complexity about your legal status, please reach out to us because we would rather be able to help you earlier on and either help you to know that, yep, go ahead and complete the form or help you so that you maybe if you’re not eligible to apply, you know that before you put all of the time and effort into completing the form.
Bianca Williams 7:56
Wonderful. That’s so helpful. Thank you. Okay, so we’re moving on to our fifth question and final question. What advice would you give organisations using AI to prepare applications?
Alissa Bermingham 8:09
So we know that a lot of organisations are using AI. It’s creating a lot of efficiencies. I think the other place that we see organisations using AI specific to our program is that we do put character limits on each of the questions. So we’re seeing organisations use the AI to support them with articulating that question within the character limits.
We understand that organisations are going to use it. We just encourage organisations to make sure you’re proofreading what you’re putting into your application and also encouraging you to sense check those responses with another member or a few other members of your organisation and your senior leadership board or exec, just to make sure that what goes in the application is reflective of the story that you need to tell about your organisation. The other piece is that while organisations may, you know, obviously are welcome to use AI to help them complete the application, we are not using AI for any part of our assessment process at this stage. So it will still be humans that are in the background assessing all of those applications.
Bianca Williams 9:13
Brilliant. Alissa, this was so incredibly helpful. And thank you once again for sharing your time, but also your advice. To consolidate all that, our advice to consider:
Is your organisation ready to apply?
Who within your organisation do you need support from?
And what resources do you need to prepare a robust application?
We hope you gained insight and some actionable tasks from today and wishing everybody good luck in the IPAP season and the work in the weeks ahead. Thank you.
Alissa Bermingham 9:49
Thank you.
Note: Perpetual Wealth does not endorse any grant writing service. All applications are assessed equally against the published guidelines.