|
funds. The second part of the article will help you find funds.
This article is by no means intended to be gospel. It is intended to give you food for thought and some ideas for where to find more information. Below are some key principles for developing an idea into something that is attractive to those who hold the purse strings.
Establish your reputation
Funding bodies do their best to assess each application on its merits. They rely on the information provided in the grant application to make their decisions, but they also consider what they know about the people involved in the project. This does not mean that grant assessment panels only give money to people they know. But it does mean that if the people on the panel (or their advisors) know nothing about you or the people involved in your project, they can only go by what is written on paper or included with your application. In contrast, if they are familiar with your work, know it to be of high quality, know that you always deliver what you claim and know that you are well organised, they will be able to include this information in the discussion.
So how do you make sure the people sitting around the table know your name and your work? It’s all about creating a buzz, putting energy into developing your reputation and building a track record.
Step 1: Build a positive track record. This means continuing to build on your achievements. Keep track of what you are doing and make sure you let people know about it. Continue to push the boundaries – for yourself. This doesn’t mean you have to do the most cutting edge, innovative work. It means that you need to continue to challenge yourself, so that you build from a small achievement, such as choreographing a short piece and presenting it to a small audience in a studio setting, to a larger achievement, perhaps developing a longer, more complex piece, working with more dancers, presenting it in a theatre.
Step 2: Build awareness amongst the arts and dance community about your work – you never know who might be on the assessment panel when you apply for a particular arts grant in a few years. Some ways you can do this are to:
- Send out media releases when you have something newsworthy
- Take out paid advertisements when you can afford them
- Build a mailing list and send out regular newsletters or e-news
- Distribute posters, fliers and newsletters as widely as you think is reasonable or you can afford to
offer complimentary tickets to your performances to local people in the arts industry
- Go to arts events and network (always follow up people you meet by sending them a brief follow up email to say you enjoyed meeting them)
Step 3: Find out who’s who – who is currently on the panels of arts grants you may apply for?, who works for those organisations? who do they talk to? (media, other artists). Make sure you include them when you are sending out complimentary ticket invitations, sending Christmas cards or circulating newsletters. A word to the wise though, if you send unsolicited emails or newsletters, always make sure you include information about how to be removed from the mailing list
Step 4: Don’t be disheartened. Placing an ad in the local arts news may not result in increased ticket sales. The people you send complimentary ticket invitations to may not respond. Don’t worry about this. You need to view your efforts as an investment. They may not pay off immediately, but you are slowly building awareness that one day may result in a ticket purchase or attendance at your event.
Step 5: Always present yourself and your work in a professional manner, honour commitments and cultivate positive interpersonal relationships. A bad word about you may have the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve and all your good work may be undone.
Take the next logical step
What is your project idea? How is it a development of the previous work you have done? You are more likely to be successful in your hunt for money if your project is a logical step in your development – neither more of the same, nor a giant leap.
Taking the next logical step is related to track record, except that the importance of pushing your own boundaries is more important. If you have successfully completed three projects that are of the same scope, that will be a positive asset to your track record. But if you are applying for funding for a fourth project, of the same scope as the previous three, you may find that your application is unsuccessful. Similarly, if your projects to date have all been on a small scale, and you decide you want to do a huge project involving lots of people, money and innovation, you better make sure you can demonstrate why this is the next logical step for you (and of course, you better include that information in your grant application).
Find your angle and know your funder
In considering who to approach to finance your project, you need to know what your “angle” is and then determine who may be interested. For example, if you are developing a dance project aimed at engaging sedentary people in dance, you may be better off applying to a sport and recreation agency rather than an arts body. Similarly, if your project has a therapeutic angle, you are better off chasing health and mental health funding than arts funding. Conversely, if your project is purely about the artform, about creating innovative dance works or developing your skills as an artist, then arts funding is probably your best bet.
You may feel that your project has more than one angle. That’s fine. Just make sure you tailor your application or proposal for the organisation you are seeking money from. Some angles that might fit your project include artistic quality, community engagement, health and fitness, social or environmental issues.
Once you know your angle and you have made a shortlist of potential funders, there are at least three more steps – research, research, research. Find out about what the organisation values, who have they funded in the past? what sorts of projects have they funded? what costs do they fund?, who will assess the grant applications? and what are the eligibility and assessment criteria? Most organisations publish all of this information on their websites. If the information you want is not there, give them a call. Even if the information is there, call them anyway to discuss your project. You might glean valuable information about how to make your project more attractive. An added bonus in making that phone call is that you are simultaneously growing your reputation – the person you speak to will now know a bit more about you.
One further note on eligibility – it is unlikely that any funding body will award grants to for-profit businesses. Often grant programs require the applicant to be a not-for-profit organisation or an individual artist. Some grant programs accept applications from a non-incorporated group that has nominated an auspicing organisation (ie an incorporated organisation that will manage the finances).
Allow a good lead time
You’ve been thinking about a project idea for a while, and find out that there is a grant available that might be suitable, but it closes in one week? Is this enough time to get the grant application in? Well, it depends on whether you’ve already done your groundwork. If you haven’t, then you can apply for the grant, but I don’t like your chances.
As I mentioned above, filling out the grant form is only a tiny part of the overall process. If you want to attract grant funding, you need to work on a long lead time. Some grants are offered twice a year, some only once a year. And once the grant closes, it will probably be three to six months before you find out if your grant was successful. Many arts grants close in around March/April and August/September, for projects commencing June/July and December/January. And remember, most grants do not fund retrospectively (ie they don’t fund projects or events that have already happened).
So if you know about a grant and you think you have a good chance of getting it, begin planning early. You need to allow enough time to do your groundwork before the grant closing date, and you need to be prepared to wait some months before you will know if you have the money and can go ahead. There is a good chance that you may need more than one grant to fund your project, and the closing dates of each may be months apart. For this reason, I recommend searching for grants, noting the closing dates, and making sure you get your planning off to an early start. It may even mean you need to start planning your next project while you are in the final stages of your current project. Twelve months is not an unreasonable lead time.
Do your groundwork and gather support
So, what do you need to do in your preparation stages? First and foremost, clarify what you want to achieve, what you want to do, how you plan to do it, and who will be involved (as participants, dancers, collaborators, supporters). Write it down. This will be your project proposal. It will help you clarify your thoughts, give you the bulk of the information to be included in your grant application, and give you a clear, written document that will form the basis of everything you write about the project, including media releases, creative briefs and requests for support.
Your project proposal will be a road map to help you determine who will be your partners, whose support you will need and what resources you will require. In submitting your grant application, you will need to be specific.
Partners and stakeholders
You will need to be able to name your partners and any stakeholders, which may include creative collaborators (such as musicians, lighting, set or costume designers) or strategic partners (such as the local council, venue, local business). It is a good idea to include a letter of support in your application from each partner in which they confirm that they will be involved in the project and provides relevant details (for example, the cost of a creative collaborator’s fees or the support a local council will provide). Of course, the letter of support should show that the person or organisation knows what is involved in the project and is enthusiastic about it. Letters of support can be addressed to the funding body, yourself or “to whom it may concern”. I recommend the latter because it means you can use copies of the original letter for several applications, rather than having to ask for the letter every time you submit a new funding application. Of course, make sure the person who wrote the letter knows what purpose you will use the letter for.
Costs
While it may be impossible to know exactly how much the project will cost, research your anticipated expenditure so you can provide relatively accurate cost estimates and supporting documentation (such as quotations, receipts from previous projects, price lists). Providing evidence that you have researched your costs demonstrates that the project will be managed well, which is an important criteria for most funding bodies.
Balance the budget
Balancing the budget is absolutely imperative. In the first instance, your income and expenditure need to match. Your income includes the grant money you are asking for, any tickets sales or box office, participant fees, your own contribution, and contributions from other sources. Grant bodies will not fund you to make a profit. Equally, you need to show that the project is viable. Grant bodies will not give money to people or organisations that will have insufficient funds to pull it off. It doesn’t mean you have to have all of your money confirmed. For example, you may plan to seek some sponsorship money, or apply for other grants, but either haven’t submitted your application or haven’t heard the outcome.
Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Apart from the obvious problem if you only submit one grant application and it is not successful, many funding bodies like to see that there is broader support for the project. Not simply because they don’t want to fund the entire project, but because it demonstrates wider support. Of course, each funding body may be different, so give them a call and ask about the importance they place on a variety of income sources.
Include inkind contributions in your budget. Inkind contributions are non-financial support. For example, the local council may waive their hall hire fee for you to rehearse, a local carpenter may build your set and only charge for materials, not his or her time, you may have a wine company that provides wine for your opening night party. All of these things need to be shown to demonstrate the true cost of your project. Be careful about how you show inkind support in the income and expenditure columns. I’ve seen many grant applications where people have included inkind support in their income column, but haven’t shown a corresponding figure in the expenditure column. So their budget balances to zero, but it doesn’t really make sense. And don’t forget to include volunteer time. Your calculation of the value of volunteer time should be included somewhere in the application, but not the budget itself, because this over-inflates the real cost of the project. The going rate for volunteer time is $19.95 per hour.
Finally, make sure the figures add up. It can be very easy to have a small mathematical error. I find it easier to prepare my own budget using an Excel spreadsheet so I can be sure my figures add up, and then transcribing those figures onto the grant form. If maths and financial work are just not your forte, ask someone who has that kind of brain to go over it for you.
Talk to the funding body
As I’ve mentioned above, talk to the project officer for the funding body before submitting your grant application to make sure you are on the right track. It is their job to give you the best possible chance to succeed with your application, and they are usually more than happy to spend some time on the phone or in person going through any thorny issues. Sometimes they’ll even look at your first draft to let you know if you are on track.
If you are not successful, give the project officer a call and ask for feedback. It goes without saying that this must be done in a positive and friendly way. Never call and demand an explanation. Simply call and ask if they can tell you why your grant didn’t get up and if there was anything you could have done to improve your chances. And remember to thank them, whether you like what you hear or not.
Finding the money
I hope by now you are well armed with information on how to prepare a killer grant application. The only thing missing is where to find the money? There are grant programs from the major arts funders such as the Australia Council and state government arts funding bodies. But if you look outside the square a little you’ll find there are dozens of other grant programs, offered by local council, philanthropic trusts, corporations and non-arts organisations.
In the next issue of Dance Informa you will find information about some of the major arts funding bodies as well as some other options that may be suitable for dance projects.
Written by Jo McDonald
Jo is a Projects Officer for Regional Arts Australia and prior to that she worked for Country Arts SA, working with communities and artists to help them develop arts projects, including seeking grants and other funding.
Jo McDonald is also the founder and Director of the Move Through Life Dance Company, a not-for-profit organisation formed to give dancers the opportunity to dance at a challenging and stimulating capacity throughout their lives. Jo’s technical and teacher training was through the Imperial Society for Teachers of Dance (ISTD) ballet and modern syllabi and she has recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Dance Teaching through the Queensland University of Technology. Jo teaches at several dance schools across Adelaide. She also holds an Honours degree in Psychology, a Certificate IV of Workplace Assessment and Training, and a Certificate IV of Commercial Music. Jo’s other accomplishments in dance include formation of the Barossa and Lower Mid North Dance Network and coordination of the inaugural Barossa Weekend of Dance.
|
