Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) 2024-25 Funding Now Open

The Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) supports Crown land managers (CLMs) by providing funding for repairs, maintenance and improvements on Crown reserves. The funding aims to benefit the community, boost our economy and contribute to the cultural, sporting and recreational life of NSW.

The CRIF is a self-sustaining program that is supported by income generated from interest income on loans, leases and licences on Crown land, and levies from the operation of coastal Crown caravan parks.

The 2024-25 funding round will offer around $10 million in grants to the highest priority projects. Priority is given to those applications that best address the assessment criteria and meet all eligibility criteria as detailed in the guidelines link below. Note that there will be no loans offered in this year’s funding round. The minimum grant amount is $100,000 (inc GST) and maximum amount is $1,000,000 (inc GST).

Though the 2024-25 annual funding round is for general, pest and weed projects, please note that this year’s general project grant round is targeting highly utilised reserves with projects that will have a significant community impact.

As many reserves will not be able to prepare a competitive general grant application for this funding round, further CRIF funds have been reserved and will be made available as strategic emergency grants to address urgent issues. Further information on strategic emergency grants will be published on this webpage when they are finalised.

The funding round will be open to all project types as follows:

General projects – showgrounds (on Crown land), caravan parks, state parks, local parks and other Crown reserves – please note freehold showgrounds and Commons are not eligible this year.
Pest projects – works on Crown reserves only.
Weed projects – works on Crown reserves only.

Be sure to throughly read the CRIF Guidelines and Frequently Ask Questions BEFORE commencing an application.

Details on who is eligible to apply, who is authorised to submit an applications, requirements for supply of quotes, and lots more important information are contained within these documents.

Pay particular attention to the Assessable Criteria and the weighting allocated to each criteria!
The main criteria include Community Impact, Reserve Utilisation, plus Deliverability and Affordability.