Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program FAQs

The Australian Government has committed a total of $10 million in grant funding to the Program. Funding will be allocated over at least three rounds.

Under Round 2:

• up to a total of $3.5 million in grant funding is available
• the minimum grant amount is $80,000 (GST exclusive)
• the maximum grant amount is $400,000 (GST exclusive).

Details of subsequent rounds, including timing and amount of funding, will be announced at a later date.

Only non-government organisations (NGOs) registered as not-for-profit charities with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission can apply for the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program. An NGO is an organisation that operates without any government involvement. 

eSafety can only contract with NGOs who are legal entities. A legal entity is any company, business or organisation that can legally enter a binding contract with another legal entity. 

NGOs may apply as a consortium to deliver grant projects. A consortium is two or more organisations working together to apply for a grant as well as develop and deliver a grant activity.

eSafety is committed to implementing the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. As part of that commitment and in line with the Closing the Gap Grants Prioritisation Guide, this grant opportunity includes priority funding for projects that directly target tech-based abuse in First Nations communities.

Of the total funding available, up to $600,000 has been set aside to support priority funding of projects that directly target tech-based abuse in First Nations communities (‘First Nations Projects’).

To be eligible for priority funding as a First Nations Project, the applicant must (in addition to meeting the requirements specified above) be one of the following organisations:

a) an Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisation (ACCO)

b) an organisation that is primarily focused on achieving outcomes for First Nations communities

c) an organisation that is partnering with an organisation that meets a) or b).

Yes. To be eligible your NGO must have a current Australian Business Number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN). 
 
This will be verified when assessing the eligibility of your application.

If your NGO is not registered for GST, you will not be eligible to apply for grant funding.

No. NGOs do not need to be a Trusted eSafety Provider (TEP) to apply for funding. 
 
Find more information about TEPs on our Trusted eSafety Provider program page.

No. These grants are for the delivery of new products, resources and services. 
 
Grant funding cannot be spent on your organisation’s ‘business as usual’ functions.

When working with children under the age of 18, it is standard practice that your NGO has a child safety policy in place. 
 
A child safety policy outlines an organisation’s commitment to child safety through the prevention, identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect. 
 
eSafety recommends NGOs use the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations in the design of child safety policies.

We can only accept applications that provide evidence from your Board (CEO or equivalent) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project commitments within the time frame. 

Yes. NGOs may submit a joint (consortium) application. A consortium is two or more organisations who are working together to combine their capabilities when developing and delivering a grant activity. 
 
Information regarding joint applications can be found in section 7.2 of the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines.

Before beginning an application it is recommended that you carefully read the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines:

 Make sure you have the required supporting documentation ready and that your NGO meets the eligibility criteria. 
 
Applications for this grant opportunity must be submitted via the online application portal. 
 
If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact the grants team at grants@esafety.gov.au.

For any questions related to the guidelines, please contact the grants team at grants@esafety.gov.au.

No. We will only accept applications that are submitted within the time frames set for the online application process. 

Applications not submitted before the grant round closes (16 December 2024) are ineligible for assessment.

All applications must be submitted online.

If you are experiencing accessibility issues, please contact the grants team at grants@esafety.gov.au for assistance.

No. eSafety is unable to provide guidance on the types of projects that your NGO could develop.
 
eSafety is unable to recommend other organisations that your NGO can partner with or seek advice from.
 
eSafety cannot introduce NGOs to schools or other places of learning or support.

You can only spend the grant funding on eligible expenditure you have incurred to deliver the project. 

This includes costs to employ a non-ongoing employee to deliver the project and costs associated with acquiring intellectual property licences.
 
For more information on grant funding expenditure, please refer to section 5.3 of the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines.

The budget template is where you need to identify the source of funding, how much funding the project has allocated and what this funding will be paying for. 
 
If you require assistance with completing your budget template, please contact the grants team at grants@esafety.gov.au.

eSafety cannot provide a grant if you are receiving funding from another Commonwealth Government source for the same purpose.
 
If you have applied for funding through other Australian Government grants programs, you can only choose one of these grants to fund your project. 
 
You must declare if you are receiving funding from another Government source.

eSafety will convene an Assessment Panel comprising representatives from eSafety, other Commonwealth Government departments and experts with experience in prevention and gender-based violence. 
 
It will be chaired by the eSafety Manager (Grants and Education Provider Programs) who has responsibility for the Prevention of Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program.

The Program is a competitive grants opportunity and each application will be assessed on its merits.

Applications are first reviewed against the eligibility criteria. Applications that meet all the eligibility criteria proceed to the Assessment Panel.

The Assessment Panel will assess each application against the assessment criteria outlined in section 6 of the Prevention of Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines:

The Assessment Panel will review each application based on its merits and compare it to other eligible applications before recommending which grant applications should be awarded funding.

Yes. If your application is unsuccessful, you're welcome to apply again in the next available round of funding.

The Program Delegate is the decision maker. This is the person who occupies the position of the eSafety Chief Operating Officer
 
More information on grant approvals is outlined in section 8.3 of the Prevention of Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines:

Successful grant recipients will be notified at the completion of the assessment process. It is anticipated that this will be in February/March 2025.

If I am successful, what type of reports is my NGO expected to submit?    

We will expect you to report on the project’s progress against agreed milestones and outcomes, contributions of participants directly related to the project/services, as well as expenditure of the grant funding.
 
Reporting requirements are outlined in section 12.2 of the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program Guidelines:

The Commonwealth Standard Grant Agreement will be issued for contracting with successful NGOs. An example of this can be found on the Department of Finance website.

The Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program uses SmartyGrants to facilitate the online application portal. 
 
If you are experiencing issues with logging into the grants portal or technical problems with the application form, please contact the service team at SmartyGrants: Phone (03) 9320 6888 or email service@smartygrants.com.au.

No exceptions can be made to the guidelines.

For any questions related to the guidelines, please contact the grants team at grants@esafety.gov.au.

The Australian Government crest and eSafety must be acknowledged on all materials related to the Preventing Tech-based Abuse of Women Grants Program.

The program specifically seeks to prevent tech-based abuse of women. For the purposes of this grant, ‘women’ includes transgender women and non-binary people.

eSafety’s resources have been created to help promote safer, more positive online experiences for all Australian citizens. We also have specific programs for those most vulnerable in our community.

While we acknowledge that tech-based abuse occurs across all ages, genders and all socioeconomic and demographic groups, this grants program specifically aims to address tech-based abuse as a form of violence against women, in response to the evidence that women are more likely to be targeted for tech-based abuse because of their gender. They are also more likely to experience this violence from a current or former partner within a context of controlling, abusive and harassing behaviours.

ANROWS’ Technology-facilitated abuse: National survey of Australian adults’ experiences showed that, of women who had experienced tech-facilitated abuse:

• 77% said their perpetrator was a man
• 40% had experienced tech-facilitated abuse from a current or former partner
• 31% had experienced repeated abuse from the same person
• 34% had experienced being monitored or controlled.

The grants program aims to prevent women’s experiences of tech-facilitated abuse. This does not limit grantees to only working with female participants. We encourage the development of resources and projects that work with all members of the community to reduce the incidence of tech-facilitated abuse of women.

The program specifically seeks to prevent technology-facilitated gender-based violence (also referred to in the guidelines as tech-based abuse).

Technology-facilitated abuse can be broadly described as any behaviour that uses technology to harm others based on their sexual or gender identity. 

Technology-facilitated abuse of women can take many forms, which include, but are not limited to:

• image-based abuse
• online harassment, doxing or trolling of women in the workplace
• women in situations of domestic or family violence being monitored using spyware and tracking devices, and having their intimate images or videos shared without their consent.

For further evidence from eSafety on various forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, please visit the eSafety research page.

Emerging research is starting to provide evidence on what motivates some people to use technology-facilitated abuse, and the actions that victim-survivors take in response.

ANROWS’ Technology-facilitated abuse: National survey of Australian adults’ experiences provides population data on the prevalence, nature and motivating factors across multiple forms of technology-facilitated abuse.

Primary prevention means stopping violence against women from occurring in the first place by addressing its underlying drivers.

Primary prevention is a distinct but complementary approach to intervention, response or recovery.

Primary prevention aims to influence laws, policies and the practices and behaviours of organisations, groups and individuals. 

It seeks to engage and reach people of all ages in all the places they live, work, learn and socialise to address the systems, structures, norms, attitudes, practices and power imbalances that drive violence against women.

Primary prevention programs work, before violence has occurred, to target the underlying drivers of violence against women. Technology-facilitated abuse of women is unique in how digital platforms or devices are used as a tool for violence, but these spaces reflect, reinforce and exacerbate the gender inequality that drives all forms of gender-based violence.

The following expressions of gender inequality have been shown, across decades of international evidence on violence against women, to be most consistently associated with higher levels of men’s violence against women:

• Driver 1: Condoning of violence against women. 
• Driver 2: Men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence in public and private life. 
• Driver 3: Rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity. 
• Driver 4: Male peer relations and cultures of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control.

Comprehensive and well-designed primary prevention programs:

• are designed to have multiple engagement points across the socio-ecological model. (See page 34 of Change the story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women in Australia).
• work across the lifecycle. They work with people at every age, not just young people.
• work with all people, but can take a particular focus on working with men and boys to prevent violence against women. Prevention approaches to working with men and boys is different to perpetrator or behaviour change programs that work with men after the use of violence. Prevention programs aim to work with men of all ages to understand why some men use violence and others do not and promote positive, non-violent ways of being.
• are designed to address gender inequality as the root cause of violence against women. Primary prevention programs can include a broad range of activities that work with workplaces and institutions as well as within communities, families and relationships, but are also designed to include elements that address gender inequality across policies, systems and structures as well. For example, a primary prevention program in a workplace may work with individual employees to raise awareness, but would also include work to ensure policies and practices across the workplace are supporting gender equality.

Comprehensive and well-designed prevention programs use multiple techniques to engage people in sustained change.

The inclusion of multiple techniques helps to strengthen and reinforce change. 

Examples of evidence-based approaches include:

• direct participation programs. For example: peer education programs, media and digital literacy programs.
• organisational development. For example: whole-of-school approaches or workplace initiatives that address structures, policies and practices that contribute to gender inequality.
• community mobilising and strengthening. For example: programs that work with communities to lead conversations and work to address social norms that condone the use of violence.
• communications and social marketing campaigns. For example: broadcast or advertising approaches that focus on driving behaviour change.