Successful applications

If your application is successful, you will receive an email advising you a grant is offered. You must then agree to the conditions of your grant, which represents our contract with you. This is usually done online. Payment of a grant will not be made until the grant conditions have been agreed and accepted by all the relevant parties.

You should not start a project that depends on a grant until all relevant parties have agreed and accepted the grant conditions and we have evidence of such acceptance on file.

Standard grant conditions require you to, among other things:

• seek prior approval for making a change to a funded project (for example, changes in the activity budget; changes to key creative personnel; or changes to start or end dates)
• respond to requests for information about the project or grant
• satisfactorily account for how the grant is spent (if you do not you will be required to return all monies for which you cannot satisfactorily account)
• comply with all applicable laws
• acknowledge our support in all promotional material associated with the project; this includes use of our logo and a standard text of acknowledgement available from Logo downloads
• provide artistic and financial acquittal reports at the end of the project
• return any unspent grant funds at the completion of your project or on notice from us to return such unspent funds.

Grant agreements must be accepted by a legal entity – either a legally constituted organisation or an individual. For unincorporated groups, see the section on administered grants

All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an ABN. Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).

The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account into which we pay the funds. There are no exceptions to this rule. If applicants cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant’s name, they will need to nominate an administrator for their grant.

Groups/ensembles/collectives, unincorporated associations/ unincorporated entities and other bodies with no legal status do not need an administrator if they have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and bank account in their name. If they are unable to provide an active ABN and bank account that matches the name of the applicant, they must nominate an administrator. The name of the administrator must match the name of the ABN and bank account into which funds are paid if the application is successful.

If we approve your application you will need accept the conditions of the grant in a funding agreement.

After you accept your funding agreement online, we will automatically generate a payment for the grant on your behalf. You do not need to send us an invoice.

We will pay grant funds directly into your nominated bank account as soon as possible after acceptance of the funding agreement. Grant payments cannot be postponed.

If you do not wish to have the grant funds paid directly into your bank account you can choose to have your grant administered by another individual or legally constituted organisation.

When you apply, you will be asked to provide an active Australian Business Number or ‘ABN’. The ABN that you provide must correspond to the name of the applicant (or the administering body, if one has been nominated). When you accept your funding agreement, you will be asked to enter the details of the bank account you wish the grant to be paid into. The name associated with that bank account must correspond to the name in which the ABN has been registered.

All recipients must acknowledge that Creative Australia/Music Australia have provided funding for their activities. Please refer to your funding agreement, which will specify what to acknowledge. When you acquit your grant, we will ask you how you went about this.

You might acknowledge our funding in places like: your website or social media pages, print or digital promotional materials, or the credits of videos/films and publications.

For Creative Australia funding, in printed or online material use our logo and one of these phrases:

• This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. OR
• (Company Name) is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

For Music Australia funding, in printed or online material use our logo and one of these phrases:

• This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. OR
• (Company Name) is assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Logos for download and guidelines for the use of our logos.

Where projects do not have a public outcome, or do not produce any printed or online material, you will need to think about how best to acknowledge our funding.

Grant reports are required on completion of your project. Acquitting a grant means accurately reporting on the funded activities and the expenditure of Creative Australia funding.

You will have up to 13 weeks from your project end date to lodge your grant report.

Please read your funding agreement to check details of the grant acquittal material you should provide.

The grant acquittal report is where you tell us:

• how you spent your grant
• what the artistic outcomes of your funded activity were.

If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report at the times and in the manner detailed in your funding agreement, we will not make any further payments that may be due to you, and you will not be eligible  to apply for further grants.

If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report, we may ask you to pay back all or part of the funding provided to you.

We use grant reports to fulfil obligations of accountability to the Australian Government. They are also essential to the development work of Creative Australia. The reports help us evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of grant categories and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists in the field.

Reporting for Multi-year Funded Organisations

Organisations in receipt of multi-year funding are required to submit financial, statistical, and artistic reporting on an annual basis.

All reporting is submitted online via our arts organisations reporting system.

If you are not sure what reporting you need to submit as part of your annual reporting, or what information to provide, please get in touch.