The free-text search bar helps you find funds that mention a particular keyword or keywords, such as “Mental Health”, “Housing”, “Multiple Sclerosis”, and so on. The search bar also facilitates fund names, director names, postcodes, and contact details (emails, website, and phone number) and will search throughout the entire fund entry so that you can find linkages with the fund as well as the people involved.

• To search multiple words, type them side by side, e.g. medical research — to show funds that mention both “medical” and “research”
• To search exact phrases, use double quotation marks, e.g. “medical research” — to show funds that mention “medical research” specifically
• To search for a combination of single or multiple words and exact phrases, use the same rules as above, e.g. “medical research” children — to show funds that mention both “medical research” and “children”

There are many ways to filter funds in the database, including by:

• Type: Private Ancillary Fund or Public Ancillary Fund
• Distributions: Australia and/or Internationally (using latest financial report data if available)
• Categories: Animal Welfare, Cultural Organisations, Defence, Disability, Education, Elderly, Environment, Fire and Emergency, Health, Indigenous, Industry, International Aid, Medical, Men, Religion, Research, Sports and Recreation, Trade and Design, Welfare, Women, and Youth
• Scope of Funding: States/Territories in Australia and/or Overseas (where the funding is going to)
• Date of Effect: From and/or To (the date endorsed or cancelled as a PAF or PuAF)
• Location: State or Territory in Australia (where the fund is registered)
• Status: Active, Inactive, or Cancelled
• Search Exclusions: Applications Not Accepted, Application Process Unknown, Institutionally Related Funds, Nationwide Funds

The Recently Added tab allows you to easily see the funds that have been newly published in PafGUIDE. This tab includes all the search functions and filters as the main search (All Funds tab), which means you can run a search through only the Recently Added funds.

The Favourite Funds feature allows you to keep track of funds that are of particular interest to your organisation as potential prospects for your cause. You can ‘favourite’/’star’ funds either in the list view or within the individual fund entry. These funds will appear in your Favourite Funds tab, and this tab includes all the search functions and filters as in the main search (All Funds tab), which means you can have hundreds of favourited funds and be able to sort and filter the list. PafGUIDE subscribers can also opt-in to receive Email Notifications every time one of their favourited funds is updated by our research team by going to Account settings.

To help you save time and keep lists of funds that meet particular search criteria, the Saved Searches features allows you to save a particular search bar and/or filter search along with the fund results in the Saved Searches tab (and any funds that are published in the database will be added to the Saved Searches results if they meet the conditions of the Saved Search).

The PafGUIDE research team have found that only around 7% of the total number of Private and Public Ancillary Funds have grant rounds or a formal application process that is made known and accessible to the public. PafGUIDE subscribers can search for these 250 or so funds by using the Search Exclusions filter to remove funds that don’t accept applications, have an unknown application process, or that are a set up to support a single organisation (Institutionally Related Funds). The funds that have a formal application process will include an Application Process section with details on how to submit an enquiry, expression of interest, or application for funding, and will often include a link to further information, criteria, or an online application form.

PAFs are all about the people; they are not simply grant-giving entities — they are couples, families, friends, businesses, and community groups, and happen to be among some of the wealthiest and most generous in Australia — and they are to be treated like major gift prospects, backed by a major gift strategy and solicitation process.