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Auspicing

Ballarat Arts Alive has successfully auspiced a number of art projects in Ballarat. If you’re interested in BAA auspicing your project, please read the guidelines below and get in touch.

BAA Auspicing Policy and Procedure 

  1. Purpose

To enable BAA to provide auspicing services to members who do not have the infrastructure to apply for funds. BAA as an incorporated organisation can act as an auspicing body to administer, receive and distribute funding on behalf of an individual/organisation.

  1. Scope

This policy applies to all Committee members and to all actions involving the Committee of Management (CoM) members of Ballarat  Arts Alive (BAA).

  1. Responsibility

Responsibility for compliance with this policy rests with each and every member of the COM and its sub-committees.

  1. Effective Date

1st July 2013 – present

  1. Definitions
  • To auspice means to provide infrastructure support for members who wish to apply for arts project funding to bodies that require an incorporated organisation to handle grant monies.
  • An auspicing body is an organisation that administers and receives funding on the behalf of the artist or group who requires the funds.
  • An incorporated association is one registered with Consumer Affairs that complies with state and territory legislation

So, what does ‘Auspicing Grants’ mean in simple language?

WHY you might you need your grant to be Auspiced?

To receive funding there needs to be certain things in place in order for you to be able to receive the money, and to ensure that the money will be spent in the way it was promised. If you don’t have an ABN, or you are under 18, your grant will need to be auspiced.

An auspice arrangement is when a larger organisation (Ballarat Arts Alive) assists a smaller organisation (you as an individual or your group) to fund an activity, project, performance, exhibition, event or presentation via a grant from an external funding body.

The larger organisation is known as the Auspice Organisation (BAA). You, or your community group or organisation is known as the Grant Recipient.

When you are in the process of applying for a grant from a funding body, BAA can write you a support letter to help secure your grant.

Once the grant from your funding body is approved, BAA invoices the funding body and the cash is transferred to BAA.

Then, our Treasurer Tim Gay (a Certified Practicing Accountant with over 30 years’ experience in the creative sector) manages your grant money for you, paying it out to you as a lump sum – for you to manage the project, payments and acquittal

OR

paying it out to the project’s suppliers and contractors, if you prefer us to manage the payments and acquittal. Of course, all this is in accordance with the grant terms agreed with the funding body.

Acquitting the grant means:

  1. Accurately reporting on the funded activities,
  2. Detailing all expenditure (to show that all grant funds have been expended)
  3. Providing detailed descriptions of how the funding has been used for the intended purpose, in accordance with the terms of the funding agreement.

In a nutshell, Tim provides you with the financial info for the acquittal (if he has the invoices) and you (the artist) produce all the written stuff to send to your funding body, when you acquit the grant.

This auspicing support saves you time, headaches and confusion about what to do and how to do it, freeing you up to get on with your work.

BAA retains a very reasonable fee of 5% of your total grant money per auspice (so please remember to include this in your budget).

As the auspicing body we have both Public Liability and Voluntary Workers Insurances which you, as a member of BAA, have access to for your project.

Funding bodies like Regional Arts Victoria for instance, require you to engage an Auspicing body to manage your grant if you are:

  1. Under 18 when you apply
  2. Do not have an ABN (Australian Business Number)
  1. Detail

THE ROLE OF BAA will be to:

  • Provide official approval to artist/s to be auspiced for their specific project as presented
  • Provide assistance with the financial aspects of project: (may include payments, invoicing, and advice on budgetary matters for the artists relating to the approved project)
  • Provide timeline reminders for artist to complete final project acquittals for the funds secured

THE ROLE OF ARTIST will be to:

  • Be a financial member of Ballarat Arts Alive
  • Present the project to Committee of Management for approval for auspicing, allowing a reasonable amount of time for consideration, review and administration before the funding deadline. Usually the artist will allow at least 2 weeks for a decision on an application.
  • Report regularly to BAA CoM on progress of the project including presentation dates and other deadlines
  • Provide all receipts and invoices to treasurer in a timely manner, and assist in acquittal process.
  1. Procedure
  • The Artist will attend an initial CoM meeting to present their project and request for auspicing.
  • BAA CoM will assess the quality of the project, level of funding required, and experience of the artist in relation to the proposed project. The CoM may ask the artist for further information or a resubmission of the proposal if appropriate, including but not restricted to a more detailed budget, resubmission of project description
  • BAA CoM will vote to approve or disapprove. There may be conditions attached to approval for some projects.
  • The Secretary will notify artist of the outcome of the decision.
  • An agreement will be signed by both sides outlining the auspicing arrangement
  • The Treasurer and an additional member of CoM will be responsible for liaising with the artist and meeting relevant deadlines and administrative requirements.
  • The artist will be responsible for delivery of the grant to the funding body.
  • BAA will charge a 5% fee on successful applications in order to cover administration costs. Administration will be undertaken by the Committee of Management. Where audited accounts are required by the funding body an extra fee will need to be paid to cover accountant costs.

Once approved Auspicing Procedure to be written from this document and will need to include:

  • Agreement template
  • Checklist for auspicing criteria
  • To clarify work required by the treasurer on small and large projects to ensure workload is appropriate
  • Timeline for review of policy including auspicing fee.

Contact us by email info@ballaratartsalive.org