Multicultural NSW supports Festivals and Events that celebrate and embrace our state’s vibrant cultural diversity.

The grants will support multicultural and multifaith community groups to produce Festivals and Events while ensuring health and safety remains a priority.

Grants of $5,000 to $15,000 are available for Festivals and Events delivered between 1 February 2023 – 30 June 2023.

Selection criteria

Applications must address how Festivals and Events will:

• promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding. They must engage a broad cross-section of the NSW community and cannot solely rely on multicultural communities to attend
• ensure NSW’s multicultural communities can celebrate, preserve and share traditions
• be accessible by the general public and are for all communities of NSW.

Eligibility & Exclusions

To be eligible for a Stronger Together Festivals and Events grant, applicants must:

• be located within NSW
• demonstrate how the Festival or Event includes activities that focus on showcasing and sharing cultures and traditions. This may or may not be an online event.
• commit to delivering the Festival or Event in line with NSW health guidelines and COVID-19 regulations
• outline how they will collect attendance data to be shared with Multicultural NSW post event
• demonstrate how the Festival or Event will measure outcomes
• clearly show co-contributions from applications towards the projects/events. It is unlikely that the project will be funded if there is no co-contribution
• confirm other funding sources that are contributing to the total event budget
• confirm past and current funding sources for the past three years
• have acquitted all prior grants
• be a non-profit sharing organisation
• demonstrate that the Event or Project is cost effective and viable with an accurate budget
• have all appropriate insurances and licences
• 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 or Event between 1 February 2023 and 30 June 2023
• promote the Multicultural NSW and NSW Government funded event or project on their website and social media platforms.

What items cannot be funded?

The following activities are excluded from receiving grant funding:

• party political activities
• commercial or fundraising activities
• local councils, unless they have partnered with a community organisation
• celebration of national or independence days with the exception of key Australian days including ANZAC Day, Australia Day, Clean Up Australia Day and NAIDOC day
• religious festivals, rituals, events or promotions, except multi-faith events which involve people from more than one religionactivities that are dependent on recurrent
• annual funding applications that seek support for supplementing, increasing or continuing ongoing service delivery or for funding the core business of the organisation
• commercial or fundraising activities.

Grant funding will not be awarded to any organisation 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
• has a pending/ongoing legal case
• is bankrupt
• has no sound financial management and governance.

A detailed budget is required to be submitted with the grant application. In-kind contributions are also to be identified in the budget. Multicultural NSW strongly encourages co-contributions from applications towards the projects/events. It is unlikely that Festivals and Events will be will be funded if there is no co-contribution.

For grants for Events, applicants are eligible to receive grant funding up to the amount of $15,000.

For Festival and Event funding, no more than 5% of the budget can be used for catering.

Multicultural NSW uses the online program SmartyGrants for all grants submissions, accessible through a portal on the Grants page on the Multicultural NSW website.

Applicants are required to register with SmartyGrants through the Multicultural NSW portal in order to access the online application form. If the organisation has previously used SmartyGrants to apply for a grant with Multicultural NSW, then they will already be registered.

Attachments will be uploaded through the online application form.

The online application form includes an application checklist to help ensure all the required information is provided.

Multicultural NSW will not accept applications unless they are submitted online through the SmartyGrants portal.

Incomplete applications will not be progressed for assessment.

The following criteria and considerations are applied in the assessment of grant applications.

Application meets eligibility criteria and is not an excluded activity

Applications from ineligible organisations or excluded activities will not be considered.

Application form is complete and submitted on time

Applications that are not submitted online through the Multicultural NSW approved SmartyGrants portal before the closing date with all aspects of the application form completed (including all required supporting documentation, financial statements, insurances etc) will not be considered.

Application is appropriate to the Stronger Together Grants Program

Successful applications will clearly and convincingly demonstrate how funded projects or events will support the grant criteria.

Application demonstrates capacity to successfully deliver the Festival or Event

Successful applications will clearly demonstrate the organisation’s capacity to deliver the Festival or Event between 1 February 2023 and 30 June 2023 and within budget.

Applications should clearly identify resources that will be committed to ensure the Festival or Event is a success. A work plan and risk mitigation strategy should be included with all applications.

Application presents good value for money

Successful applications will clearly demonstrate value for money with a well-considered, proportionate, clearly itemised budget.

Stronger Together Grants will be awarded for Festival and Events from a diverse range of community organisations, for a diverse range of activities and approaches, and in diverse localities across New South Wales.

Applications are assessed in comparison to all other applications and in comparison to similar applications in terms of locality, cultural focus, and type of activity or approach.

Multiple applications

Eligible organisations can submit more than one application, for different Festival or Events, within the same funding round. However, the same organisation can only be awarded a single grant within the same funding round.

Available funding pool

Multicultural NSW always receives more funding applications than the available total amount of funding for Festival and Events. Therefore, successful applications will be of a high standard based on the criteria and considerations outlined above. The limited funding pool and competitive assessment process also means that sometimes even strong applications will be unsuccessful.

Terms and Conditions will apply to the grant funding agreement. Organisations will be required to review the Terms and Conditions and declare that they have read and understand them. They will acknowledge that an agreement based on those Terms and Conditions will apply to the grant. If a grant is awarded, they will agree to comply with these Terms and Conditions in acquitting the grant.