Geelong council has approved its new guidelines concerning community grants ahead of the official opening of the program this week.
The City of Greater Geelong’s 2025-26 Community Grants program opens on Saturday, July 26, offering $2.85 million in funding for sports clubs, community organisations, schools, individuals and businesses.
The council has reduced community grants funding by $1.63 million, with $1.5m coming out of the Community Infrastructure section of the program.
However, $1m of that will be transferred to the City’s Capital Program budget for sports lighting projects.
Councillor Eddy Kontelj, who introduced the motion, said it was always “exciting and pleasing to launch the grants program”.
“It’s a significant amount of money and funding that will be spread throughout the community,” Cr Kontelj said.
“Certainly, the grants seem to always be oversubscribed, so that’s always a good thing, but also a challenge in managing that.”
Councillors approved a number of changes to the way the grants are administered this year, with lower maximum grant amounts for community infrastructure projects the most obvious change, reduced from $400,000 to $250,000,
Councillor Anthony Aitken said the lowering of infrastructure grant amounts was to “try to spread the limited amount of funds that we have got further”.
“It will mean some projects won’t go ahead now because we have got that threshold, but it does mean we can maximise the amount of money that we do have available for capital projects going forward,” he said.
And while arts project grants funding has been reduced from $120,000 last year to $100,000 this year, some funding categories have been eliminated entirely.
Funding will no longer be granted for First Nations Cultural Heritage, Geelong Heritage or Neighbourhood House projects, for a saving of $382,500 from last year.
An artist who has previously applied for community grants, Councillor Elise Wilkinson stressed the importance of attending the grant workshops provided by the City.
“The grants team are really approachable and can answer questions to clarify information,” Cr Wilkinson said.
“So do put your best foot forward, attend those workshops and ask the questions you need to.”
Visit geelong.link/Grants for more information on the City’s Community Grants program, information sessions and grant writing workshops.
