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ORGANIZATIONAL GRANTS PROGRAM
Chief among the many programs and services of the Council is its Organizational Grant Program. Through this multifaceted package of matching grants informed by the needs of the field, the Council assists eligible organizations in fulfilling our intersecting missions of service to the people of New Jersey through the arts.
To be eligible organizations must:
- Have an arts mission for the organization, program or project
- Be incorporated in New Jersey as a nonprofit organization, be a college or university, or a unit of government
- Have tax exempt status with the IRS
- Be in existence for at least two years with a two-year track record of public programming or services
- Have an active governing board
- Serve audiences in a multi-county region of the state. Organizations or projects that serve audiences primarily within the boundaries of a single county are directed to apply to their respective County Arts Agency, which annually receive NJSCA funding for support of local arts programs.
The three types of grants with multi-year commitments available through this program are:
General Operating Support (GOS): Awarded to New Jersey based, nonprofit, arts-missioned organizations to help underwrite the expense of their total operation including the expense of producing and presenting arts events.
General Program Support (GPS): Awarded to New Jersey based, nonprofit organizations, agencies, institutions, or units of local government to help underwrite the expense of presenting major, on-going arts programs. This grant category is open to a variety of organizations that produce or present on-going public arts programs.
Arts Education Special Initiatives (AESI): Awarded to recipients of GOS or GPS grants to support the development or expansion of programs that make substantial contributions to quality arts education in schools. This grant category intends to aid arts organizations develop their full potential as community resources to educational systems throughout New Jersey and create a stronger infrastructure for arts education statewide.
The four types of grants awarded annually through this program are:
Arts Project Support (APS): Awarded to support individual arts events such as a concert, festival, a theatre production, an exhibition, dance performance or reading.
Projects Serving Artists (PSA): Awarded to support new or expanded projects whose primary beneficiaries are artists who reside in New Jersey and whose work has or will benefit New Jersey residents. Projects can also be in the form of programs and services that address artists' needs or the actual commissioning of artists to create new work.
Arts in Communities (AIC): Awarded to new or expanded collaborative projects that connect the arts to people and communities in deep and meaningful ways, and demonstrate the public value the arts contribute to individuals and civic life. Projects can be in one of four areas: 1) community cultural planning projects; 2) projects that explore lifelong learning in the arts in community settings; 3) projects that connect the arts to another civic sector; and 4) projects that engage artists in developing community projects or creating new work that reflects and is carried out with the community.
Building Arts Participation (BAP): Support is provided for projects that demonstrate a commitment to increasing the value and meaning of art to participants and enhancing its role in the community. BAP grants are provided for exemplary projects that work closely with a defined target population to identify barriers, compose compelling strategies to address barriers and measure outcomes with the goal of affecting both organizational change and arts participatory behavioral change through projects that focus on broadening, deepening and/or diversifying.
To be eligible an applicant must be a current FY07 General Operating/General Program Support grantee or a County Arts Agency.
GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS
The annual grant cycle begins with the distribution of Guidelines in early November, followed by Grant Workshops, which are held statewide throughout November and December. A Notice of Intent to Apply is required for most grant applications and is due in December. The full application is due in February. Specific dates vary year-to-year.
The annual grant cycle begins with the distribution of Guidelines in early November, followed by Grant Workshops, which are held statewide throughout November and December. A Notice of Intent to Apply is required for most grant applications and is due in December. The full application is due in February. Specific dates vary year-to-year.
Grant applications are read, discussed and evaluated by peer review panels made up of independent experts in each of the different categories and disciplines of the applicant pool. For example, the applications of all symphonies, orchestras, choral groups and chamber groups are reviewed by a panel of music and music organization experts. The panels convene in Trenton throughout the spring and evaluate the applications in strict accordance to the following criteria as published in the Guidelines. They look for:
- High artistic quality in pursuit of a mission that provides/creates public benefit and value
- Significant public benefit and broad accessibility based on sound understanding of who is/will be served that is clear, measured and documented
- Sound governance, management and operations based on sound strategic planning
- Fiscal soundness and accountability with evidence of broad and diverse financial support
- Commitment to arts education and to providing opportunities for meaningful arts learning
- Commitment to raising public understanding and valuation of the arts, artists and arts education and advocating for their support
- Leadership in meeting statewide Council priorities and developing and sharing models and best practices.
The peer review panels provide extensive evaluations that are captured in writing in the form of a consensus report, which is a body of evaluative commentary upon which ALL panelists agree. They also numerically rank the applications and the rankings are averaged. Once all applications are evaluated by all panels, the consensus comments and rankings are forwarded to the Council's Grants Committee for deliberation in forming recommendations to the full Council. The Committee bases its work on funding principles it adopts respective of how best to invest public dollars in organizations and projects that provide high quality programs and great public benefit. The Council holds its Annual Meeting (generally the last Tuesday in July) to vote on and award grants.
Other Council funding programs and services that support arts organizations and build their capacity include:
Critical Financial Services Program: Cosponsored with the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), this program is aimed at gaining a comprehensive understanding of the financial health and trends of the nonprofit arts industry in New Jersey and assisting organizations in achieving greater financial health. NFF is reviewing the annual financial audits for all General Operating and General Program Support applicants/ grantees with the summarization of audits shared with the grant review panels. NFF is also databasing the audit information, which is enabling financial trend analysis of the field and segments of the field. During a rigorous review process, the Council identifies organizations that have the potential to benefit from a deeper Nonprofit Business Analysis based on five years of financial data for an organization. The Analysis results in a report by NFF providing recommendations to the organization on how it might achieve greater financial health and stability.
Cultural Trust Institutional & Financial Stabilization Grants: Operated in collaboration with the New Jersey Cultural Trust and the New Jersey Historical Commission, this program provides Cultural Trust grants for projects that help organizations increase their financial and operational stability and build their capacity. The NJSCA designs and manages the program that solicits and reviews applications from arts organizations and recommends awards to the Cultural Trust. To be eligible an organization first be designated as "qualified" by the New Jersey Cultural Trust.
Southern New Jersey Staffing Initiative: This provides multi-year support to General Operating and General Program Support grantees of the Council or of the County Arts Agencies in the southern eight counties to add, expand or enhance a staff position in order to build their capacity to serve their communities.
Cosponsored Projects: One vitally important way that the Council achieves its goals of service to the needs of the entire state is through a battery of cosponsored project in priority areas, such as arts education, services to artists, access and regional service, arts marketing and promotion and more. By partnering with other organizations that share the same goals, the Council is able to widen the resources applied to the issue and build a statewide infrastructure of support. These grant funds leverage others and make for more efficient and cost effective use of public funds.
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