Stronger Together Local Council Major Festival Grant Program (Australia)

Deadline: 8-Jan-25

The Multicultural NSW is accepting applications for the Stronger Together Local Council Major Festival Grant Program to support multicultural festivals, events and projects across NSW.

They invest in activities that foster community harmony and celebrate cultural diversity as a precious part of their identity and way of life. The Stronger Together Local Councils Major Festival grant funding is available for Major Festivals run by local councils across NSW.

The Stronger Together Local Councils Major Festival grant funding is available for Major Festivals run by local councils across NSW.

Funding Information

• The funding will provide up to $500,000 for one major festival per council that showcases their state’s diversity.
• Funding is available for Major Festivals delivered between 1 February 2025 – 28 February 2026.

Ineligible Activities

• The following activities are excluded from receiving grant funding:
  • Party political activities
  • An application that seeks support for supplementing, increasing or continuing ongoing service delivery or for funding the core business of the organisation commercial or fundraising activities
  • Capital expenses, including but not limited to building works (including maintenance) and equipment purchases.
• Grant funding will not be awarded to any local council that:
  • Does not demonstrate a commitment to multicultural principles
  • Has redress sanctions as described in the National Redress Scheme
  • Is subject to a winding up order or has an appointed administrator
  • Is bankrupt
  • Has no sound financial management and governance.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for a Stronger Together Local Council Major Festival Grant applicants must:
  • Demonstrate how the festival aligns with Multicultural NSW’s strategic plan.
  • Be located within NSW.
  • Have audience attendance of more than 10,000 people in a regional area or 30,000 in metropolitan areas.
  • Demonstrate how they will measure outcomes of the festival.
  • Have acquitted all prior grants from Multicultural NSW.
  • Demonstrate that the festival is cost effective and viable, with an accurate budget.
  • Have all appropriate insurances, licences and permits.
  • Submit an application online through the Multicultural NSW approved SmartyGrants portal before the closing date, with all aspects of the application form completed.
  • Deliver the festival between 1 February 2025 and 28 February 2026.
  • Promote the NSW Government as per terms outlined in the grant agreement.
  • Clearly show co-contributions towards the festival. The festival will not be funded if there is no co-contribution of at least 25%. In-kind contributions must be itemized.
  • Commit to spending a minimum of 10% of the advertising budget for the festival across multicultural media outlets to ensure the event is accessible by multicultural communities.

Assessment Criteria

• Grants are awarded on merit following a competitive assessment process.
• All applications for grants are initially reviewed by a Multicultural NSW Grants Officer to ensure mandatory compliance with eligibility criteria and required documentation. Compliant applications are then assessed by an Assessment Panel convened by Multicultural NSW.
• All applications must submit a clear and complete project budget outlining project expenditure. The Project Budget and Use of Funding items should be considered and outlined in your budget. The Assessment Panel will make recommendations for grant funding to the Delegated Approver who will approve successful applications.
• Both successful and unsuccessful grant applicants will be notified in writing.

Application Requirements

• Applications must address how the Major Festival will:
  • Showcase and represent the diversity of the local community
  • Show evidence that the festival will reach and engage with new audiences
  • Be inclusive and accessible
  • Be delivered in a compliant and safe way
  • Where appropriate, develop in-language festival communications and print materials.
  • You may need to upload/submit attachments to support your application. This is very simple, but requires you to have the documents saved on your computer, or on a storage device.
  • You need to allow enough time for each file to upload before trying to attach another file. Files can be up to 25MB each; however, they do recommend trying to keep files to a maximum of 5MB – the larger the file, the longer the upload time.

For more information, visit NSW Government.