My indie podcast Inner West Icons wouldn’t exist without my local council.
The council’s callout for local history grants prompted me to get an idea together, plan a series and do a budget – in other words, pitch a podcast in the form of a grant application!
A local council grant could help your podcast by paying your hours and costs, as well as helping with promotion, connections, and credibility.
What’s a council grant?
Local councils could support your podcast financially in the same way it supports most things from the community – through small community grants.
Community grants:
- typically range from $3000 – $10 000.
- are offered once/twice a year
- You apply through written application process. See FAQ for more info.
What does a council grant want in a podcast?
The content of your podcast would need to match up with a division of council, match with the council’s strategies and be recorded locally, ie within the LGA (local government area). Find your LGA here.
Your podcast may need to
- Be about a certain topic that matches topic-based grants eg, environment, history, arts and culture
- Meet your council strategies. You can find these in your Council’s Plan on their website. Depending on the state you live in, it can be called a Community Plan (QLD), Community Strategic Plan (NSW), Strategic Community Plan (WA).
- Have local area content and/or be recorded locally.
The grant application may ask you for:
- budget
- letters of support (from community organisations or groups, residents, experts)
- demonstrated need for the podcast
- podcast goals and how you’ll measure them
- key activities and milestones
- access and inclusion: how you’ll include people with disability
- marketing and promotion
- project partners
- support material including a resume and examples of past work
The pros of trying for Council support for your podcast
💰CASH
Local councils can support your podcast financially in the same way it supports most things from the community – through small community grants.
Community grants:
- typically range from $3000 – $10 000.
- are offered once/twice a year
- You apply through written application process. See FAQ for more info.
Can I get paid properly to work on my podcast with a Council grant? Yes!
Of course, it depends on how much money, time and resources you need.
But yes, if you
- budget the amount of money to make a single episode of your podcast
- match the grant money available to the number of episodes
In the case of documentary podcasts which are time-intensive, you can follow the example of podcasters that successfully applied for a grant to make a single podcast episode. Smart cookies!!
My experience
I successfully applied for $10 000 to make 12 podcast episodes of Inner West Icons. Each episode takes about 6 weeks to make. My costs include paying the host, music, hosting, and an honorarium for most guests. While I am very grateful for the Council funding for covering these costs, my work and the sound engineer’s hours is all ‘in kind’ (aka free).
I’m lucky to have the time and resources to make it for free, and I put that all the in kind labour (number of hours) in the grant form. It’s important for council or any funding body to know how much work and time goes into making a podcast, even if the funding is covering other parts of the production.
Partial grants are a real thing
Get ready to only get some of the money you’ve applied for. For example, you apply for $8000 and you grant is successful, but you’re granted half the amount you applied for. $4000.
This is more common with larger grants, but can happen with small ones too – especially in regional councils with less money to offer overall.
Apply for other grants too
Funders love seeing that you’ve got other sources of funding, and having more funding is another way to get paid properly.
Beyond the Crown, a local history podcast that ‘told stories of the Stanthorpe Apple Harvest Festival as told by former festival queens and now ambassadors’ was funded by Southern Downs Regional Council and the Queensland Government’s Regional Arts Development Fund.
My experience
I successfully applied to be a paid Artist in Residence and make an extra podcast episode from a council grant. It was the same council as my original grant (Inner West Council), but a different division (Living Arts). Over three weekends I did podcast interviews as ‘public talks’ with an audience, and recorded 60 vox pops as part of GreenWay Edge arts festival. I had a stall and the chance to chat to heaps of people about the podcast, and felt very “on the ground” with the community.
✅ CREDIBILITY
A council affirming you and your podcast with a grant gives your credibility in your community. You can leverage this to help with guests, promotion, sponsorship and pitching to media.
“It gave the project legitimacy in a way.
Lou Bromley, Beyond the Crown podcast
Being funded was validation and made it easier to get access to my talent and research materials.”
🤝 CONNECTION
You can connect with and be part of other Council events, staff and networks.
“Having council backing opened up networks of local people that I had no access to previously.”
JOSH L
My experience
I was invited to
- do a History Week workshop on ‘How to make a documentary podcast’, where I met other local podcasters and very happily shared tips.
- be part of a listening event at the Eco Footprints festival, a council event.
🌱 COLLABORATION
Us indie podcasters are usually working in tiny teams or flying solo. A council grant is the chance to collaborate on your podcast too, if you’re wanting that.
You can ask Council staff for advice, contacts, statistics, research, expert knowledge, and even to be guests on your podcast.
My experience
I held ‘listening parties’ where I asked staff to listen to draft episodes and give feedback
I got editorial advice on an episode that I was struggling with, because it had so many histories – Callan Park Rozelle in Sydney, the site of a former mental institution.
Amie Zar, Community History and Heritage Coordinator at Inner West Council, suggested I look at the history of the ‘therapeutic landscape’ of Callan Park. It was a brilliant idea and made for one of the best episodes!
📋 CREATIVE CONTROL
Usually you’ll have full editorial independence and control over your podcast.
⚡ CREATIVITY
You can see a Council grant as a new ‘creative input’, with the possibility to do things differently.
With Inner West Icons,
📣 PROMOTION
Council newsletters and websites get lots of eyeballs, and they run the most visited cultural places in Australia – libraries.
Having a council-funded podcast means you could get the podcast included in Council print and online publications and social posts. Council also might offer you resources like making social media posts or even podcast artwork.
Council may ask for their logo to be on your podcast promotional materials: clarify this before signing the grant agreement.
My experience
Inner West Icons is hosted by me, and podcast players are embedded in the Council website, where it has its own page. Inner West Council also shares episodes on its social media.
📅 DEADLINES
If you’re the kind of person who needs to deadline to finish something, a Council grant will set one for you – to plan and pitch your podcast, and if you’re successful, to launch and finish it.
🪨 CHALLENGES
IP: Do you own what you make?
Accepting a grant will mean signing a contract. Talk with Council and check the contract to see who owns the intellectual property of your podcast.
More reading about IP, copyright and podcasting
- Legal Vision Australia I’m starting a podcast. How do I protect my copyright?
- Belllo Collective 6 Things you need to know about IP in podcasting
- Simplecast: Answers from an actual lawyer: Do I own my podcast?
Need for an auspice body
Many local council grants do not give grants to individuals, or businesses. This means you’ll need to find an incorporated community group or organisation willing to auspice your grant – before you apply. You’ll need to include them in the appliciation.
What is an auspice?
The Grants Hub directory of Australian grants says “In a funding context, an auspice is an organisation who manages grant funding on your behalf. For example, a small community group with limited resources may use a larger Not-for-Profit Organisation as their auspice. The larger NFP will receive and manage the grant funding, with the community group undertaking the actual project work.”
Arts Law Australia has auspicing advice and an auspicing agreement you can buy and Not for Profit Law Australia has a handy guide for auspicing organisations and those delivering auspiced projects.
Educate councils about podcasts
Another possible challenge when applying for a Council grant is educating staff about podcasts.
My experience:
In my grant application, I included statistics on listenership in Australia, the growth in podcasts, how people listen etc as well as the delivery (MP3 file) and a bit about hosting.
Time frame
Grants all have a time frame for a project to be completed in. Not necessarily a challenge but something to keep in mind – especially if you end up needing an extension. Each council will be different on how they work.
Acquittal
An acquittal is a report on how your council grant funds were spent and the outcomes of your project – including activities, photos, . Each grant acquittal is different and your council will usually have an acquittal form to fill out.
If your grant is auspiced, the community organisation will officially submit the acquittal.
👉 Examples of local council funded podcasts
🪄 A wishlist
- That local councils embrace podcasts and support local podcasters to reflect the diversity of their local area
- That media outlets and podcast networks and others offer opportunities for indie podcasters to pitch and collaborate. SBS got the ball rolling…