The 2024/2025 financial year was one for the books with over $15million being facilitated through the ACF – the highest amount of donations that we have ever processed.
In addition the the value of the donations, we tracked the most campaigns run in a year and the most donors we have ever seen interacting with the platform. Let’s have a look at the numbers:
Donations
The 2024/2025 financial year was marked by generosity, with donors contributing over $15million through the ACF to artists and organisations. During a year of national financial pressures, it was gratifying to see 20,000 donors supporting our sector – we hope to see this number grow as more and more people become advocates for arts philanthropy.
Looking at donations on an individual level, it came as no surprise that $50 remained the most common donation amount. It’s important to keep this in mind as it can help with setting a realistic target (e.g. multiply the number of people in your network by $50 to get a starting target) or it can be something to focus on in donor communications “By giving just $50 you can cover the cost of publishing 5 zines.”
Completed Projects
Over 1000 fundraising projects were completed in the financial year – what a fantastic result! Perhaps one of the most special things about the ACF is that each of these projects has been individual, impactful and inspiring, painting a broad and bold picture of our sector.
Breaking these projects down a little further, we saw majority of projects raising under $2k with the $2k-$5k bracket coming in second. With the ability to define an achievable target being an incredibly important element of a successful fundraising projects, these figures are great benchmarks if you are looking to fundraise and are unsure of what your target should be. For more guidance on setting a target, check out our great resource here.
When looking to the specific categories of projects that were completed, ‘Performing Arts’ took home the crown for being the most common category for the third year in a row. ‘Music’ came in a close second with ‘Film’ completing the podium.
*When looking at the graph below, please note that projects are able to select more than one category
ACF Boost
ACF Boost returned in the 2024/2025 financial year. ACF Boost is a matched funding program for independent artists and small arts organisations using the ACF. Participants in the program leverage private sector support raised through their ACF campaign with a small, matched funding ‘boost’ from Creative Australia.
The 2025 ACF Boost program provided 32 opportunities for artists and small groups to participate, which was a high 41% success rate on total applications. After completing their campaigns fundraising from February to April, the cohort raised a combined total of $277,229 in donations, with $147,475 of this being matched by the ACF. Impressively, 84% of ACF Boost participants reached their fundraising target; many of whom were new to the platform and fundraising.
The show goes on!
It was another exciting year for the arts sector, and we are so grateful to have played our part in this. The ACF Team can’t wait to see what projects will grace our desk this year and we look forward to continue offering support to artists and organisations using the platform.
If you’re interested in fundraising for your project, get started by creating a profile and check out our handy ‘First Timer’s Kit.‘