RCAP webinar transcript

Transcript start

Hello and welcome. My name is Kate Schlick, and I am a Partnerships & Investment Manager with Arts Queensland, based in Rockhampton, and it is my pleasure to be able to talk you through this new grant program today.

The purpose of this briefing is to provide an overview of the Regional Community Arts Program and clarify the eligibility criteria and fund requirements to assist you to better understand whether this fund is right for your group or organisation.

The information presented today will be general in nature, so if you have questions that are specific to your group or organisation, you can contact Arts Queensland, and the team will direct you to the appropriate person to assist you further. I will provide the contact details at the end of the presentation.

Arts Queensland has regional offices in Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton and our team is very much looking forward to supporting you and answering any questions you might have.

There are a number of Arts Queensland colleagues joining us today, we have Michaela Nutt, Senior Manager Partnerships and Investment, based in Gimuy/Cairns who will be moderating the chat, and Toma Dim, Director of the Grants Assurance Team who is help answer any questions.

Responses from any Q&A’s will be updated in our FAQs.

Before I begin the presentation, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I’m working, the Darumbal people and pay my respects to elders past and present. And I extend that acknowledgement to the elders of the lands from which you are all joining today.

In today’s briefing I will talk you through the fund objectives, and the difference between the two funding streams. We will look at some of the key eligibility criteria for organisations, and groups, as well as the eligible costs for each stream. We will also work through some of the elements of the application form, specifically the requirements for financial information, for both funding streams. I will clarify the assessment criteria and how to address them, and talk you through the assessment and approval process, before giving you some final tips.

The Regional Community Arts Program was designed to support locally led arts and cultural experiences in regional Queensland, and to strengthen arts volunteering and volunteer-run arts in Queensland.

This fund supports community-led organisations and groups in regional Queensland to deliver high-quality, community-based arts and cultural programs and activities. It is important to note that for the purposes of these guidelines, regional Queensland is defined as outside of the Brisbane local government area.

The Queensland Government has recently released Queensland’s Time to Shine, as the new 10-year strategy to deliver a thriving creative sector and vibrant State-wide arts scene. We recommend reading the document to understand how your plans align with Government priorities. It is important to note that in assessing your application, consideration will include what evidence, in your responses and supporting material, there is of how your organisation or project is delivering on the strategy and Government priorities.

The Regional Community Arts Program is being offered over two different streams.

Firstly, the core funding stream offers two years of operational funding with a potential further two-year extension, subject to future budget. The core funding stream offers up to $50,000 per annum and is for activity that takes place in the 2026 and 2027 calendar years.

The second stream provides funding for projects up to 12 months in length, that need to be completed by 30 June 2027.

The fund is open to community-led arts organisations and groups.

You can only submit one application to each stream that you are eligible for. This means that if you are eligible for both streams, you may submit one application to each stream, however, it’s important to note that you can only be successful in one stream.

If your applications in both streams are recommended, you will be given the option of which stream you would like to accept.

Applications to this fund are open now and will close at 2pm Monday 10 November 2025. You will be notified of the outcome of your application by the end of January 2026. And the funding will be for activities commencing after 2 March 2026.

Let’s look at the eligibility criteria. There is a full list of eligibility criteria in the guidelines, and you must meet all of them, but I wanted to talk about a few in particular in a little more detail and provide some useful examples.

To be eligible as an organisation or group, you must have both a focus on arts and culture and be community-led, so let’s look a bit more closely at what that means.

Having an arts and culture focus means your organisation or group’s activities are focused on participatory arts activities, and/or making and sharing art across a range of artforms including visual arts, craft and design; music, dance, theatre, circus, writing and/or multi-arts including festivals.

For the purposes of this fund, community organisations that deliver some arts activities but for whom arts is not the primary mission of the organisation would not be eligible to apply. For example, a multicultural organisation whose main focus is to support the integration of people from migrant backgrounds into the community, and who also runs an annual art and multicultural festival would not be eligible for this fund, since that main area of focus of the organisation sits outside of the arts.

Community arts groups and organisations can look quite different. They could be informal self-organised groups or volunteer-run groups with a formal governance structure, they may also be organisations with some paid staff, and they often have social goals as well as artistic ones.

The key here is that to be considered community-led, you should be able to demonstrate how your organisation's activities are:

• driven by the needs of your members/group and/or community
• focused on participation, access and inclusion, for either amateur or professional artists or both.

Some examples of community-led groups would be a local writers’ collective, a community-run Indigenous dance group; an amateur theatre group, orchestra or choir; an arts group working with people with disabilities, a potters’ collective; a local regional arts council; or an annual community arts festival.

Applicants to either stream need to be not-for-profit.

Additionally, if your organisation or group is applying for the core funding stream, you will need to have a formal governance and decision-making structure, meaning you need to have a board or management committee.

And you will need to have delivered at least 2 years’ worth of activity and have 2 years of financial statements.

If your organisation hasn’t been operating for 2 years, you won’t be eligible to apply for core funding, but you can still apply for project funding as long as you meet all the eligibility requirements of that stream. Also important to note is that organisations and groups must have a turnover of less than $300,000, for the previous year.

We strongly suggest if you have any concerns about whether you meet any of the eligibility criteria that you contact Arts Queensland as soon as possible to discuss. We know applications take a lot of effort, so its best to find out if you are eligible to apply before you commit too much time to an application.

So what can you use the funding for?

The Core Funding Stream supports core operational and programming costs including core staff wages. This could be for existing or new staff.

It also supports the costs of core program delivery and by this we mean the organisation’s public-facing activity that engages audiences/attendees and participants with activities that are central to the mission or purpose of the organisation, rather than one-off activities that change from year to year.

For example, if your organisation runs an annual community arts festival but sometimes delivers a Christmas market, then the festival would be your core program, and the Christmas market would not.

Likewise, a community choir that meets weekly and always performs three times a year would consider all that activity to be core program.

The other costs covered by this stream are the overheads including rent, utilities, telephone and internet, office supplies, insurance, web-hosting and software subscriptions, legal or accountancy fees, costs relating to governance, and office equipment hire, but while hiring equipment is allowed, purchasing equipment, software or digital upgrades, are not eligible costs.

The Project Funding Stream supports the costs associated with delivering your project.

Eligible projects include hosting a series of regular events or activities that support community participation in the arts (like a seniors choir), produce or present new work by community participants (for example a community theatre group

getting funding for their theatre production, or an exhibition by a local photography group), or delivering skills development programs for artists, artworkers and community members.

Arts Queensland funding can be used to support the costs of delivering these activities.

Funding will support costs to engage a professional artist or artworker, for example, to perform at your festival or lead a workshop. We recommend noting in your application that you are paying at least minimum award rates or industry recommended rates of pay, referencing what the rate is based on. For example, is it the rate recommended by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance or the National Association of Visual Arts etc.

Funding will also support the costs of doing the project. If we think about the theatre example earlier, funding would support venue hire, sets and costume, equipment hire, technical support and marketing, or other project cost etc. In the exhibition example, funding would support venue hire, installation costs, costs of printing the photographs, signage and/or marketing and promotions costs.

You can also use the funds to contribute to the costs of volunteer involvement in a project. This could include the cost of a volunteer manager or co-ordinator, catering or transport for volunteers, t-shirts that identify people as volunteers in a festival, volunteer training and engagement or advertising to recruit volunteers.

Within the project stream you can purchase equipment, software or digital upgrades up to $3,000, however you cannot use Arts Queensland funding for the core operating costs such as rent or utilities.

Your application will need to demonstrate that your project or your organisation delivers against the assessment criteria of high quality, strong impact and sustainable value. Broadly speaking this is about articulating the value of your organisation or project, giving confidence that you are well managed, backing up any claims you make with evidence, and telling a consistent story, highlighting how your organisation or project meets the purposes of this fund.

So how do we demonstrate high quality? First you need to talk about what your activity is and give examples so peers can see the quality of what you do. It’s also important to provide evidence that the people involved in your project, or with your organisation are appropriately skilled. For example, have they completed relevant training? Have they received awards or been recognised by the industry in some way? Do they have extensive experience? And include these details.

You also want to provide evidence that your organisation is valued by your community and plays an important role in the local arts environment. Letters of support can be a powerful way of demonstrating this. We recommend being strategic about from whom you seek a letter of support.

If your project or organisation is engaging with any collaborators or partners, include evidence of their quality. Outlines what value they add to your project or organisation and how they help you achieve better outcomes than you could alone?

Evidencing strong impact is about being able to articulate the value and lasting impact that your project or organisation has for your community. Considerations include:

• What are the outcomes and legacies created by what you do?
• Can you evidence the need that your community has and how you are addressing that?
• Is there a story to be told about creative skills development, professional development, increasing access to arts or wellbeing for participants? and
• Can you demonstrate how your project or organisation is helping to deliver government priorities?

As I mentioned at the beginning, we recommend reading Queensland’s Time to Shine and noting in your application which priorities you are supporting with your program.

Sustainable value is about demonstrating that you or your organisation has sound decision making processes and follow best practice in working with communities. So, in this regard, when you are addressing this criteria think about how you can document the processes that you follow.

Sustainable value is also demonstrated through a viable and realistic budget, including consideration of contingency and ensuring appropriate fees are paid to any professionals involved. I will talk a bit later about tips for completing your budget.

Assessors will also want to see that you have a strong and achievable delivery plan, and a clear understanding of any potential risks and how to manage them. Ultimately when addressing this you are trying to give assessors confidence that if you are funded, you will be able to deliver what you set out in your application.

For core funding applications, assessors will also want to see evidence of the positive impact of funding on an organisations sustainability and viability. What will this core funding mean for your organisation? Make sure you articulate how it will support your organisation to become more sustainable.

Applications need to be made via Smarty Grants, and the form uses skip logic, which means that as you enter responses to questions, the form will adapt itself to your application, hiding or revealing questions that are relevant to you. Because of this, we recommend you work through the form from start to finish, ticking the boxes that are relevant.

When it comes to questions that require a text response, we recommend copying the questions to a separate document and working on them offline, this will reduce the potential risk of losing your work if any issues occur within Smartygrants, or any connectivity issues that can sometime be experienced. We also recommend regularly saving the application form, such as after every question or document upload.

Any questions marked with an asterisk are compulsory. If you don’t answer these questions, the application form can’t be submitted.

Please note that if you download a PDF of the form, it will include all questions, some relevant to you and some not, so be aware of that.

There are several pieces of documentation that you may be asked to upload, depending on your responses. So please look through the whole application early in your process to allow yourself enough time to ensure you have sufficient time to develop any documentation that you may not already have.

If you are applying to the core funding stream some documentation you might be asked to upload will include biographies for paid members of staff, if you have any, as well as biographies for board and management committee members.

You will be asked for a summary of key activities and achievements for the previous 2 years.

You will be asked to upload details of your planned activity for 2026 and 2027. With this document, you need to provide enough detail to enable assessors to understand what the activity is, who it is for, when it will happen and any key delivery partners supporting the activity as a minimum.

Although the planned activities don’t all need to be confirmed at the time of the application, your application will be stronger if you can demonstrate the likelihood that most of your program will be able to go ahead as planned.

And as a guide the planned activity document should not be more than four pages in length.

For both streams, you will be asked to provide examples of critical audience or participant responses to past work and activities, and up to 3 letters of support. Please don’t underestimate the importance of these pieces of documentation.

While you are trying to articulate that what you do is important, this supporting material is your chance to show the demand and support from the community for what you are doing, which builds a much stronger case for your application. Please ensure you give yourself time to gather good quality responses and letters of support from people who are relevant and who believe in you and want to see your project or program supported.

Additionally, if you are working with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander organisation or group - one of those letters of support should be from them.

You will also need to provide a simple evaluation plan, which is a document that indicates how you are going to measure the impact of your project/organisation.

Let’s look now at the financial information that you will need.

For organisations and groups applying for core funding, you will need to upload financial statements (or the equivalent) for the previous 2 years. What you need to upload here will depend on the legal requirements of your organisation or group.

If you are required under legislation to audit/review/verify your financial statements, you must upload financial

statements that comply with your regulator’s obligations. If not, you must upload financials that have been signed by your Chair/CEO as being true and correct.

Financial statements include an annual Profit & Loss and a Balance sheet as at the end of your reporting year. You will also need to upload a detailed budget for 2026 and a high-level budget for 2027.

For both budgets, you should provide sufficient information to enable peers to understand how your budget aligns with the forward program. As it sounds, the 2026 detailed budget should provide greater clarity on expenditure and income than the high-level budget.

For example, in your detailed budget you may like to include income from the different workshops that you run as different lines and then list your individual sponsors or grants from different programs. However, within your high-level budget you might combine your workshop income in one line and then combine your sponsorship income as a further income line and then list all grant income as another combined line in the budget.

Just a note on this, when you’re combining income and expenditure items in your high-level budget, please ensure any wages for core staff are included as a separate expenditure line to other fees, salaries and wages.

Also important to remember is that your budgets must be uploaded in Microsoft Excel.

There is also a section within the application where you can provide additional information about the financial position of your organisation. If there are anomalies or contributing factors that may not be apparent in the numbers, we would recommend adding this extra detail.

We also recommend that you upload any evidence of confirmed income or the basis for income projections, for example you could upload evidence of recent ticket sales which supports the projected figure for ticket sales.

If you are applying for Project funding, the application will show a budget table for you to complete with an expenditure, income and in-kind sections.

When completing the table, you should include enough detail in the budget line description so that assessors can clearly see what this covers e.g. how much items costs and how many of them are there.

If we think about the example of volunteer costs from earlier in the presentation, if you were including catering for volunteers in your budget, it is much easier for assessors to see the value and appropriateness of your costs if you write ‘lunch and refreshments for 10 volunteers for 5 days at $20 per day’ than simply ‘volunteer costs’. In the ticket sales example, you might have one line in the income section for full price tickets and one for concessions. It gives the peers more information and is easier to see if your budget is realistic if you write ‘100 full price tickets at $25 per performance for 3 performances’ and ‘20 concession tickets at $10 for 3 performances’ rather than just ‘ticket sales’.

We recommend you use the notes to budget for anything that may require further explanation and upload any quotes for items that may be unusual or expensive.

Don’t forget to add the value of in-kind, no matter the stream to which you are applying.

I would like to spend a moment on in-kind as this is an area we have found applicants require support.

Put simply, in-kind is the value of goods or services that you receive but don’t have to pay for. In-kind is ‘cost neutral’ in terms of income and expenditure. The value of the free service or goods you are getting (on the expenditure side of the budget) is equal to the value of the donation you are receiving (the income side of the budget).

Arts Queensland counts the value of in-kind along with any cash contribution when we check that you are not requesting 100% of the project or core costs from Arts Queensland funding.

For example, if you say that your project will cost $21,000, with $20,000 being the funding you are requesting from Arts Queensland, and you are contributing $1,000 to the project through in-kind contributions of volunteer hours, technically you’re applying for less than 100% of the budget and the application will be eligible for assessment, however, your application will be more competitive if you have cash income as well as in-kind for your co-investment.

In-kind contributions could include the value of volunteer hours. We strongly recommend you add an explanation for how you reached your cost estimate for example $25 / hour x the number of volunteers x the amount of hours they worked.

In-kind costs can also be the value of the venue hire or materials and equipment that are provided free of charge. It could include the value of consultancy fees that have been waived or advertising that has been provided by a project partner.

It’s important to remember that in-kind contributions are cost neutral, meaning that they need to be represented in the income and the expenditure.

For organisations applying for core funding, who are providing their budgets in Microsoft Excel, please include your in- kind values as separate lines in your income and expenditure of the forward budgets.

For applications to the project stream however, the Smarty Grants form will have a section for income, expenditure, and a separate section for in kind amounts, which will automatically be added to the calculation for both income and expenditure. Please don’t put in kind in either the expenditure or income section.

Once you have submitted your application, the assessment and approval process will take place. Eligible applications are assessed by a panel of independent peer assessors.