(Tip of the hat to the one and only Pink Floyd)
One of the things I love about this blog is showcasing the work of producing for a small non-profit. We’re a successful, tenured organization that still goes thru the grind to make things happen. I love it, and I love sharing it. Here’s the latest look behind the scenes around our recent grant applications!
We just completed our two New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) grant applications. These applications are challenging, and are anxiety inducing because the results can often yield significant income. So you don’t want to get it wrong and lose out of thousands of dollars! We are lucky to have two things in our corner: 1) Benvenuti Arts and their grants team work hand in hand with our Boomerang grants team (myself and Susan Atwood, with administrative help from Sue Abbott) to craft an application that is complete and tells a meaningful story of our work; and 2) we had just completed a similar application for NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, so some of the material could be carried over into this application with only minor editing.
Grant writing and grants planning are so many things all at once: They should be the commonsense additive to an organization’s annual funding and (considering we live in the richest time in human history) there should be enough for everyone. But instead, grant funding (in my experience) is elusive, inconsistent and always less that what you need to create something. Even so, hours and hours of effort goes into applying for one, often to find out 6-8 months later you didn’t get it. These disappointments then affect season planning and artists lives in a major major way, and that is only heightened right now due to theatre’s struggles in a post-Covid recovery.
So, if they are so troublesome, why keep applying for them?
Well, dear readers, because they are often large enough sums (when they are awarded!) to make the difference between a “just getting by” project and a “ok, let’s relax and do the fulfilling work” project. Grants don’t need you to sweat over how many people are coming that night to a performance or a fundraiser so that you can pay all the actors; they don’t worry about the subway delay that keeps your audience all 20 mins late for curtain or the snowstorm that turns your closing weekend into a disaster, wiping out all the full houses. They can feel like, instead, winning the lottery or finding a hidden treasure. I look forward to the day when we have built up enough muscle memory for grant writing that each application doesn’t feel so much like throwing darts blindfolded.
If funded, both the Department of Cultural Affairs and the NYSCA funding would be for our 2024 season. What is the season, you wonder? Subscribe to this blog for the announcements coming out this week and next about the projects! (See what I did there? You love it.)
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More details for follow later this week about programming, marketing and contracts!
Thinking outside the Black Box 