The National Endowment for the Arts (or “NEA”, for short) is the Federal funding agency for arts and culture organizations in the United States. They have several grant opportunities each year and most arts nonprofits usually want a piece of that pie. Of course, whether or not you actually get a piece depends on…
All grant proposals are different. Some have strict requirements and lengthy lists of questions. Others ask very few questions and don’t require much in the way of hard metrics. But regardless of what type of proposals you may be working on at this moment in time, there is one thing I can say with certainty:…
Last year many arts and culture nonprofits struggling to cope with closures and restrictions in the wake of COVID-19 were able to take advantage of multiple relief grants and funding, chief among them funds made available through the CARE Act and forgivable loans that were part of the Paycheck Protection Program (known as ‘PPP’). …
Looking for the biggest key trends in grant writing for 2021? Look no further. It’s almost the New Year (thank goodness and good riddance to the dumpster fire that is 2020) and that means a whole new year of grants! I think there are many things on the horizon this coming year, both personally…
This week I’m doing something a little different. A “Throwback Tuesday” post to one of my most popular grant writing guides. Yeah, yeah, I know “Throwback Tuesday” isn’t a thing, but this week Thursday is also Thanksgiving. That’s a cruddy day to release a blog post so I’m switching things up a bit and doing…
Lately, I’ve engaged in multiple conversations with fellow grant professionals and colleagues in the nonprofit space about the issues and challenges facing our country right now. From #MeToo to BLM to COVID-19 to the 2020 election, many things are changing and evolving in our world. And of course, that means changes to the nonprofit sector,…
It looks like COVID-19 may be here for a while, which will likely force arts and culture nonprofits to continue finding new ways to reach their audiences and patrons. Since this means that in-person gatherings and programs will be curtailed for the foreseeable future, virtual and online offerings will be king. Of course, that…
This past March, COVID-19 shut down much of the country and arts and culture organizations with it since you can’t really fill concert halls, theaters, museums, and classrooms without putting your patrons (and staff) at risk. But now it’s August, and rather than seeing the improvement and steady re-opening that many of us originally…
During the Coronavirus quarantine, I’ve lost track of how many Skype calls and Zoom webinars I’ve participated in, but let’s just say it’s a lot. Some have been client calls. Some have been calls with colleagues. And some have been webinars from grantmakers and other grant pros. The latter calls have actually been the…
Candid’s Foundation Directory Online (often called ‘FDO’, for short) is one of the many available options for conducting online grants research and creating a grant strategy. However, in order to use it you must have a subscription and that, of course, costs money. So I often hear from many of my readers and subscribers…