SmartySearch FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
These FAQs are for councils, peak bodies, and other state and non-governmental organisations to learn about SmartySearch. To learn how to use the SmartySearch tool as a grantseeker, visit the grantseeker FAQs page.
SmartySearch is a customised grants search database powered by the Funding Centre that can be seamlessly embedded in your own website. SmartySearch helps local councils and other organisations promote funding opportunities to community groups and businesses in their local area efficiently and cost-effectively.
Visit the SmartySearch page here.
SmartySearch is powered by the Funding Centre, Australia’s smartest grants database and fundraising capacity building website. The Funding Centre hosts a comprehensive grants database, grant application management tools, and help sheets and tools to help not-for-profit organisations become more successful fundraisers.
Grants are filtered from the Funding Centre database to create a unique SmartySearch grant search tool so your grantseekers can conduct quick, localised searches for the grants most relevant to them from the convenience of your own website.
The Funding Centre is an enterprise of Our Community. Learn more here.
The Funding Centre website and associated tools and newsletters are an initiative of Our Community, a world-leading social enterprise that provides advice, tools and training for Australia's 600,000 community groups, as well as services for business, government and the general public.
Your SmartySearch grants database is customised according to the needs of your community. While all grants listed in a SmartySearch page are included in the Funding Centre grants database, not all grants in the Funding Centre will be listed in a SmartySearch page.
Grantseekers can access the full Funding Centre grants database, as well as a host of other tools and resources by purchasing an individual subscription. See here for information on pricing.
An annual fee starting at $3,000 provides access to an unlimited number of users conducting an unlimited number of searches on your embedded site. As an Our Community enterprise, the Funding Centre are offering local councils with a SmartyGrants subscription a 50% discount.
If you want us to host the page, instead of embedding it on your website, we can provide an additional annual quote for this service.
Embedding content in a website is straightforward process. The Funding Centre will provide a line of iframe code for your website administrator to insert into a page on your website.
Watch an interactive demo to see how it works.
An iframe is a HTML capability that allows you to take external content (in this case the Funding Centre’s grants search and database) from another website (with permission) and place it on your own site to enhance your content. Embedded content is the best way to keep users on your site, while sharing content from other sites.
Most websites should support embedded content such as an iframe. Speak to your website administrator or book a session with us to learn more about how the grant search tool can be embedded on your website.
We use several key security measures to keep your platform and users safe when embedding our iframe in your website:
Content Security Policy (CSP): Our Content Security Policy (CSP) ensures that only resources from trusted sources can be loaded into the iframe. This prevents unauthorised sites from loading our iframe and helps block malicious scripts. We recommend that councils also implement CSP on their websites to allow iframes only from our trusted source https://www.fundingcentre.com.au.
X-Frame-Options & Input Sanitisation: We use X-Frame-Options to ensure our iframe can only be embedded on approved council websites, preventing unauthorised embedding and protecting against clickjacking attacks. Additionally, we validate and sanitize all user inputs (such as the Grant Search Filter) to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
Encryption in Transit: All data exchanged between your website and our server is encrypted using HTTPS. This means any information loaded within the iframe is protected from interception or eavesdropping by malicious actors.
SSL Encryption: We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt all data transferred between your browser and our servers, adding an extra layer of security.
Password Protection: All account and profile information on our website is protected by passwords to ensure only authorised access.
Regular Security Audits: We conduct regular security audits to ensure our systems are up-to-date and secure against the latest threats.
Access Controls: Only authorised personnel can access logs and data collected for security and reporting purposes.
Non-Personal Information Reporting and Analytics: We use non-personal information to generate aggregated reports on website usage. This helps us:
- Understand user trends: Identify the most visited pages and how users navigate our site.
- Improve website performance: Find and fix any performance issues.
- Enhance security: Monitor for unusual activity that may indicate security threats.
These measures ensure both the security of your data and the overall performance of our platform. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or refer to the SmartySearch Terms of Service and Our Community Privacy Policy.
At Our Community we only collect data when it is necessary and always limit it to what is needed.
All our source codes, databases including user and grants information and collected data are stored securely on our servers located in Australia. We ensure that our data storage practices comply with Australian laws and regulations regarding data protection and privacy.
Please refer to the SmartySearch Terms of Service and Our Community Privacy Policy if you require further information.
SmartySearch does not collect any personal information from users. However, we do gather certain non-personal information automatically for security and reporting purposes through third-party services such as Google Analytics. This includes:
- IP address: Used to identify and mitigate potential security threats and for analytical purposes.
- Browser type and version: Helps us ensure compatibility and improve the user experience.
- Operating system: Used for compatibility and user experience improvements.
- Pages visited: Logged to help us understand user behaviour and improve our content and navigation.
- Timestamp of visits: Helps identify peak usage times and potential issues.
- Geographical location: Used for analytical purposes.
Please note that the data collected by these third-party services may not necessarily be stored in Australia. The storage location of this data is determined by the policies of the third-party providers.
Please refer to the SmartySearch Terms of Service and Our Community Privacy Policy if you require further information.
Yes, you can make changes to the search parameters, so long as they fit within our current list. Search parameters that can be updated include grant categories, eligibility, location, and funding amounts. Contact us with your request and we will advise if it is possible.
SmartySearch customers can choose to display SmartySearch across one or two columns, depending on the layout of the page in which you want to embed the iframe code. Watch an interactive demo to see how SmartySearch can display on your website.
The Funding Centre team can customise your SmartySearch grants search to match the look and feel of your website.
SmartySearch can be tailored to suit a range of organisations that support grantseeking communities. Get in touch to find out if SmartySearch is right for you book a session with us or get in contact via email: [email protected] or phone: (03) 9320 6800.
Yes, they can use the SmartySearch tool on your website to search and find grants. To manage their grantseeking activity, including saving grants to their dashboard, users will be directed to the Funding Centre website to login.
No, the EasyGrants newsletter is a monthly grants newsletter that Funding Centre subscribers receive. It provides tailored information about grants that match their preferences.
SmartySearch is an online grant search tool that is embedded in your website to allow your grantseeking community to browse grants.
No, only grantseekers with a Funding Centre subscription can track and manage grants on a personalised dashboard. Learn more about the Funding Centre’s tools here.
All SmartySearch pages are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA.
Please refer to the SmartySearch Terms of Service and Our Community Privacy Policy.