Who can apply 

This opportunity is open to: 

• organisations based in Australia working primarily in the arts and culture sector or providing a service to the arts. 

You can only submit one application to this round.  

Who can’t apply 

You cannot apply if:

• you are an individual or group
• you have already applied to this closing date under this grant category
• your organisation is based outside of Australia
• you are a National Performing Arts Partnership Framework, Multi-Year Investment, Visual Arts, Crafts and Design Framework or Delivery Partner organisation in receipt of more than $800,000 in annual funding from Creative Australia
• your organisation, board or key staff members participated in training through previous rounds of the Company Director Capability Fund for Organisations
• you have an overdue grant report to Creative Australia
• you owe money to Creative Australia. 

If you are an individual not currently on a board, you may be interested in our Company Director Capability Fund for Individuals.

What you can apply for

A flat rate of $6,000 for costs associated with training to develop your board’s capability in arts governance with these providers:  

• Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Institute of Community Directors Australia
• Governance Institute of Australia
• Small Giants Academy
• Justice Connect's Not-for-Profit Law
• Centre for Social Impact 

At least 2 board members and 1 key staff member (such as a CEO, General Manager, Executive Producer or equivalent) must participate in the training. 

Eligible costs are: 

• fees for in-house training and/or public training courses with the preferred providers that are relevant to the governance of arts organisations. This means you can apply for training delivered directly to your board and staff, or for your board and staff to attend public training courses
• reasonable ground transport expenses for your board and staff to attend the courses in person where relevant. This Fund does not cover flights or accommodation.
• access., carer and childcare costs associated with offering the training to your board and staff. 

Training courses can be online or in-person.  

If you are awarded funding, once you have completed your activities you will need to submit a grant report and explain how you spent your funding. You should keep records of what you spend your funding on so you can complete this report.  

Co-Contribution 

National Performing Arts Partnership Framework, Multi-Year Investment, Visual Arts, Crafts and Design Framework or Delivery Partner organisations are encouraged to contribute their own funds to the total cost of offering training. 

Organisations with more than $500,000 in annual funding from Creative Australia who apply, must contribute at least $2,000 to the total cost of the activities proposed. You cannot use in-kind (non-financial) contributions as your contribution. You are not required to provide evidence of the co-contribution upfront, but you will be required to demonstrate you made the contribution in your grant report.  

What you can’t apply for

• training that is not offered by one of the listed providers
• fees for training that are not relevant to governance of arts organisations
• fees for training commencing before 30 June 2026
• fees for training finishing after 30 June 2027
• fees for training that has already commenced
• fees for training that has already been completed
• costs for flights or accommodation. 

Your application must comply with the following protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding. 

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts  

 All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, and provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here. 

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework 

All successful applicants are required to comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children, including working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will additionally be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. 

Applications will be assessed by industry advisers with diverse and relevant experience against the assessment criteria below. An internal moderation process will then be conducted by Creative Australia staff to ensure diversity and alignment to the aims of the program.   

Assessment criteria 

Your application will be assessed based on how well it addresses the assessment criteria below. In the application form we ask you some questions to help you respond to these criteria. You should also make sure what you write in your application responds to these criteria. 

Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what industry advisers may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed. 

Quality 

Industry advisers will assess the quality of the organisational and governance development proposed in your application. 

They may consider: 

• the evidence you provide to demonstrate the calibre and track record of your organisation.
• your explanation of your planned activities, including participants, dates, course details and costs.
• your explanation of what you are aiming to achieve by enhancing your board and staff members’ governance capability.  
• the quality of your organisation’s strategic goals and alignment of your proposal with those goals. 

Impact 

Industry advisers will assess the expected impact/s of the proposed activities on your organisation’s governance development and active engagement in an accessible, inclusive and equitable arts and culture sector. 

They may consider: 

• the extent to which the proposed development activities will enable your organisation to contribute to and enhance an arts and culture sector that is accessible, inclusive and equitable.
• the relevance of the proposed activities to your board and staff’s governance development needs and your organisation’s strategic priorities.
• the capacity of the proposed activities to strengthen the skills and abilities of your board and staff now and into the future.
• your explanation of how your organisation defines best practice governance and how the proposed activities will help you achieve this. 

Click on the ‘Apply Now’ button at the top of this page to go to Fluxx, our system for managing applications.   

You will need an account to use Fluxx. It can take up to 2 business days for a new account to be approved. If you have an account already you can log in.   

Select ‘Apply for a Grant’ from the left panel menu. From the list of opportunities select ‘Company Director Capability Fund for Organisations’.  

The application form will require you to fill in some of your details, select from some options, respond to questions and submit support material.  

You will need to respond to the following questions:  

• Introduce your organisation and tell us why you are interested in undertaking Governance training at this time.
• Tell us what activities you want to do to develop your governance capability and how your proposed activities will help you to do that.
• Explain how the activities will support your organisation to achieve your strategic priorities.
• Tell us how you will spend the money you have requested from Creative Australia. Please list any additional income from other sources you have. 

We encourage you to consult our Governance Hub for useful guides and templates that can support you to understand what your governance capability needs are. 

Please contact the Capability Development team via  leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au if you need support to submit an application in another format – for example, video or audio format. 

You must submit a summary of board and key staff members’ biographies with your application.  

We strongly recommend you make the information provided relevant and targeted to this opportunity.  

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks) that link to your preferred files.     

Creative Australia will not view any URLs that require log in or to sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to applications or documents that require users to log in or pay for access.  

If you are linking to sites or files that are private or password protected, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.  

You can provide 1 URLs or file upload.  

You can include a maximum of:  

• 2 pages of written material  

If you provide material that exceeds these limits it may not be reviewed as a part of the assessment process.  

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:  

• written material (Word, PDF).  

We do not accept support material submitted via post. Support material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender.  

If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact the Capability Development team via  leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au .  

Learn more about support material via the Creative Australia website. 

Please contact the Capability Development team via  leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au if:   

• you would like these guidelines in another format
• you want to submit your application in a different format including video, audio, Auslan or other form. You can also read more about accessible application formats on our Accessibility page
• you want to submit your application in a language other than English. You can also read more on our website: Languages Other Than English. 

We will not assess the quality of your chosen format, just what you tell us.