Step One: Take the Eligibility Quiz & Receive Your Grantseeker Credentials
Days or weeks before beginning your letter of inquiry, both artists and organizational collaborators must first complete their eligibility quizzes at the grantseeker portal. The link to both quizzes is here.
If you are eligible to apply, you will receive your username and password via email from [email protected] within one or two business days. If you complete the quiz after hours or on weekends it may take longer to receive your login information. Thanks for your patience.
Be sure to check your spam and junk filters for this email and add the address to your address book to ensure delivery of future notifications.
Step Two: Review the Guidelines and the Letter of Inquiry Questions
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 letter of inquiry 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 letter.
Step Three: Log in to complete a Letter of Inquiry
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Log in to the grantseeker portal and select “Requests in Progress.”
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Select your new request from the list and click “Edit.”
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Confirm identifying information about the collaborating lead artist and nonprofit partners.
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Upload a two-page maximum, PDF-formatted resume or vita for your lead artist.
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Write a brief narrative per the guidelines below. You can cut and paste from any document (though pasting as plain text works best).
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Provide a summary project budget in the form provided.
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You may save your work in the grantseeker portal and return to it.
What to include in a Letter of Inquiry
Because you’ve already written a brief description and summarized the project in the online form, the letter of inquiry narrative is brief. Think two to three pages of 12-point type on a page with 1” margin all around. Include
- A description of how the artist’s work relates to this project and some information about the range and quality of the artist’s work.
- A description of the collaborating organization
- The rationale for the collaboration between the artist and organization, and a brief explanation of why the project is appropriate now. Touch on how artist and organization will collaborate.
- Brief information about how the work will reach audiences
You will cut and past this narrative into the online form. Pasting as plain text is best.
A summary budget (submitted via our online form) that includes
- Major sources of income (pending and committed)
- Major categories of expenses
The budget must demonstrate that project partners are planning to spend two-thirds of the funds on artists’ fees and artists’ direct expenses. Use the notes area to provide any clarifying information.
What to leave out of a Letter of Inquiry
Please do not upload imagery, manuscripts, audio / video files, or other documentation.
Please do not embed imagery or Web links into the body of your narrative.
Step Four: Submit
Check the approval boxes when all collaborators (artist, organization, and fiscal sponsor, if used) agree to submit the letter, then click Submit.
Letters of inquiry are due by 11:59:59pm Pacific on Monday, May 8, 2023.
You can be confident your submission has been received upon receipt of a confirmation email.
Save this email for your records.No email? Check spam and junk folders, and your blocked and safe sender lists. Call 415-402-2793 for assistance.
Please Note
The grantseeker portal for Creative Work Fund letters of inquiry is hosted by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
Mind That Server
We strongly encourage applicants using our online system to submit earlier than the deadline to avoid submission delays or failures due to increased system activity.