Securing Government Funding through Strategic Government Engagement

Project Overview

Our client is an Australian, research-backed program that can deliver free and universal support. The client was seeking funding to expand the program, making it universally available without any cost to the target demographic. The Government cemented its commitment to Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 Federal Budgets by pledging $3 billion to driving reforms. Despite our client’s strong Budget submission, it struggled with brand visibility amongst crucial government decision-makers.

Challenges

The company faced two key challenges in securing government funding in 2022:

1. Political and policy alignment: Although the client had developed a comprehensive, research based proposal, it was not strategically focused on a key priority of Government. Pyne & Partners was tasked with identifying relevant policies and guiding our client in tailoring the submission to address them.

2. Limited government relationships: The client possessed few established connections with stakeholders in government, leaving it without advocates to champion its Budget submission. With the 2022 Federal election rapidly approaching, a targeted and effective parliamentary campaign was required to build relationships across both parties within a limited timeframe.

Implementation

Pyne & Partners leveraged its expertise in Budget decision-making processes to devise a targeted campaign for positioning the client as a leading service provider, enhancing brand visibility and establishing relationships with stakeholders.

1. Policy Alignment: The client promoted its ability to fulfill the goals of the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan while underscoring the long-term economic benefits of their services. As a result, our client was given priority in the 2022 Federal Budget. Pyne & Partners continued to reinforce the importance of our client’s work in advance of the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook (2024-25) to secure our client a funding extension for the client.

2. Federal Campaign: Pyne & Partners identified key Members of Parliament, Senators and parliamentary staffers based on their policy interests to socialise the funding submission with and distributed direct meeting requests. After compiling an extensive program of meetings, Pyne & Partners accompanied the client to Parliament House and facilitated a series of high-level discussions to pitch the submission.

Outcomes

Pyne & Partners’ campaign achieved its objective of securing both a grant and grant extension, following the Mid-Year Financial and Economic Outlook 2024-5, which awarded a supplementary grant extension for 2025-26. In only a short timeframe, the following policy and business outcomes were achieved:

1. Funding Secured: A Budget commitment was secured for the 2022-23 Federal Budget, and further funding awarded for 2025-26.

2. Increased Advocacy: By orchestrating a bi-partisan campaign and developing relationships across both major parties, Pyne & Partners secured government funding from both the previous Morrison Government and current Albanese Government. This approach demonstrates the importance of pre-emptive action in developing robust connections with parliamentarians, turning them into vocal champions for our client.

3. Increased visibility: Raising the profile of our client as a leading service provider, parliamentarians came to recognise our client as an essential part of the solution to deliver change for Australians.

Conclusion

Pyne & Partners successfully established our client as the premier service provider in their field, securing vital bipartisan funding commitments for its program. Aligning the client’s services with core policy focuses created a foundation of robust synergies across political parties. A targeted program of introductions to parliamentarians whose policy goals aligned with our client’s proposal expanded its network and cultivated champions for its submission. The result of this twofold approach was a successful budget bid and an extension of funding from successive governments, underscoring the value of a well-developed government relations strategy for achieving favourable outcomes with Government.