This opportunity is open to: 

• organisations.

You can only submit one application to this round.  

You can’t apply if:

• you are an individual or group
• you have already applied to this closing date under this grant category
• 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 staff members participated in training through previous rounds of Governance Training for Organisations 1.5 day or 3 day opportunities with the Australian Institute of Company Directors
• 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.  

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

At least 2 board members and 1 staff member must participate in the training. 

Eligible costs are: 

• fees for in-house training and/or public training courses with the preferred providers that is 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 members to attend public training courses
• reasonable ground transport expenses for your board members to attend your course in person where relevant. This Fund does not cover flights to attend training
• access, carer and childcare costs associated with offering the training to your board members.

Training or 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 with a short budget to explain how you spent your funding. You should keep records of your expenses so that you can complete the budget accurately.  

Multi-Year Investment and NPAPF 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.  

• 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 2025
• fees for training finishing after 30 June 2026
• fees for training that has already commenced
• fees for training that has already been completed. 

All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to Creative Australia’s Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts, and provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding. 

Industry advisors with diverse and relevant experience will assess applications against the assessment criteria listed below and advise Creative Australia on which applicants to prioritise. Creative Australia staff will consider how the proposed activities align with the aims of the fund when making final decisions. 

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 advisors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed. 

Quality 

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

They may consider: 

• the calibre and track record of your organisation
• the quality of your organisation’s strategic goals and alignment of your proposal with those goals
• your clear explanation of what you are aiming to achieve by enhancing your board’s capability
• how the proposed activity is relevant to your board’s development needs.  

Impact 

Industry advisors will assess the expected impact/s or outcome/s of the proposed activities on your board’s development and active engagement in the arts and culture sector. 

They may consider: 

• the benefit and impact of the proposed activities on your organisation’s governance capabilities and strategic priorities
• the benefit and impact of the proposed activities on your individual board and staff members’ professional development and capacity to contribute to the organisation’s strategic priorities
• the extent to which the proposed professional development will enable your board to contribute to and enhance a sector that is accessible, inclusive and equitable. 

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:  

• a brief description of your organisation, what you do and who will participate in the activities.
• an outline of what you want to do to develop your governance capability and how your proposed activities will help you to do that
• an outline of how the activities will support your organisation to achieve your strategic priorities.

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 Adelaide and Emerald from the Industry 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 Industry Development team via  leadershipprogram@creative.gov.au. 

Learn more about support material via the Creative Australia website. 

Please contact  Adelaide and Emerald from the Industry 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  Languages Other Than English page.

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