2026 Children’s Week Grants Program

Your organisation can apply for a grant if:

• the organisation is a Local Government Council or an eligible not-for-profit (NFP) organisation (see Eligible Not For Profit organisations section below)
• the organisation is covered by applicable insurance/s including Public Liability.

Organisations can only apply for one grant. If you are a large organisation, please consider if any other teams within your organisation are also applying for a grant – for example, a Local Government Council that operates multiple libraries can only have one of their libraries apply for a grant.

Local Government Councils are eligible for a grant of up to $700, all other organisations are eligible for a grant of up to $1000.

Eligible Not for Profit organisations

NFP organisations provide services to the community and do not operate to make a profit for its members (or shareholders, if applicable). A few examples are art centres, neighbourhood associations and sports clubs. Read more about NFPs.

To assess your NFP status, we will check the following against the Australian Business Register:

• type of organisation registered
• deductible Gift Recipient status or entity type
• incorporated or auspiced by another incorporated organisation (a letter of support will be required by the auspicing organisation).

Other indicators of your organisation's NFP status or particular community purposes are your organisation's:

• constitution or governing rules
• trust deed (if it is a trust)
• registration or association with other regulatory bodies that require not-for-profit status and/or the particular community purpose for registration.

For more information please visit Australian Taxation Office.

For more information on what an incorporated association is, please visit Consumer Affairs Victoria.

For-profit and some NFP organisations are not eligible to apply for a grant. The exception to this is if they work in partnership with an eligible organisation and the eligible organisation submits the grant application.

The following organisation types are not eligible to apply independently for a grant, regardless if they are an NFP:

• kindergartens including kindergarten parent advisory groups and approved providers
• long day care services including approved providers
• occasional care services and approved providers
• outside school hours care services and approved providers
• family day cares and approved providers
• playgroups**
• schools
• individuals / sole traders.

**Community or Neighbourhood Houses that deliver a playgroup as part of a suite of community services are eligible to apply if attendance to their Children’s Week event includes families and children from across their local community. The Community or Neighbourhood House must apply for the grant, not the playgroup.

Application commitments

By submitting an application, applicants accept and agree to the following:

• the grant will only be used for costs associated with the event/activity such as:
  • guest speakers, entertainment, performance or other artists
  • learning or craft materials
  • children’s prizes and certificates of participation or achievement
  • additional administrative costs incurred such as travel or phone
  • other relevant costs.
• launching the event/activity and/or the event/activity occurring within Children’s Week (24 October – 1 November)
• offering the event/activity free of charge to Victorian children (0-12 years)
• the event/activity must be available to the public (events/activities may implement a registration or ticketed system to manage the event capacity)
• the event/activity demonstrating an educational outcome or benefit
• the event/activity exploring the 2026 Children’s Week theme
• not promoting commercial interests through the event/activity
• promoting the event/activity through a range of media channels to encourage participation and generate community awareness of Children’s Week
• having their event/activity promoted on the Department of Education’s Children’s Week webpage and through the Department’s communication channels with Victorian early childhood and school sectors
• including the official Children’s Week and State Government logos and tagline “This Children’s Week event is presented by (organisation name) in partnership with the Department of Education” on all promotional materials.

In the application form, your organisation will be required to provide the following details:

• two key contact people for the application, including name, position, organisation, mobile phone number and email address
• event/activity title, description, location, date and time
• grant amount requested
• how your organisation will spend the grant funding
• age group event/activity is most suited to.

The application will also require responses to two assessment criteria (minimum 250 word count):

An initial eligibility check will occur against the eligibility criteria and the application commitments. The applications will then be assessed on the responses to the two assessment criteria above.

As this is a competitive grants process, there is no guarantee that every organisation that meets the eligibility criteria will be funded.

If the program is oversubscribed, priority will be given to events/activities located in:

• Socioeconomically disadvantaged areas as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Socio-Economic Indexes of Areas (SEIFA)
• Regional or rural areas

Grants will be awarded to ensure there is a good distribution of applicants from Local Government Councils and eligible NFP organisations.

If a grant has been approved, the lead organisation will be notified by email and issued a Common Funding Agreement to complete and return.

Local Government Councils are eligible for grants of up to $700, all other organisations are eligible for grants of up to $1000.

Once the Common Funding Agreement is finalised, the Department of Education will request an invoice from the organisation to process payment.

All suppliers of corporate goods and services to the department are required to provide information including bank details, ABN, trading name, GST registration and company contact to eftsure for independent verification prior to invoices being processed. An invitation will be emailed to complete this process for your organisation once an invoice has been received.

Further information regarding Supplier onboarding and data management with the department can be found on the Supplier onboarding and data management page.

Organisations that receive a Children’s Week grant are required to provide online feedback post-event and, if applicable, an acquittal declaration by 4 December 2026.

Organisations are encouraged to use the full value of their grant on their activity, as you may be requested to return unused funds to the Department of Education by 30 December 2026.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

To apply for a grant, please complete the online application form via the 2026 Children's Week Application

Organisations will be notified of the outcome of their grant application in September 2025. Approved applications will be registered with the official Children’s Week calendar of activities.

Every organisation needs to ensure that they are compliant with any relevant laws in delivering their activity, including relevant privacy laws and Child Safe Standards.

For example, if you are planning to run an online event/activity, you need to consider how the privacy of children attending is protected, such as:

• In the case of online performances that are not interactive, is only the performer’s camera on?
• If the event/activity is interactive and involves attendees having their device’s camera on, is a parent/carer in attendance alongside their child?
• If attendees are invited to have their device’s camera on, and you intend to record, do you have appropriate written consent from the parent/carer of every attending child?
• If your event/activity involves receiving and subsequently displaying children’s work online (artwork / stories / photographs etc), has personal or identifying information been removed (such as names, location, faces)?

For more information, please visit Online Safety.

View our privacy policy.

More information

For more information, please email childrens.week@education.vic.gov.au.