Through the Australian Cultural Fund (ACF), artists upload a project, start their fundraising campaign, and invite art lovers and supporters to donate. In this post we pull back the curtain to walk you through this donation process so you can support the art you love (and get a tax deduction in return!).
Step 1. Accessing the project you want to support
At any one time there could be up to 10000 projects running on the ACF platform. To ensure that your donation goes to the project you want to support, each project has its own special URL. This URL is often given out by the artists themselves or you can access the project directly via the ACF ‘Search and Donate’ page and clicking ‘View this project’ on the desired tile:
Step 2. ‘Donate Now’
On the project page you’ll find information about what the project is and how the project is going to be realised with your generous donation. Once you have read through this, you can start the donation process by clicking ‘Donate Now’:
Step 3. Filling out the donation form
The donation form is intuitive and straightforward to follow so we we’ll avoid the tedium of walking you through button by button, however there are a couple of things worth pointing out.
Donating an amount that isn’t listed
Under the ‘Donation Amount’ there are 4 standard values to choose from: $20, $50, $100 and $200. If you are looking to donate anything outside of these figures you can simply type the amount into the text field underneath the buttons:
*note – the text field does not recognise symbols so if you are looking to donate $500, for example, simply type in 500
You will also have to choose how often you would like to donate. You can choose a ‘once off’ donation or you can set up recurring donations to give $20 a fortnight, for example.
Adding a comment
One of the options on the donation form is to add a comment. If you choose this, your comment will be public under the ‘Supporters’ tab so if you have something you would like to tell the artist in private, it would be best to contact them directly regarding this:
Donating via bank transfer
A popular donation method on the ACF is donating via a direct bank transfer. To do this you can simply select ‘Direct Transfer (EFT)’ under the ‘Payment Details’ section. Don’t be alarmed when our bank details don’t pop up straight away, they will be displayed once you agree to the terms and conditions and select ‘Donate Now.’
Once you have completed this step, you will be directed to the following screen. When transferring your pledged amount remember to use the reference number beginning with ‘TRANS-‘ as your reference to ensure that we can match your donation to the project with no added hurdles.
*note – donations via bank transfer can take a couple of extra days to be added to the project total as this only occurs once the funds reach our account and have been matched to your donation
Step 4. Receiving your receipt
Once your donation has been processed (instantaneous for credit card and PayPal), you will be emailed a tax receipt from our parent company, Creative Australia. Donations of $2 or more are tax-deductible so it’s a win-win scenario for you and the artist!
Step 5. End Scene
That’s it! You’ve successfully donated to a project and have played a pivotal role in supporting and promoting Australia’s arts scene.
100% for artists, 100% to artists
On 1 December 2021, the service fee on donations to the Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) was removed which means that 100% of your donation goes directly to the artist to #makeculturehappen!
