FAQs

If you would like us to auspice your funding application, please contact us to organise a meeting with one of our Client Managers to discuss your project. We require a minimum of 10 business days to assess your budget but it is generally a good idea to get in touch with us as early as possible. Once we have approved your budget, we will provide a Letter of Auspice and any other documentation required for your application.

If you have already secured funding, you will need to get in touch with us at least 15 business days prior to the project start date. Please be aware that it may not be possible for us to take on a retrospective application, however we will be in touch to advise if we are unable to assist.

Auspicious Arts Projects has an open door policy regarding arts and cultural projects – our only criteria for agreeing to auspice your project is that we must approve your budget. If we consider a budget to be too risky, we will work with you to mitigate that risk and build a budget that meets our criteria. If your budget is large or complex, it is critical you get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Some grants, such as local council funding, may require you to be auspiced. This information can usually be found on the council’s website or in the funding guidelines. We recommend reading the guidelines thoroughly and speaking to the Grant Officers before you decide to apply for the grant. You do not require an auspice for Creative Victoria or Australia Council funding, however, you may still choose to be auspiced to take advantage of our services and experience managing arts projects.

No, Auspicious does not write funding applications, but we can provide resources and tips for writing strong applications. We can also assist you to prepare the budget for your application – please contact us to arrange a time to meet with one of our Client Managers.

Auspicious also hosts workshops focusing on budget preparation and grant writing. To be notified of our upcoming workshops please sign up to our e news .

No, Auspicious does not provide funding for projects.

Yes, Auspicious can accept donations for your project, however, we do not have deductible gift recipient (DGR) status so we are unable to provide a tax deductible receipt for the donation. If a tax deductible receipt is important for your donor, we recommend using the Australian Cultural Fund donations platform. If we are auspicing your project, you can organise for ACF to transfer the donation to us to manage on your behalf.

Yes, Auspicious can manage a range of income streams including box office, crowdfunding, sponsorship and donations. Please note that all income streams, except for donations, will be subject to GST so you will need to account for this in your budget. Please Contact Us to discuss this in more detail.

No. Once we sign the funding agreement, we become legally responsible for ensuring that the project is delivered and the funds acquitted in accordance with the approved budget. Therefore, we will manage all payments at your direction and in accordance with your budget. If the project spend starts to deviate substantially from the budget, we will contact you to discuss the changes and can assist you to apply for a project variation from the funding body if required.

If you have already signed a funding agreement and received the grant, it may not be possible for us to auspice you. Please contact us to discuss.

However, if you have not yet signed the agreement/received the funds, some funding bodies will allow you to be auspiced. Please get in touch with the funding body directly to discuss your options.

No, Auspicious only provides Public Liability Insurance for auspiced projects and this is included in our auspice fee. If your project is not auspiced, you cannot be covered by our PLI.

However, you can take out your own policy through the provider of your choice. We recommend getting several quotes as prices can vary considerably. Here are some providers we recommend for arts projects:

Duck for Cover
DanceSurance
AON

While you can choose to use our services for a particular income stream, such as a grant that requires you to be auspiced, rather than the whole project, we do not recommend this for several reasons. Firstly, in order to provide Public Liability Insurance, we need to manage the whole project budget, so if you are managing part or the majority of the income streams, you will need to take out your own insurance. Secondly, in our experience, splitting the project in this way can make it difficult to manage the costs, especially artist payments, and affects our ability to provide workers insurance for your personnel. However, if there is a clear reason for managing your project in this way, please contact us to discuss.

At the start of your project we will send you our Induction Kit which includes a spreadsheet for capturing personnel information, such as names, contact information and project details. At least two weeks prior to the work commencing, send us your completed spreadsheet, taking care to complete all the relevant sections and ensuring that artist roles and fees match the approved budget.

We will use the information provided to draft agreements for all project personnel and send these to you for review. When you are happy with them, we will send them out to the personnel and ensure that they are accepted and returned to us, along with any required documents, such as payroll information.

Please note that we will not provide retrospective agreements (i.e. for work that has already taken place) so ensure that you contact us with a minimum of two weeks notice to arrange the agreements.

Superannuation is money that is put aside and paid into a nominated super fund for a person to access when they retire. You will need to make a superannuation contribution for an employee regardless of how much they are paid. You are also required to pay super for many contractors, even if they quote an Australian Business Number (ABN). For more information about super obligations, please see our resources page. Auspicious also has a video on superannuation which details what super is, how it's incoropated in the budget, and how we can pay this on your behalf.

When you work with Auspicious, we will advise whether super is required for your project personnel and include this in your budget at the required rate – 11% from July 1st, 2023. We include this calculation in all our budget templates and will manage all superannuation contributions on your behalf.

Of course! Please see our Access page or contact us to let us know your requirements.