FAQs

If your organisation falls below the turnover required by the ATO, you can submit unaudited financial records.

Please attach the latest records that your organisation has complete. You can attach either financial or calendar year records, depending on what system your organisation uses. For example, where the application form asks you to attach “Audited accounts for your last full year of operations “ you can attach your audited accounts for financial year 2019/20, financial year 2020/21, or calendar year 2020.

If you do not feel that the records you attach give an accurate picture of your organisation’s real financial position, please use the “Financial commentary (optional)” text field to add further detail. This information will be read together with your attachments. We are aware that, due to COVID-19 disruption or biennial programming, your most recent records may not reflect your real financial position.

We are asking for three financial records for this round of Plus1. We understand that, due to COVID-19, your organisation may not be in as stable a financial position as usual. We ask for these additional documents so that we can have a better picture of your organisation’s financial position and how COVID-19 may have affected this.

Yes. You must run your campaign and raise funds within the fundraising campaign window specified in the program guidelines.

Plus1 will not match funds raised before or after this time.

All Plus1 applications must outline:

• Your organisation
• What stream you are eligible for
• The proposed fundraising campaign strategy and target
• The key messages of support for the fundraising campaign
• Key responsibility areas for fundraising staff
• The groups and networks to be approached during the campaign
• How Plus1 will be used to leverage support from the private sector
• The long term benefits of the Plus1 opportunity on the organisation
• The donor stewardship plan
• The proposed project/activity
• The budget for the proposed project/activity
• Audited accounts (to be provided as an attachment)

You’ll also need to support budget figures for external services or products such as consultancy fees, hardware purchases, software expenses, etc. with quotes from suppliers.

Plus1 aims to help organisations build new relationships and networks, increase their private sector support, and develop their fundraising capacity.

We do this by offering matched funding as an incentive to help you gather the support your organisation needs. It’s a particularly effective leverage tool.

Put simply, if your Plus1 application is successful, you run a fundraising campaign to raise money for a project of your choice; and we match whatever you raise during the campaign, capped at either $25,000 or $50,000 depending on the scale of your organisation. So you effectively double your fundraising dollars!

So far, Plus1 has supported more than 250 organisations around Australia to reach their fundraising targets and realise their projects.

Plus1 is for small-to-medium organisations in Australia’s arts industry. So that we can most effectively support this part of the sector, we’ve chosen to define eligible organisations as those that:

• are a legally constituted entity (with an ABN) and are registered as a not-for-profit organisation (as defined by the Australian Taxation Office)
• have an annual turnover of less than $5 million in the previous financial year
• are based in Australia, and are carrying out the majority of their arts activity or practice within Australia
• are operating with the primary purpose of providing arts and cultural opportunities for Australian artists and audiences

If you’re not sure if your organisation fits into this box, it’s best to give us a call.

Yes. Non-profit arts and cultural organisations are eligible to apply, provided they can raise funds from the private sector and demonstrate that funds will be directed to a dedicated arts entity engaging professional artists (e.g. a council-run gallery or an arts and health centre that employ professional artists).

The fundraising target and the project or activity you take on with the funds you raise is totally up to you. You don’t need to choose a project from the examples listed in the guidelines; if it addresses an identified need in your organisation and presents as an attractive proposition for donors, then it’s good to go.

What’s important is that you show us how Plus1 will help your organisation find new donors, and the strategy you’ve put together to make this happen. In particular, Plus1 is about finding and developing new avenues of support. Reaching out to those who haven’t supported you before should be an important part of your fundraising strategy.

You also need to show us why your project is important, and how the campaign will benefit your organisation in the long term.

Recipients of Plus1 funding in the previous year are not eligible. Schools and tertiary training institutions are also not eligible.

There’s a range of different items and activities we can’t match, either. These are listed in the program guidelines.

Plus1 is not for individual artists or independent arts groups. We have a specific program – MATCH Lab – for individual artists and groups to develop their fundraising skills and experience.

Yes, unless you received Plus funding in the previous round.

If you received Plus1 funding in 2019/20 or earlier and your organisations does not have an existing or outstanding funding agreement or acquittal with us you can apply again.

However, if you’ve received Plus1 funding from us before, you’ll need to tell us in your application how your new fundraising campaign has built off the success of your earlier Plus1 campaign.

We suggest giving our programs team a call if you want to apply for Plus1 a second time.

Yes! We strongly recommend that you give us a call to discuss your application before submitting it. We’re here to help and answer any questions you may have.

No. We will only consider one application from each applicant in each round.

We can’t read over your application, but we can guide you through the process and talk through your ideas.

We’ve developed resources and case studies on our website that help you think holistically about your professional practice and develop knowledge about the various income streams available to artists across government funding, crowdfunding, donations, foundations, sponsorship, and selling products and services. Our expectation is that you have taken the time to read these important resources before applying.

If you’d like to talk to someone, no problem at all – pick up the phone and call our programs staff, or book an appointment with one of our State Managers.

No. You don’t need to upload or attach any support material to your application. Any additional information (letters of support etc.) that is uploaded or attached to the application won’t be included in the assessment.

The most important thing you can do is read all the resources we’ve put together for you. Read the guidelines and application forms thoroughly before you apply, and well before the closing date!

We also encourage you to chat to our programs team before applying. Pick up the phone and call our programs staff, or book an appointment with one of our State Managers.

The budget in the application is for your PROJECT that you are raising the funds for. It should also include your fundraising costs.

In your budget you must also:

• include your private sector fundraising target AND the Plus1/MATCH Lab funding amount you are requesting in your income
• include all income sources for your project/activity. e.g. other government sources (federal/state/local council), ticket income etc.
• include CONFIRMED (C) or NOT CONFIRMED (NC) next to all income sources
• balance your budget for the application to be eligible for assessment (total income = total expenditure)

See below example for how to complete the budget in your application.

Leveraging is just another way of explaining how you will use the dollar-for-dollar matched funding to attract donors and partners and reach your fundraising target. This is not your typical grant or funding opportunity – the harder you work it, the better the result!

No. You only need to upload a budget quote or invoice for large expenses to qualify a large amount of money.