In 2016, the Foundation gave nearly $35 million towards its Creative Communities initiative and around 70 gifts total. The most common award amount was $150,000.
Creative Communities Initiative
The Foundation funds organizations and projects that ensure cultural opportunities and desirable public spaces are widely accessible to residents and visitors. Prospective grantees are welcome to submit proposals to more than one strategy.
The Foundation has three primary strategies under this umbrella: core support to arts and cultural organizations, increasing access to arts education for youth, investing in great public spaces, and new audiences/new places, which supports projects that “engage new audiences through the use of public, civic, and community spaces as platforms for cultural performances and public art.”
The first step in the application process is a letter of inquiry. Inquiries for arts education and public spaces are accepted on an ongoing basis and reviewed four times annually - more details on the application process are available here.
Core support and new audiences/new places have their own annual deadlines - click the links to view.
Cross Program Funding
The Foundation also has an interesting opportunity for cross program funding: projects that align with more than one of their giving priorities (Creative Communities, Great Learning, Watershed Protection).
