The Brian M. Davis Charitable Foundation takes a proactive approach to its grantmaking and does not hold open grant rounds. Grant applications are by invitation only.

We are always pleased to be introduced to organisations that have not previously worked with the Foundation. If you believe your organisation's work strategically aligns with our priorities and funding criteria, introduce yourself via email with a brief 300-500 word description of your organisation and the work that you do.

The Foundation greatly values the work of our grant partners – it is through their efforts that the Foundation is able to have an impact and preserve and expand on the legacy of Brian M. Davis.

Our primary geographic focus is the State of Victoria.

Grants can only be made to organisations that are registered as a Charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and endorsed by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) covered by Item 1 of the table in section 30-15 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

We cannot make grants to individuals.

You can check your organisation’s eligibility status on the following websites:

Charitable status: Go to ACNC

DGR1 registration: Go to the Australian Business Register ABN Lookup

Signature Grant - $1.5m over 4 years

Melbourne City Mission's Youth Homeless Initiative (YHI) is a significant 4-year co-designed housing and support program that aims to support homeless young people to effectively transition to adulthood and exit homelessness. The YHI will provide integrated, sustained support comprising housing, case management and therapeutic support for 70 young people in Wyndham. The model is also designed to provide after care support following the young person exiting YHI housing, to ensure a successful transition to independent rentals. At the conclusion of the pilot, it is intended that the program will become an integral part of the service delivery landscape.

Signature Grant - $750,000 over 3 years

Lighthouse’s Foster Care Program is a holistic therapeutic program grounded in relational connection. That connection revolves around the creation of a trauma-informed community to walk alongside foster carers and children in their care, with a Hub Home model providing additional supports. Our Signature Grant is enabling Lighthouse Foundation to expand the current Hub Home Foster Care Service to include Kinship Care, with the establishment of a second Hub Home for kinship families to receive the same important support, including after-school programs, overnight respite stays, community committee support and social interactions.

$130,784 over 2 years

Using the window of opportunity that is afforded by being in crisis accommodation, the Road Home Project aims to impact vulnerable women and children by providing onsite trauma-informed mental health, medical and legal services, at a time when they need it the most. The project is a proof-of-concept pilot delivered by First Step in partnership with Launch Housing. Our grant enables the extension of the pilot to a second Launch Housing site in South Melbourne that provides emergency housing accommodation to families, most of whom are women with children.

$300,000 over 3 years

Evidence and experience tells us the best chance to change lifelong outcomes for children is to change what happens in early childhood – it is the window for change that has the most impact. SVA’s Young Children Thriving program seeks to transform the early childhood development landscape by designing a more proactive and responsive early years system that provides families experiencing vulnerability with the right supports, when they need them.

$50,000 over 1 year

When MPF started in 2017 their focus was finding out the core drivers of intergenerational disadvantage. They've since identified very low literacy rates across generations, the relationship to cyclical disadvantage and systemic reasons underlying these. Our funding enabled MPF to expand this work using behavioural science and community conversations to deepen knowledge of early years child development and the impact of intergenerational low literacy.

$100,000 over 2 years

While Cultural Care Plans are mandatory for Indigenous children placed in Out of Home Care to ensure a connection to their community and culture, no such plans currently exist for those from migrant or refugee backgrounds. MacKillop is working with their own culturally diverse staff and the Centre for Multicultural Youth to co-design a best practice model addressing the needs of the increasing number of young people and their families from diverse cultural backgrounds coming into care. The project is being piloted within selected MacKillop residential care homes across Melbourne.

$300,000 over 3 years

FYA's YLab is a co-design and consulting social enterprise that brings young people with diverse lived experiences and partners together to tackle society’s most complex challenges. Clients hire YLab when faced with a youth engagement challenge, or a challenge that requires youth-led innovation. Over the three years of our grant, YLab is delivering youth-led co-design projects focused on systems change for a client base across government, university, corporate, not-for-profit and philanthropic sectors.

$300,000 over 3 years

The Children Ahead program provides intensive wrap-around support for children and young people who have experienced violence and trauma. Through positive learning opportunities at school, introducing wellbeing and life skills, building friendships, and helping parents and carers understand a young person’s behaviour, AMF supports children as they navigate and overcome the effects of trauma, helping to build a future where they can thrive.

$300,000 over 3 years

Story Hubs is a whole-of-school and community place-based program designed to develop curious, flexible and engaged learners while transforming how creativity is taught in schools, leading to environments in which creativity is valued and prioritised. Our grant has funded a significant expansion of the program into under-resourced or otherwise disadvantaged areas across Victoria.

$240,000 over 2 years

Youth Live4life is changing the narrative around youth mental health in rural and regional Australia. A two-year independent evaluation demonstrated proof of concept, opportunity to scale and the social return on investment, strengthening the case for a whole-of-community response to youth mental health and suicide prevention. Our grant is enabling deeper engagement with the model in existing communities and beyond, increasing and sustaining Live4Life’s impact so that more young people stay safe, well and connected.

16 grants for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration. $3.995m in total.

10 grants for projects of 6 months to 3 years in duration. $4.5m in total.

11 grants for projects of 1-3 years in duration. $2.93m in total.

20 grants for projects of 1-3 years in duration. $6.45m in total.

18 grants for projects of 6 months to 3 years in duration. $3.9m in total.

23 grants for projects of 6 months to 3.5 years in duration. $4.75m in total.