Community Grants Program Launch
Published on 29 October 2021
Council is excited to launch its new Community Grants Program that provides funding to support the community and deliver strategic outcomes for Council.
The grants program opens on Monday 1st November 2021 for applications for funding in the 2022-23 financial year.
The new grants program enables Council to support a diverse range of activities, services, programs and events that are responsive to the community’s needs. The program aims to activate the community by promoting new and creative experiences and opportunities, and allows Council to partner with third parties to fund and enable the delivery of events to the Burnie community.
Burnie City Council Mayor Steve Kons said “The Burnie City Council recently changed its events model to enable us to partner and fund organisations and groups to deliver events for the City. The new Community Grants Program launched today will provide opportunities for events to be delivered in this way for the 2022-23 year.
This will be an annual program and will replace the way Council has traditionally funded community groups. It will ensure a more transparent process and ensure that the funding Council provides, will deliver value across our full and diverse demographic of Burnie. I encourage all community groups and organisations to get on board and submit their application.”
Funding for the new Community Grants Program will be provided in 4 grant streams:
Achievement Grants - to assist individuals or groups selected to represent Tasmania or Australia.
Community Grants - to assist community, arts and cultural organisations in delivering programs, services or events to the Burnie community.
Environmental Grants - to assist community groups to undertake work or projects that deliver an environmental benefit in the Burnie area.
Maintenance and Improvement Grants - to contribute to the maintenance or improvement of existing facilities being undertaken by a local community, cultural or sporting organisations or groups.
Annual and multi-year funding will be made available to support the community under each grant stream with the exception of the Achievement Grants which are open all year round.
The Community Grants Program will be powered by SmartyGrants, a user friendly grants management website that will allow Council to receive and manage applications.
Pop-up community forums will be held to assist the community to understand the new grants program and the use of the new SmartyGrants website.
These will be held at the Burnie Arts & Function Centre on: Tuesday 16 November at 6pm, Wednesday 17 November at 1pm and Monday 6 December at 6pm.
From time to time during the remainder of 2021-22 there will be a need to seek partnerships to enable some events to continue this financial year, such as Council’s recent partnership with 7BU/SeaFM to run this year’s Christmas Parade. Expressions of Interest will be made public as further opportunities arise.
Application for Community, Environmental and Maintenance and Improvement Grants close on 14 January 2022 for funding in the upcoming 2022-23 financial year.
Guidelines for each grant stream will be available from 9am Monday 1 November on https://burnie.smartygrants.com.au
Mayor Kons said “Community groups who wish to apply for State or Federal Government grants for improvements of a Council asset, or Council land, will need to let Council know about their applications at the earliest opportunity. Funding for these opportunities will need to be carefully considered by Council to ensure that the proposed works aligns with the strategic direction of the Council with respect to our community facilities, and that the Council is able to support any ongoing financial obligations that may arise.”