Application

We understand grantseekers need to use many different online portals hosted by many different grantmakers. To help connect the Creative Work Fund’s requirements to your process, download the guidelines in PDF format and this sample application in Microsoft Word format to see what questions you’ll be asked to answer, and what reviewers will be thinking about as they read your application.

• Log in to the grantseeker portal and select “Requests in Progress.”

• Select your new request from the list and click “Edit.”

• Click “Save” as you work. Click “Save and Close” when you’re finished with a work session.

Who is collaborating?

Enter information about the lead artist, organization, and the fiscal sponsor (if used), including

• Organization location and budget size (and the fiscal sponsor, if used)
• Lead Artist name, county of residency and artistic discipline(s)
• Names of additional collaborating artists

We use this information to start understanding the quality and potential of the artists and organization involved. We also check to see if the lead artist and organization are eligible to apply to this program, and whether the organization (or its fiscal sponsor) is qualified by the IRS as an exempt organization.

What do you want to do together?

Enter the project start and end date, a description of the new work, information about where and when it will be presented, and how much money you are requesting from the Creative Work Fund.

We use this information to understand what the project is, its feasibility given the time frame and request amount, and begin to connect how the lead artist and organization seem well-suited to the project. We reflect on this section through the lens of the Creative Work Fund guidelines.

Why this why now?

Provide the reasons for the collaboration between the lead artist and organization, and why the project is appropriate now.

We use your response to go deeper into the project’s goals and motivations. Is the collaboration seeking to reach new audiences? strengthen a community? draw attention to a critical question or need? Are the collaborators dreaming big? forging new paths? innovating? reimagining the current reality in ways that benefit us all? We reflect on this section through the lens of the Creative Work Fund guidelines.

A QUESTION JUST FOR THE LEAD ARTIST:

How does this collaboration connect to your passion in this moment?

We use the lead artist’s response to understand the potential of their presence in this project and the context, insights, expertise, questions, and aspirations they bring to the collaboration. The response provides an additional layer of insight to the Why This Why Now response, highlighting the point of view of the lead artist themself.

A QUESTION JUST FOR THE COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION:

How does this collaboration connect to your organization’s work in this moment?

We use the organization’s response to understand the potential of their presence in this project and the context, insights, expertise, questions, and aspirations they bring to the collaboration. The response provides an additional layer of insight to the Why This Why Now response, highlighting the point of view of the organization itself.

We don’t allow embedded links to personal websites or channels, project sites, or reviews in this section. Instead, we will focus deeply on responses and how they resonate with the intentions of the CWF program.

Create a project budget with

• Sources of income, both pending and committed
  The CWF grant may be part of a larger budget or used to cover all costs.
• Expenses for the project
  A minimum of two-thirds of the CWF request must be spent on the lead artist fee and their direct expenses. The program values artists being paid sustainably.

Upload the project budget using your own format or our template here.

We use budget information to understand the feasibility of the project, where it is in its project phase, and how CWF dollars will be used, checking especially to see if two-thirds of the CWF dollars are allocated to the Lead Artist and their direct expenses.

If the application is forwarded to panel review, we research the financial health of the collaborating organization (or their fiscal sponsor) using publicly available documents from the charity databases at the State of California, the Internal Revenue Service, and Guidestar.

When we research organizational financial health, we use trend information to answer specific questions:

• Is the organization likely to be stable through the end of this project?
  We scan for new or longstanding debt that could negatively affect the flow of funds to the project as the organization does their best to maintain programs and operations.
• Is the artist likely to be supported by their collaborating organization without a stress to systems?
  We look at the capacity of the collaborating organization to track special programs, additional partners, and restricted CWF dollars.

• The lead artist resume, biography, or CV is required. It can be no longer than two pages. Please format as a PDF.
• If other artists are collaborating, optionally add a single PDF document that provides a one-paragraph biography for each artist.

We use this information to learn the history of the lead artist (required) and any collaborating artists (optional). The information provides an additional layer of insight to the Why This Why Now response and the lead artist’s response to How Does This Project Connect to Your Passion in This Moment?

You may provide up to three work samples, including videos up to 5 minutes. Work samples can be provided by using online links (video or audio), or uploading JPGs (images), and PDFs (documents).

• Up to five minutes of audio and video
• Up to ten images
• Up to 15 pages of manuscript

Include information about the work sample in the area provided, including how the sample relates to your request.

We use this information to briefly experience the work of the lead artist, which is especially important since we don’t allow embedded links to personal websites or channels, project sites, or reviews. The information provides an additional layer of insight into quality and potential of the artist involved, and the entire project proposed.

We use this information to learn what is additionally important to artists and organizations, and to think how we can make future editions of this application even more supportive of grantseeker stories and priorities. Responses are truly optional, so there’s no need to respond if nothing comes to mind.

Check the approval boxes when all collaborators (artist, organization, and fiscal sponsor, if used) agree to submit the application, then click Submit.

Applications are due by 6pm Pacific on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.

You can be confident your submission has been received upon receipt of a confirmation email.
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