project Support grants

2024-2025 Deadlines coming soon. This grant is currently closed. Applications are tentatively scheduled to open again in October 2024 with a deadline in January 2025.

2023-2024 Deadlines:

Application opens October 4, 2023.

Deadline to apply: Monday, February 5, 2024, at 11:45 PM

• Activity Dates supported by this year’s funding: January 1, 2024 – September 1, 2024
• Committee will meet in March 2024. 
• Grant Decision Announcements will be made in late March 2024.
• Impact Reports are due by September 2, 2024, at 11:45 PM

To be Eligible for a Project Support Grant, an organization must:

• Be a registered non-profit organization applying for a specific arts program, project, or activity
• Be principally located in the 5-county Kansas City metropolitan area (Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Platte, Wyandotte)
• Have a governing body with bylaws
  Be founded before 2021 (thus, have at least two years of financial records and established history of programming)
• Must support public-facing and publicly accessible programming.
• Organizations may submit one grant application to ArtsKC per year. 
• For educational institutions, ArtsKC funding should be for community programs and any other public-facing programs, not for academic degree-granting programs with tuition. In these cases, please supply a separate budget that clearly breaks out revenues and expenses for programs that serve the general public.
• For organizations that have received a grant from ArtsKC in the previous year, Impact Reports must be submitted and accepted before applying again.

Applications are submitted online using the ArtsKC Grant System.

If you have not applied before, when you go to the ArtsKC Grant System, click on the “Create New Account” button, and follow the directions there.  If you are a new user but your organization has applied for ArtsKC funding before, email Grantmaking@ArtsKC.org to help set up your user profile.

If you have applied before, log in to your existing account in the ArtsKC Grant System and click on the “Apply” link to start a new application. Use the “Forgot Your Password?” link if you don’t remember what your password is. When you return to work on a saved application, be sure to look for your previously started form!

If you need assistance with the online application process, please see this video: Grant Applicant Tutorial.

*Note: The online grants system is compatible with screen reading systems, but does not have an in-application screen-reader.

Click here for a link to a recording of the most recent Information Session.

If you seek feedback, draft applications may be submitted for review by staff.  This step is strongly encouraged for new applicants. Draft applications do not require a full set of attachments or support materials to be reviewed and should be completed via the online grants system. Once the application has been completed for a draft review, email the ArtsKC Grants staff to say that the application is ready for draft review. ArtsKC staff will review applications in the order they are submitted and will provide timely feedback to the applicant. Applicants will be able to make changes directly in the application without having to start the application over. Draft applications must be submitted 30 days before the application deadline in order to allow time for staff to review it.

A preview of the 2023-2024 Project Support Grant application is linked below:

Project Support Application 2023-2024

Project Grants are competitive. Grant recipients are chosen by a continually renewed and representative group of community members with a variety of expertise and diverse perspectives. Committee Members are selected for their artistic knowledge and experience, awareness of community needs and issues, and other contributing factors. An ArtsKC Board Member leads each committee. Grants are then approved by the ArtsKC Board of Directors.

The committee will consider:

• Artistic Excellence
• Community Impact
• Audience and Reach
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Accessibility
• Financial and Operational Management
• Need
• The application in comparison to all other applications in the competitive process

Committee members will use the following Evaluation Form:

Project Support Evaluation Form 2023-2024

ArtsKC is seeking equity in our funding practices.
We will use the numbers and demographics you provide to determine how much of your organization’s staff, volunteers, and board of directors is made up of underrepresented communities such as BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and people with disabilities.
To work toward equity, the organizations that are diverse-led through greater overall representation among their staff, board, and volunteers will receive added value in the evaluation process. We acknowledge that collecting demographic data is a continually improving practice. Here’s a resource to consider: GuideStar by Candid’s DEI Survey Guide.

All grants will start at $5,000.

Due to the small amount of variation between grant amounts, ArtsKC is no longer asking you to define your Requested Amount.

To accept a grant, you must return your signed Grant Agreement Letter and W-9 within 15 business days of the notice, or you will forfeit your entire grant award.

You do not have to accept grants. If you have been awarded a grant and would like to turn it down or return it because of a change in plans or for any other reason, please notify ArtsKC Grant Staff immediately.

Grants are paid in two payments. The grant recipient must return a signed grant agreement and W-9 in order to receive the first payment of 80%. To receive the second payment of 20%, the grantee must turn in an Impact Report, which must be approved by ArtsKC. Please allow two weeks after submitting grant agreements and impact reports to process checks.

Impact Reports for 2023-2024 Project Support Grants will be due September 1, 2023.

Impact Reports are submitted through the ArtsKC Grant System. 

You are required to submit an Impact Report by the deadline, or you will forfeit your final payment. We understand that it may become necessary to request a reasonable extension. Please do so by contacting ArtsKC well before the deadline to ensure the timely processing of your request. ArtsKC will work with applicants in the event your project is delayed or postponed. Please contact us to discuss the circumstances. If an Impact Report is not received after the agreed upon date, you will become ineligible to apply for ArtsKC grants. Ineligibility can be reversed by the submission of an acceptable Impact Report.

A preview of last year’s and the upcoming year’s Impact Reports are available below:

Project Support Impact Report 2023-2024

We ask that you recognize ArtsKC publicly in your promotional materials and programs in a manner consistent with your policy of acknowledging other donors. Please recognize ArtsKC by name, and use the ArtsKC logo. As part of this agreement, ArtsKC respectfully requests to use your name and any photos you are willing to provide in our promotional materials and online. 

Download ArtsKC’s logos and brand guidelines here. 

Please notify ArtsKC staff in writing of any major changes in leadership, programs or operations as described in your grant application. Updates to contact information are also necessary to stay in contact and to mail checks to the appropriate address.

The 2023-2024 Project Support Grant Committee:

Chair: Katherine Carttar – Executive Director, Urban Land Institute Kansas City

Allison Bowman – Artist Services Program Associate, Mid-America Arts Alliance

Ophelia Brinkley – Executive Director, Creative Emajinations

Mike Hill – Upper School Division Head, The Pembroke Hill School

Mary Honour – Stage Manager

Alex Jones – Vice President of Community Engagement, Starlight

Huascar Medina – Kansas Poet Laureate

Everton Neil – Community Bank Lender, Arvest Bank

Korbin Richards – Editor, Writer, and Educator

Lauren Rios – Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Platinum XP
James Spikes III – Co-Founder and Creative Lead, The AI Hub: An Art Incubator
Jasmine Thompson – Restaurateur