I work for OurCommunity and maintain Australia’s biggest database on Grants. Without meaning to brag, I probably know more about grants than anyone else in Australia because I’ve been pretty intimately involved with them for nearly 5 years now.

So when I come across a program like the National Crime Prevention Program I secretly get a little excited. I get excited because I can see this is a program, that with a little bit of innovation just about any community group in Australia could apply for this grant an make a genuine difference. A sport group could provide an after-school program, arts group could provide an outlet for ‘at risk’ people and so on.

So when I read that Hillsong had received a $400,000 grant “for a program targeting the Sudanese community in Blacktown and indigenous people in Riverstone” I was rather pissed off.

With $5,000 I’m sure a small community group could have a bigger impact than what is essentially a $400,000 recruitment drive.