Arts Organisations and Groups Fund 2025 - up to $50,000

Key themes and round observations

A wide range of practitioners across various career stages and artforms were supported, with the artforms most represented being Literature and Music, followed by Visual arts and Multidisciplinary arts.

Here we provide key themes and observations of the results for the Arts Organisations and Group Fund. This fund focused on supporting organisations and groups to deliver a programme of work for up to two years.

Panels observed a high quality of applications overall and, to work within our budget constraints, endeavoured to take an ecosystem approach, trying to achieve a good mix of regional spread, “age and stage” of organisations, community and artistic benefits, types of programmes, and balancing stability of funding with creating new opportunities, alongside the published assessment criteria.

Strong applications to the Arts Organisations and Groups Fund tended to have the following characteristics:

Community and creative impact

• Strong artistic and/or community benefits, well-described and evidence-based
• Transformational opportunities for their communities
• Ripple, long-term or generational effects
• Pathways for growth (creative, career or both) for artists
• Opportunities to develop their artform or innovate
• Support for the health of underserved genres
• Authentic accessibility and inclusivity initiatives
• Service delivery to underserved communities
• Employment opportunities for artists
• Clear identification of community needs
• Diverse voices and perspectives embedded throughout
• Either very broad impact, or very specific focus

Organisational qualities

• Clear articulation of who they are, what they do, why they do it, and how they do it
• Clearly evidenced benefits, impacts and value
• Evidence of community support (through sponsorship, letters of support, positive feedback, etc)
• Strong, year-round programme, focused on meeting audience or beneficiary needs
• Diverse revenue streams
• Authentic relationships, representation and engagement with communities, especially when mana whenua were involved
• Demonstrated forward thinking
• Resilience and adaptability
• Consideration of environmental impact
• Innovative in creative practice or business model
• History of exceptional delivery and impact
• Pathway of continued growth

Value generation

• Collaboration / partnership / smart use of resources
• Evidence of audience demand and/or presenter/partner interest
• Realism / viability - not too much, not too little
• Criticality to sector / uniqueness of services / a key part of the creation/distribution chain
• Provided a vital platform for artists and audiences
• Return on investment / value for money
• Potential to attract other investors, multiply investment, or both