Community Heritage Grants 2026

What are the Community Heritage Grants?

The Community Heritage Grants (CHG) program supports community-based organisations to identify and care for Australian, moveable cultural heritage collections which are publicly accessible, locally held and nationally significant.

How can we help

The CHG supports small, local groups with limited funding and staffing resources, who would benefit from access to professional cultural heritage expertise. Grants of up to $20,000 are available to help organisations undertake a three-stage journey to assess their collection, identify collection care recommendations and implement practical improvements.

Non-profit, incorporated organisations and some government agencies – including historical societies, archives, regional museums, public libraries, community groups, multicultural and First Nations organisations – are encouraged to apply. For more details visit the CHG website.

Activities we support

In the first two stages, groups work with experienced heritage practitioners to produce two reports:

• Significance Assessment: explains the meanings and value of their collections.
• Preservation Needs Assessment: outlines the condition of their collections and provides a conservation and collection management plan.

In the third stage, funding is available for:

• Conservation and collection management activities, as recommended in the Preservation Needs Assessment, including conservation treatment, purchase of collection housing and storage materials, environmental control and monitoring equipment or digitisation.

CHG also offers grants for collection management training projects or collection management system software.

Applications and guidelines

Interested groups should read the CHG 2026 Round Guidelines and other information on the CHG homepage.

The Trove Partner Learning Hub also provides a range of resources, including advice for New Applicants and Repeat Recipients. Follow the link from the CHG homepage, select the ‘Login as a Guest’ option at the bottom left corner and click on Community Heritage Grants 2026.

Applicants should contact the CHG Program to discuss their project prior to receiving a link to the appropriate SmartyGrants form. More information on how to apply is in the Guidelines.

Community Heritage Grants inbox: chg@nla.gov.au