Funding Opportunity: Community Heritage Grants
National Library of Australia
What are the Community Heritage Grants?
The Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program supports community organisations to look after Australian cultural heritage collections. Since 1994, this program has provided more than
$8.4 million dollars in funding to over 1,600 projects across Australia. Further information is available in the CHG Guidelines (PDF, 359kb).
Who can apply for a Community Heritage Grant?
CHG is open to non-profit, incorporated organisations. The program has a strong focus on supporting local groups with limited funding who would benefit from access to professional cultural heritage expertise. Applications from Indigenous and multicultural organisations are encouraged.
Organisations progress through a three-stage journey to learn about their collection, how to care for it, and plan for its future. Projects also aim to build the knowledge and skills of paid and volunteer staff to increase their capacity to share valuable heritage collections with all Australians.
CHG is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts; National Library of Australia; the National Archives of Australia; the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia.
What can be funded by a Community Heritage Grant?
The annual round offers cash grants of up to $20,000. The first two stages support organisations to work with heritage practitioners to:
- Explain the meaning and value of their collections (a significance assessment)
- Outline the condition of their collections and create a plan to manage it (a preservation needs assessment)
In the third and final stage, organisations can apply for funding to:
- Undertake conservation and collection management activities as recommended in the preservation needs assessment
Funding is also available for:
- Collection management training projects
Further details about eligible projects are available in the CHG Guidelines (PDF, 359kb).
All allocations of grants are based on the recommendations of assessors and availability of funds. No applicant can be guaranteed funding nor can any applicant be guaranteed funding to the full amount requested. Funding varies from year to year and it is not possible to fund all worthwhile projects.
Key Dates
- Applications for new applicants will close on Monday 8 May 2023
- Applications for those who have recently completed a Community Heritage Grant project and are applying for the next stage will close on Thursday 1 June 2023
- Applications for training projects will close on Thursday 1 June 2023
