The Council's board includes the heads of World Vision, Save the Children, the RSPCA and Wesley Mission, and “I can tell you every one of them [is] just shaking their heads [and] rolling their eyes", Mr Crosbie said.

The grant contrasted with the stringent requirements typically made of non-profit groups trying to tap government funds,  a predicament that was the subject of a recent Productivity Commission report and a separate inquiry into charities.

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Mr Crosbie said he was aware of two organisations that had spent more than $350,000 - including hiring consultants to meet compliance and other requirements - on two unsuccessful applications in the past year.

He also cited the Department of the Environment and Energy, the conduit for the Reef Foundation's grant, that issued 30-page guidelines, a nine-page application form and required six additional documents just for a $10,000 grant.

Similarly, for the Community Council to launch a fundraiser on its website, it must satisfy seven different state regulators' licensing requirements. In one state, that includes having all directors sign on the same piece of paper.

Yet governments “can completely bypass these processes when it suits them”, he said.

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The government defended its decision to expedite funding for what it says is the largest single investment in the health of Australia's World Heritage-listed reef.

"As the Department of Environment and Energy has made clear, the grant to the [Foundation] complies with the Commonwealth Grant Guidelines," a spokesman for Josh Frydenberg, the environment and energy, said.

'Beyond the dreams'

Labor's Kristina Keneally, who has helped lead a Senate inquiry into the grant, said “being handed a huge wad of money from government without even asking for it and without jumping through any hoops is beyond the dreams of any non-profit organisation".

“Look at any small community grant program run by any level of government - whether it’s Meals on Wheels wanting $5000 for a kitchen upgrade, or the local footy club wanting to buy some new goalposts - they will be filling out pages of forms and providing lots of documentation just to apply," Senator Keneally said, adding it was no wonder such groups are "furious and frustrated".

The Foundation itself had previously been successful in winning $5 million from the Commonwealth "to establish a network of climate change refuges to protect critical habitats and species across five Great Barrier Reef islands," a spokesman said.

"This complemented corporate, philanthropic and Queensland government contributions to the project".

Mr Crosbie said the Foundation's ambition to use the $444 million to attract more private funds for the reef - a key reason stated by the government to justify the outlay - was unlikely to succeed.

"If corporate partners and others see that a charity has been given a significant amount of money from the government, they tend to look elsewhere to offer support," he said. "It sometimes counts against you."