August - September 2021
For City of Sydney (CoS) grants and sponsorship, local council covering the city centre and surrounding suburbs.
Project team: Harold Kuan (Senior Service Designer) and myself.
Project summary
Sydney is a diverse community of people
from over 200 nationalities who form bonds around
identity, interests and place. The local council: The City of Sydney (CoS) recognised that many grant applicants were unable meet the required writing standard and were not able to navigate the complex application process. We worked with the CoS grants team and the wider operational teams to redesign the grants program and policy to ensure it responded to the increasing diversity of its applicants, including applicants from non-english speaking backgrounds, differing cultural backgrounds and applicants with impairments and/ or situational needs.
The future grants program was comprised of
three key offerings:
Project approach
We engaged 72 people in the design sprint. Collaborative workshops led to the creation of 10 preliminary concepts that were further refined and then presented to an expert panel to garner expert feedback and elicit indicative buy-in. Following these engagements we worked with the grants team to detail out the next steps and path to implentation and simutaneoulsy kicked of testing the deliverables with grant applicants to build out the grant application user experience.
Project outcomes
The three final concepts for the grants policy and program were:
The funding ecosystem: Multiplying the outcomes generated by the applicants by connecting them with what they need in order to succeed.
A responsive, self-determined First Nations funding: A specific grant stream that provides no-fuss, fast-tracked funding, eligible to and shaped by First Nations peoples.
Easy idea-led applications for innovative first time applicants: A dedicated stream of funds with an easy application to support innovation and first time applicants.
A set of grant experience principals accompanied the strategy to provide guidance to any future initiatives. These emerged from the discovery, ideation, and development workshops. The grant program and policy principals include; flexibility; adaptation through self determination; building wealth in the community; thinking long term and supporting people over a longer period of time; leading with outcomes and ideas rather than categorisation and working together as an organisation to deliver a more inclusive experience for applicants.
Project team: Harold Kuan (Senior Service Designer) and myself.
Project summary
Sydney is a diverse community of people
from over 200 nationalities who form bonds around
identity, interests and place. The local council: The City of Sydney (CoS) recognised that many grant applicants were unable meet the required writing standard and were not able to navigate the complex application process. We worked with the CoS grants team and the wider operational teams to redesign the grants program and policy to ensure it responded to the increasing diversity of its applicants, including applicants from non-english speaking backgrounds, differing cultural backgrounds and applicants with impairments and/ or situational needs.
The future grants program was comprised of
three key offerings:
-
An easy idea-led application process
-
A funding eco-system providing end to end support for all applicants
-
A First Nations, first led separate grant stream
Project approach
We engaged 72 people in the design sprint. Collaborative workshops led to the creation of 10 preliminary concepts that were further refined and then presented to an expert panel to garner expert feedback and elicit indicative buy-in. Following these engagements we worked with the grants team to detail out the next steps and path to implentation and simutaneoulsy kicked of testing the deliverables with grant applicants to build out the grant application user experience.
Project outcomes
The three final concepts for the grants policy and program were:
The funding ecosystem: Multiplying the outcomes generated by the applicants by connecting them with what they need in order to succeed.
A responsive, self-determined First Nations funding: A specific grant stream that provides no-fuss, fast-tracked funding, eligible to and shaped by First Nations peoples.
Easy idea-led applications for innovative first time applicants: A dedicated stream of funds with an easy application to support innovation and first time applicants.
A set of grant experience principals accompanied the strategy to provide guidance to any future initiatives. These emerged from the discovery, ideation, and development workshops. The grant program and policy principals include; flexibility; adaptation through self determination; building wealth in the community; thinking long term and supporting people over a longer period of time; leading with outcomes and ideas rather than categorisation and working together as an organisation to deliver a more inclusive experience for applicants.