17:32:33 So welcome to everybody who's shown up just as a note we're recording tonight.
17:32:41 So welcome to practice best practices, writing place, making grants, workshop.
17:32:46 I'm Dan Santoro. I'm the project manager for practice.
17:32:49 Best practice, among other things, and I'll be hosting today I'd like to start by thanking our principal co-sponsors for our arts and culture coalition and the Bedford creative, fract is running the Ignition Project of Artist Grants which tonight.
17:33:03 Is part of, and Ashley O'connor, the director of Frack, will tell you about that in a minute.
17:33:10 The Bedford creative is also running a series of place, making grants, and Margo Sonia will tell you about those shortly.
17:33:16 We also want to thank our generous funders. Rolyn, Charitable Trust Foundation and the Carver, Dartmouth and Bedford Local Cultural councils, which are local agencies which are supported by the mass Cultural Council of State Agency, which is also a Funder We're also supported
17:33:32 by generous in-kind support from our partners.
17:33:35 National Park Service, New Bedford, Art Museum, Artworks, Bedford Co-creative Center. Sng.
17:33:41 Project gallery, art, brokerage. We also wanna thank Abbyiev.
17:33:46 Dean Hayden and Don as to work Solarina for taking their time from their busy lives to create the workshop content and take the time to answer your questions tonight, and a few notes before we begin just ground rules for being in the workshop, if you have questions during the workshop please type, them
17:34:03 into the chat. Some of our board members will be monitoring the chat and when we select your question we'll ask you to unmute so that you can ask your question out loud.
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17:35:41 Now, before we begin the actual workshop. Here's Ashley.
17:35:44 O'connor, director of Fract, to tell you a little bit about the ignition project.
17:35:51 Thank you so much, Dan, and welcome everyone to writing grants, and so the ignition fund is a pilot program from Frack.
17:36:02 And this pilot program is an artist recovery program that it brings a multi-faceted approach to advancing the creative economy.
17:36:09 And so this workshop is just one part of it.
17:36:11 The ignition fund is also a micro granting program. Our Grant window has closed at this time, but we hope to reopen it again in the future.
17:36:19 The Ignition Fund is generously sponsored by mass development's Tdi creative catalyst grant program.
17:36:27 And so I do wanna recognize and thank them for sponsoring fracks, work.
17:36:34 And back to you, Dan.
17:36:36 Oh, thank you, Ashley. And next we're gonna have Marva Sonia tell you a little bit about you paid for creative and their grants program. Margo.
17:36:47 Thanks den. Hi, everyone. That's very exciting to see all of you.
17:36:53 So new, Bedford creative has 3 grant programs. We have wicked cool places, which is a place making in place keeping Grant program.
17:37:03 Art is everywhere which takes a current challenge facing residents or businesses in New Bedford, and coming up with a an arts or culture based solution for it, and Artnet, which is brand new this year, and it is an artist training and recovery network and it provides new Bedford artists with a
17:37:26 fourth- dollar capital working grant and access to trainings just like this one as well as networking events.
17:37:37 So we are about to announce 70 grants.
17:37:43 With all of those programs. So all of the deadlines have passed.
17:37:47 But if you are an individual artist who lives in New Bedford, we are holding a waiting list for our art net grants, and we will be coming out with the next round for 2024 later on this year, so only a few months from now.
17:38:07 The those grants will be open, so I encourage you to check out our website, which I will put in the chat.
17:38:15 And although this is not a grant, I do encourage everyone, and you don't have to be a New Bedford artist to join our creative Directory, and that's free to join, and that's how we promote artists in the area.
17:38:29 And we know because artists have told us that they've gotten placed and jobs because of that creative directory.
17:38:36 So thank you very much. And I'm gonna turn it back to Dan.
17:38:40 Okay. Now, without further ado, let me introduce our presenters, Dina Hayden is the director of the co-creative center in New Bedford, and so much more, Don Esther Brook Salerino is the executive director at the Roj.
17:38:56 Jones, Stuffhouse Museum, in New Bedford, and has extensive other leadership roles in the region, and Abhihave is the manager of grants and development for coastal food chat and development consultant for youth opportunities unlimited among other roles we suggest
17:39:10 that you read their full bios on our website for more info on the panel's background.
17:39:16 And now I'm gonna turn it over to Dina to begin the actual presentations.
17:39:20 Okay, thank you, Dan, and thank you. Everyone for being here and for having me my background.
17:39:30 I'm the Director of Co Creative Center and I'm on the team of super flat and adventur in the co-chair of Nv.
17:39:38 Creator. So I often sit on a lot of the grant committees and see wonderful applications come in mostly in New Bedford.
17:39:49 I've also set in on mass development grant committees so I've had the privilege of reviewing a lot of different grants for place making and art space grants.
17:40:02 So I'm happy to answer any questions when we get to the afterwards.
17:40:05 But this portion, initially, my screen is just to cover place making and place keeping and to discuss just certain products that I've seen and worked on myself in New Bedford that are examples of what that is, though.
17:40:33 I never. Yeah. Okay, okay, so I just kinda wanna so most of the Grants are for place making in placekeeping in the event for this first 1 s, let me just this first slide is about place, making.
17:40:55 And so I'm just gonna move some of the my, okay, I'm sorry.
17:41:01 Okay, so place making. And this is from Nb creatives, website, this is what we base our place making off of.
17:41:12 And placemaking is, as you, as most of you probably know.
17:41:16 I am sure it's been around for a while, but the new term that I feel as though a lot of people don't understand what it is when they're applying for a grant.
17:41:25 So I thought that I would show a couple of examples of how it's different neural projects and other projects in the city have embrace, place making, and gone beyond just creating a mural which I think we often see a lot of applications that are just for either teaching a class or creating a piece
17:41:47 of art or public art that needs to go a little bit further, to embrace place, making so place making is with community based participation.
17:41:58 And it's center an effective place making process capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration and potential.
17:42:07 And it results in the creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people's health, happiness, and well-being.
17:42:17 So. Oh, for example, we created a super flat ub Bedford in the sorry in the South End.
17:42:30 Create your future. And it was created by vice.
17:42:34 One Cedric Douglas, and we partnered with Nb.
17:42:38 Housing, authority. And there is a small video here. I'll just leave it, and we can share it after the presentation.
17:42:45 But what we did was, we partnered with Nb.
17:42:50 Housing authority, and also and New Bedford Art Museum.
17:42:55 And we created a program where we brought Cedric in to work within the end. The Bedford Housing authority with the neighborhoods.
17:43:06 And so we kind of had certain classes and cookouts, and really garnered their feedback on what they wanted to see within their neighborhood.
17:43:15 So we selected a site. Oops. Sorry. Was it sorry?
17:43:20 I'm not. Yeah. So we selected a site and and then rosewood gardens on Route 18, and we had these kind of like small peepers that we brought around.
17:43:40 And Cedric actually walked around the neighborhood to ask what they thought of that their place in their neighborhood, and what they wanted to see within public.
17:43:49 So we it was over about 6 months that we built this relationship within the community before we even got to what the mural would look like.
17:44:02 So this is that these are some pictures in the neighborhood.
17:44:06 This is the site selected within that neighborhood, and then you can see it's a portrait, and it's actually of one of the children from that lives in one of these houses.
17:44:18 So this is an example of how you can integrate public art into the community which create, then creates a place beyond just the wall.
17:44:33 So this is just some examples here, and a couple of other examples.
17:44:39 There's so many of them I had initially had a really long list.
17:44:45 We've been through it and Fall River have so many amazing examples of place making that happen all over and it can be really in small increments.
17:44:58 But it could have, or really large projects. Third day, open.
17:45:03 So I think some of them are on the call right now, and if you've ever been to a third eye, open it's the perfect example of place making it really embraces the local use.
17:45:15 And the hip, hip, hop, culture, and and how they see art as a vehicle for empowering the use and creating a feature so third, I opens a youth oriented and family friendly annual cultural arts event, focusing on the positive energy of hip hop and
17:45:36 third, eye on the pride and monthly performance and mentoring opportunity for emerging young performers.
17:45:41 So this 30 open now happens in Wings Court, in New Bedford, which is in downtown it used to be in Buttonwood Park, so it's evolved over.
17:45:52 I'm gonna kinda guess. But 20 so or so years.
17:45:56 So that's a great example of place making. And Reggae and West Beach is also another example of placemaking, which, if you've been, it's also in the South End, is right on the water.
17:46:11 So it's a free community event that's inclusive, multi-generational, welcoming and family friendly for all who attend celebrating many sales and Reggae world music modern, more, it takes place in West Beach in Southend and New Bedford and there's
17:46:27 vendors, who trucks we've also created a lot of public art in smaller murals there.
17:46:34 So again it has is multi-faceted, and is a celebration of the neighborhood, and embraces community.
17:46:44 It as well as our, and these are. They seem pretty simple, but there are some.
17:46:57 Very often on the on the review committees will receive proposals for create a really beautiful public art piece or a performance and music, you know, which in its own right has all the qualities to receive a grant.
17:47:16 But there are some key factors when it comes to place making, and there are little things of like how you can go further with your proposal.
17:47:28 Embracing the community involving the neighborhood, that you're thinking of working in, how to bring your music out into the neighborhood.
17:47:36 So there just needs to be a little bit more that around integration.
17:47:45 And how your work can impact the community you're working in at large.
17:47:50 And again, it doesn't have to be anything innovative or educated.
17:47:56 Be very simple, like involving food, and you know, but multiultural events. So hey!
17:48:03 And I'm just gonna be I'm happy again.
17:48:06 I'll answer any questions. Post our presentation and place keeping is for myself.
17:48:15 We will be creative, we added, please, keeping on like technically on to the Grant cycles.
17:48:26 And I guess in the past year or so, which is, it's very important, and it's got brought up to us.
17:48:35 That place making? Was it really representing place keeping cause?
17:48:42 It's more about, please. Key thing is more about honoring the history.
17:48:45 So the active chair and maintenance of the place.
17:48:50 And it's social fabric. But the people who live and work there it is not just preserving buildings, but keeping the cultural memories, the associated with a local life while supporting the ability of local people to maintain their way of life as they choose and I sawed one of
17:49:10 hi our projects that cat connects, and he's also on the call we worked with alongside fiber optic center.
17:49:19 They wanted to create a jazz mural within downtown New Bedford, and they came to us at Super Flat, and they asked if we would help create this mural honoring.
17:49:33 All of these jazz musicians who in history had played in New Bedford, and they performed here on this site, and also music still is performed at this site.
17:49:46 So it's a great example of how this is.
17:49:50 Place making, but also place, keeping, because we're honoring the history of these musicians and cat did a phenomenal job creating this mural in partnership with a New Bedford history.
17:50:04 So again, a lot of reason went into this project in meeting with the family members of these past musicians that played here.
17:50:18 And you know, getting photographic material to create the best piece.
17:50:24 And I'm sharing. Cat could explain a little bit better.
17:50:28 But oops! She wanted to create a scene and I'm not the biggest jazz person, but where they she recreated a scene where they were riffing off of music with one another, and so she really created this dynamic, seeing which never actually was a moment particularly created it from
17:50:50 photographs. So these are just some simple examples of place keeping in place making. And that's what I have for you guys.
17:51:05 And I will stop sharing.
17:51:11 Okay, thank you. Dina.
17:51:18 Next up we have dawn, if I remember correctly, I believe I do, continuing.
17:51:25 Yep. Yup, Hi, everybody! I'm also I'm going to pull up my slides.
17:51:34 And hopefully, you're.
17:51:37 Looking at my slides. So Hi, everyone again, I'm dawn.
17:51:43 Solarino, you might know me. You might know me as the director of the Rj.
17:51:47 D. However, I also, for many, many years have volunteered my time on many Grant Review Committees.
17:51:58 So. My! I'm more here in that capacity. This really doesn't have anything to do with my day job, except that I both write grants, and I review them so so I hope I can.
17:52:08 The help to you, you know, with questions, and then kind of thing.
17:52:13 So I've reviewed local State and the Federal Grants.
17:52:18 I I think my first position was on the Connecticut humanities.
17:52:22 Grants, committee. I also got into designing grant programs with them, and I'm doing a little bit of that with a new Bedford Education Foundation we're kind of, you know, tweaking the Grant program itself like how it runs who it goes to I've also been a reviewer for the
17:52:38 Institute for museum and library Services, the national endowment of humanities, mass, cultural council, local, New Bedford, Local Cultural Council, and and I'm also, if you've applied for a wicked, cool places, grant I review for them as well, just so you know my background.
17:52:55 So my portion today is going to be to really do the basics with you, and I apologize.
17:53:02 If this is too basic, don't worry because I'm going to be only 10 min or less, and we're going to go into more specifics after my part of the presentation.
17:53:12 So, starting with the main components of the grant of any grant, apply to most grants, you'll look at.
17:53:20 You're gonna have these 4 main sections. They might be organized differently.
17:53:25 It might be consolidated into 2 sections. But you'll have your boilerplate, your basics, the stuff that you that really doesn't change that often, except you know, when you add something to your resume.
17:53:37 So you want to keep all this stuff ready to go and update it.
17:53:42 Your name, your contact, info, all your social if you're an organization, your mission vision, your past activities, keep track of them.
17:53:52 Even if you're not writing, you know, getting Grants.
17:53:53 Now keep track of that. It's like your resume a history of your organization.
17:53:57 Maybe your experience as an artist now specific to each grant you might be adding in the location, location location, this is the place making workshop.
17:54:09 So that's going to be very important, right? And also the grant amount that's going to change per grant.
17:54:14 But these are still the basics of every grant that you're going to write.
17:54:19 We'll talk a lot more about the narrative because that's the that's the stuff between the bread.
17:54:25 That's the that's the sandwich. There.
17:54:27 The narrative is the what in the who for so we're gonna dig deeper into that.
17:54:32 Then you'll have a supporting section kind of the how of what you just said in the narrative. How are you? Gonna do?
17:54:38 What you're gonna do. And finally, the attachments, which is the part I love because it means you're almost done with the grant you get to the attachments, and you kind of just click a few things.
17:54:50 And you're done so. So this will be what I'm talking about giving an overview of, and let me know if my slides don't advance.
17:54:59 You should be looking now at the narrative. So the narrative is like telling a story.
17:55:07 It's narrative. Just think of it that way.
17:55:08 You're telling a story and think of your the people reading your grant.
17:55:13 They may not know you, they may have never heard of you or you're what you're doing.
17:55:17 So you want to. You want to tell them the story very objectively and specifically.
17:55:23 So it usually has these components, goals, objectives, activities, tasks and descriptions.
17:55:33 Okay, so goals are gonna be like your eagle eye view on what you're doing.
17:55:39 The big picture, the impacts you're making. What change in the world are you achieving?
17:55:44 Think of your end result when, whatever your activity is, you're thinking of your end result.
17:55:52 To articulate a goal. So here's some sample questions getting at goals in the mass.
17:55:58 Cultural Council of Grant. I don't know. I forget which. Green.
17:56:03 I pulled this from honestly. How does the proposed project provide public benefit, and contribute to the cultural vitality of the community as a whole?
17:56:11 That's their question. Getting at your goals. That's their goal.
17:56:15 An art net question is, if awarded, how will the grant advance your practice?
17:56:22 Obviously, that's for an artist, a single artist from the ignition fund.
17:56:26 How does your project use place making or placekeeping to directly involve or impact residents, visitors, and or business businesses and fall rivers, neighbourhoods?
17:56:36 Okay. These are all the questions that are getting at. You know your goals now with objectives and activities I mean, I'm not kidding.
17:56:45 If you see all 3 of those words, goals, objectives activities, task descriptions, then objectives are going to be more specific than goals, and activities, tasks and descriptions are going to be even more specific than objectives.
17:56:57 So here's an example. Now, this may not apply to all of you.
17:57:03 Obviously but just an example. Let's say you're an artist, and you're proposing an open studios weekend in a local neighborhood, and my suggestion is you work backwards from the specifics because you're gonna know exactly what you wanna do I don't wanna do open
17:57:17 studios this weekend these days, these hours gonna have these 7 artists involved.
17:57:21 So that's the specific. So those are your activities in your tasks and your descriptions.
17:57:27 So, for example, you write an AD section in open studios will run the weekend of June 2122, 10 am. To 6 0 p.
17:57:34 M, right. You get the idea. Now ask why you're doing that.
17:57:40 Why are you running open studios? And that's going to get you to your objective.
17:57:45 So here's an objective statement for open studios.
17:57:47 This is all hypothetical. By the way, the objective of open studios is to provide cultural programming for area residents while also supporting local artists, artists and businesses.
17:57:58 Okay. Now, ask why you have that objective, and I think this is the best way to get at the goal.
17:58:06 Why are you providing cultural programming, now you've got a goal, possibly a place making goal open studios will bring attention to the downtown furthering its image.
17:58:15 As a safe fun and cultural place for families to visit.
17:58:19 There you go. So that's my working process for goals activities.
17:58:24 Cause. I think it's really hard to get it. What is the goal?
17:58:29 What is a true goal and what is impact that kind of thing?
17:58:33 So moving on. Oh, and and just a tip. This is another way to think of it.
17:58:39 What's the end result of your activity, and make sure you can back it up with if you're gonna say, if you're gonna claim that your activity is going to achieve this thing, you should have some data to back that up.
17:58:53 So are you teaching art because there are studies that studies that have proven the positive impacts of art making on critical thinking skills.
17:59:02 So you know, have that data ready if that's where you're going with a goal.
17:59:07 Maybe you want to say that where you're supporting student graduation rates or boosting student graduation rates, this data out there.
17:59:15 So if that's your goal, then make sure you provide the data.
17:59:17 And you can use the data right for to back up your claims that look, this is this is the goal.
17:59:24 This is how we're gonna achieve our goal. Okay?
17:59:28 Moving on to the audience who served. This is still within the narrative.
17:59:32 This is still within the storytelling part. You want to tell the Grant reviewer who is benefiting from your work provide as much detail as possible how many people are coming to the class?
17:59:44 The open studios. How many people might walk by the mural?
17:59:49 I'll use the mural example. How would you describe them?
17:59:55 What are their qualities? Is it a grade level? Is it an age?
18:00:00 What demographic is it? Is it? Fall River residents?
18:00:05 Is it the downtown neighborhood? What's their group?
18:00:06 Identity? Are they single mothers? Is there an affiliation?
18:00:10 Are they new Bedford High School art students? So those are the kinds of specifics you want to get into and describing your audience, or who's going to benefit?
18:00:20 I would recommend. If you have data from your past projects like this, then you can also add that in you can say, when we did openst studios last year, we noticed all these ages attending.
18:00:32 So you have proof. You back it up with. This is who we expect, because we know they came last year.
18:00:39 All right if you haven't had a program yet.
18:00:42 This is when you might want to look up data on the potential audience.
18:00:46 So you can find that kind of data if you're serving Fall River residents, you know.
18:00:51 Look at the census. Not that that's everything, but there's data there.
18:00:56 There's public school data. There's Chamber of Commerce, data.
18:01:01 There might be, you know, other data on your specific demographic that you're trying to serve.
18:01:07 Okay. So here's a sample of a question from the ignition fund.
18:01:12 Again, who are the specific participants or intended audiences?
18:01:17 How is your project driven by and or for a diverse audience, a diverse population, such as youth and or elderly residents, black, indigenous, and people of color?
18:01:28 Lgbtq. People with disabilities, immigrants, English as a second language, armed service veterans, and etc.
18:01:35 So there are even they're like prompting you right on what they want you to find for your audience.
18:01:42 All right. The need.
18:01:46 Hopefully you're meeting in need. Right? The the Grant reviewers wanna know why you're doing what you're doing. Is there?
18:01:56 What's the need for your specific thing that you think is so important that you want $5,000 for it?
18:02:02 Why are you the best person to do that thing? Are you duplicating an existing program, or is your resource more scarce?
18:02:10 Do you supplement, not supplant a program? You provide something that's not otherwise available or possible.
18:02:18 That's all going to be a stronger grant in place, making.
18:02:21 How do you help keep that place? Identity and culture alive or grow?
18:02:26 Okay. So I pulled these from one of the placemaking definitions, bringing attention to an overlooked place.
18:02:36 Space is your program doing that drawing out an overlook, quality or aspect of that place.
18:02:40 Are you building on the existing cultural identity of the place, helping create pride of place, active care and maintenance of a place by the people who live in work there?
18:02:49 So these terms have been said, Dina brought out these terms to so this can factor into your need.
18:02:55 Maybe it's an economic need. Maybe it's a social need.
18:02:59 Maybe it's a cultural need. Or maybe it's an educational need.
18:03:03 These are not your personal needs. This is not just like, well, I could really use some funding, you know.
18:03:09 You gotta articulate it in terms of the audience, unless some of the some of the artists support like Covid relief grants could be.
18:03:17 That very thing because you weren't able to make art sell art during the pandemic.
18:03:22 If it's that kind of thing and it is that it's a relief.
18:03:25 Grant, and in every case it should always match the grant purpose.
18:03:29 So I am almost. We're almost to those attachments which means we're almost done with the grant.
18:03:34 You're going to find supporting information is these kinds of things.
18:03:39 How are you gonna do those things? You just said you're going to do if I'm the Grant reviewer.
18:03:46 This is where I learn even more about your program. What day and time is it?
18:03:50 Is? What year, what year is it? You know and all the not just the program, but the planning, the evaluation, and you want to be specific here.
18:04:00 So June the twentieth, 23, to October the twentieth, 23 is better than single.
18:04:05 Be specific all right, if you even know the dates, put them in. Why not?
18:04:09 You have the dates. Put those in, include all your activities.
18:04:11 That's like planning recruitment. Maybe you need to higher staff your marketing, your implementation, and especially your evaluation, because most grants ask for an evaluation which is in my slide right in front of you.
18:04:26 So with the credentials credentialing that just look to see what the grant requests.
18:04:34 Bios resumes, look at page limits, please. I just read a grant where I got to a completely blank page, and it said this page was removed because the person went over their page limit, and yet they left the blank page in there to let you know so it's a shame when we can't
18:04:50 see your whole grant. All right. Be careful of page limits.
18:04:55 The itemized project budget. Use the templates that people provide. You.
18:04:59 If the grant does that, it makes it harder or easier.
18:05:04 But at least you know what they're asking for, and then it's very clear to the Grant Reviewer.
18:05:10 You know where you're you're putting in at least what we're asking for.
18:05:14 So these would be salary stipends, maybe space rental marketing, promotion production costs supplies.
18:05:22 If overhead is allowed I think there's a question we're going to talk about at the end about supporting operating costs.
18:05:29 We will, we will address that, and and again, specific.
18:05:35 So, not just a salary line, but for staff at $25 an hour, times 5 h is much better than $1,000, or whatever the math is.
18:05:44 Okay, and then finally, evaluation methods. I think a lot of people that haven't done evaluation.
18:05:51 This can be really daunting. So just whatever you know how to do, we're looking for data here like, how are you gonna know that you achieved your goals?
18:06:00 If you, if your goal is, if a measure is like well, we'll know we're successful.
18:06:05 When we reach a 100 people, there you go. Okay? Well, we're now successful.
18:06:09 When people tell us we are, then you need to do a survey.
18:06:11 You know. Well, we know we're successful. When the murals done.
18:06:16 Okay, there's a measure. And then that's very clear.
18:06:19 So evaluation. And then again, once you get to the attachments you are coasting from here, you should have all these things ready and done.
18:06:29 Financials. If you're if these are all your tax forms, if you're an individual, it's your 1040.
18:06:34 I think organization. This is other things. Your project Budget might be in this section, or you might have an operating budget for your whole organization resumes bias.
18:06:46 Proof of past work. I recommend keeping all this stuff kind of current, because it's a lot easier to just pull it than create it.
18:06:54 When you have a grant. So I think I'm stopping there.
18:07:02 Okay. Great work. Dawn. And we're gonna follow on to that with Abby.
18:07:09 He is. Gonna tell us, cover up all other segment of the whole place, making.
18:07:15 And Grant, writing.
18:07:17 Hello, everyone and thanks. Dan and Ashley and Margo I don't know how to work, Powerpoint, so I'm gonna jump into kind of more of the like.
18:07:30 How I go from looking at an announcement that tells me a grant is available to submitting it.
18:07:38 How many ever you know, days or weeks later, and I apologize ahead of time.
18:07:43 If I repeat things that Don has said, but that probably means that they're just good points to really take note.
18:07:52 So just a little bit on me. I have a Master's degree in professional writing.
18:07:55 You do not need that to write grants at all, I've been writing and managing Grant since about 2010 I'm currently the manager of grants at coastal food Shed.
18:08:06 If you guys all shop at the farmers market, so the farm stands are our virtual market to give a little shout out, and I've I've consulted over the years for a variety of of other organizations.
18:08:20 I would mentioned. I work for yu a youth development organization, I do grant writing for downtown new Bedford, Inc.
18:08:30 And just a bunch of different ones, and.
18:08:36 Yes, so I'm gonna go through the grant writing. And then just a quick piece on grants management cause. The funny thing is, is, the Grant writing is actually the easiest part and then if you get it, you actually have to implement the program and manage.
18:08:46 It. So people forget about that part. So Grant, writing this is literally what I do, and this it hopefully, it doesn't sound silly.
18:08:58 But this is really over the 10 plus years I've been doing this kind of getting a process so that I don't end up scrambling at the last minute, and hopefully, this is helpful in like staying ahead of the grant deadlines because one of the biggest keys about grant deadlines is the deadline is the
18:09:14 deadline, not, you know, 10 min before the deadline. Hey?
18:09:18 Is it okay? If I hand this in a little late 9 out of 10 funders are, gonna say, no, this is the deadline if you don't get it in, we're not gonna consider your application.
18:09:28 So when I see the announcement, I really try to just go in right away.
18:09:34 And just the first thing I know is, okay. When's the deadline?
18:09:37 So I know our I have 3 weeks to work on this.
18:09:39 I have 2 months to work on this. I have 3 days to work on this, and I note that, and then I look at the submission process.
18:09:50 This is again. It sounds silly, but it's actually an important one.
18:09:54 So, sometimes you're just emailing something I don't see this as much anymore.
18:10:00 Covid kind of killed this, but there used to be a lot of grants that you would have to mail or hand.
18:10:04 Deliver, like 10 copies of, and thankfully, that was actually one of the benefits of Covid that people are really accepting a lot more on email.
18:10:13 Now and then, if there's a Grant portal which is becoming more and more common, that's another one to just go into the portal, create register as soon as you possibly can, because that's another.
18:10:27 I know again I've learned this the hard way that I'll be like, Okay, great.
18:10:30 I'll do that a couple of days before, and then you get into it.
18:10:33 And it's this like half hour process to register, or you need to provide them with information that you don't have, etc.
18:10:41 So that's just another like kind of best practice in my mind to go in and do that.
18:10:47 And then, when you actually wanna start working on the green the next best thing, I usually create a Google Doc or a word Dck, I guess if you wanted to.
18:10:59 And I go in and I start pulling out all of the questions, and I just put it into on Google, Doc.
18:11:04 And that's really so that you don't run into any technical issues with like losing the information that you start typing in or another, one is word limits.
18:11:16 And John pointed this out, word limits are a big one, and I've somehow I still manage to do this often where I will miss that.
18:11:24 There were word limits, and then, when I'm going to submit, it's like and it, you know, makes me cut back on my the content.
18:11:33 You know the characters are the words. So note that. And yeah.
18:11:40 And then there's other pieces like the attachments.
18:11:42 It's funny that Don says the attachments are the easy part.
18:11:44 I always get nervous that I'm gonna miss an attachment that is not gonna be just easy for me to submit like letters of support.
18:11:51 Sometimes you need letters of permission and actually, I do believe that the grant, if you're doing it like somewhere, that you have to have permission from a property owner, you have to be able to attach that.
18:12:03 So that's nobody likes to be the person that gets this email.
18:12:06 That's like, Hey, can I just have this letter permission signed in an hour, please.
18:12:11 Thanks. And then you're scrambling at the last minute to get that, resumes Bios.
18:12:17 These are things that just sometimes they take more time than we think they're gonna take to create these documents.
18:12:24 So that's again. I just always note, like, okay, what attachments do I need to make sure that I have ready to go?
18:12:31 And then John said the same thing. The templates, if they offer a template, use the template that they're offering, it's just because I also that's the way that they're thinking about the budget.
18:12:42 It's often a budget template. But even even if you, if you type up a grant, it's not in a Grant portal, follow their, you know, follow the questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, you know, follow whatever ordered.
18:12:54 Don't get creative. It's not a time to be creative.
18:12:59 And then just note any other stipulations. Is it?
18:13:02 This is a big one, is it? Reimbursement based?
18:13:05 Grant. That's another like, especially for cultural counsel Grants.
18:13:09 I think a lot of them have transitioned to direct brand awards, but some of them still aren't.
18:13:13 And so you gotta make sure that you can pay for whatever thing you're asking for ahead of time.
18:13:18 So you can get the funding back afterwards, and that's actually something more.
18:13:24 At the state level that we've run into, that we haven't been able to do certain grants because we can't.
18:13:29 We can't front, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to them.
18:13:34 Be able to get them back. Match requirements is another way that you wanna pay attention to, and you can get creative with match requirements sometimes that sometimes they strictly want.
18:13:45 You know cash match or in kind matches a little easier.
18:13:50 But again, just paying attention to that. And then timeline requirements.
18:13:54 When you would be awarded. This is another one that just logistically, if they are so like, I'll use the cultural counsel as an example.
18:14:05 They use, you submit. In October, but they're funding their actual funding cycle isn't until you know.
18:14:12 January first, hopefully, that hasn't changed someone.
18:14:15 Let me know if that has. January first, through December thirty-first.
18:14:18 So you don't wanna sit, hey? This program is for this November.
18:14:22 This is what we're applying for, because they're just they're gonna toss that out.
18:14:26 So you wanna make sure that your project is within the time.
18:14:32 The time that they are funding, and sometimes in New Bedford.
18:14:37 Creative is great about this. They they'll put out, you know, we're gonna the words will be announced, you know, in March.
18:14:44 So you want to make sure that your program starts in March or after March, because and I put it down there because it is an important one.
18:14:53 Normally you cannot receive funding for costs. You've already spent or invested in grants or in the project I've seen a little bit more that you can do this because of Covid, but traditionally, until you have like a grant agreement.
18:15:08 In place, unless they say otherwise. You you don't wanna spend the money and then think you're gonna get reimbursed for it.
18:15:14 If you get the grant. So I actually pulled. You've got fruit creatives.
18:15:21 We could cool places just to kind of give an idea.
18:15:23 And then, when I looked at this, I was like, Well, I kinda just like the person that highlights everything in a book.
18:15:27 So I don't know how this was a a portion of the Rfp.
18:15:33 But again the pieces to look at, and I don't.
18:15:38 I'm not gonna read it out to you. But the helping advancing, the place, keeping in place, making.
18:15:43 But I also note those is like these are the words you want to weave into your proposal to give them the nod that, like you get what they're asking for.
18:15:52 Use their language back to them, and then projects that advance, diversity, equity, inclusion, and access will be prioritized.
18:16:01 That's always an important thing. And again, you don't wanna try to make if your project isn't doing that, you don't necessarily wanna try to force that.
18:16:09 But if there's a way that you can highlight that your project's doing, that you want to, because again, they're showing that that's a priority.
18:16:18 And then grant awards between 5,000 to $25,000.
18:16:22 So don't ask for like $50,000. Right? Yes, for no more than 25,000.
18:16:30 And then this grants cash. Award can be used for, and I can't see it all, because I think it's materials, direct project costs, operational expenses, etc.
18:16:38 That's another important one. A lot of times they'll say we aren't going to fund your operational support, or we're not going to fund equipment.
18:16:47 We're only going to fund capital, or we're not going to fund outreach, or whatever the things are.
18:16:50 But just pay attention to that, and make sure that you're following their guidelines, and that you're only asking for the things that they said.
18:16:58 You can ask for, and I know somebody asked prior to the event or to this workshop about operating costs, and how that's can be a that can be a tough thing to come across.
18:17:14 And I agree that is a tough thing. Sometimes a lot of places don't wanna fund general operating expenses.
18:17:22 It's becoming in my opinion, it's becoming more important like it's I'm seeing it more and more because I think a lot of funders are catching on that like it's not 1955, and that a lot of nonprofits aren't just run by
18:17:35 like volunteer women who don't have like that don't need to get paid to work, so they are paying for people to actually work more and more.
18:17:44 But if it is a funder that's not gonna pay for programming, I mean, I guess it's kind of or I mean, it's not gonna pay for operational expenses, and only wants to fund program costs.
18:17:56 I mean, sometimes you just kind of have to go with that.
18:18:00 And find your operating costs in other ways. Either you know, via fundraising or or if you're allowed to, or if if you can, you know, charging a revenue like a a fee for service, or whatever which I know a lot of people don't like to
18:18:15 do. But that is another way to bring in operating funds, and then, just to keep running through this real quick.
18:18:21 So in order to be eligible again, make sure that you're following all the eligibility guidelines based within New Bedford.
18:18:28 That it is a place keeping our place, making grant, and that it's reasonably designed to benefit you.
18:18:35 Bed, for tourism, etc. And I, people probably are thinking like this is very easy why are you going through this?
18:18:41 And the only reason I do is because I've worked to a life consulted with a lot of people that are like, oh, I understand that we don't follow the eligibility, but they'll they'll love our projects.
18:18:50 So we just need to send them the grant, because then they will love it.
18:18:53 And I'm like you can I? If you want to spend the time on that?
18:18:57 But most of the time they're very clear on what they wanna see and what they don't want to see.
18:19:01 So, and then again, this just shows, okay, submitable is the online portal that we need to figure out before we submit.
18:19:11 And then there's so again, trying to pull all these things.
18:19:16 And this is just a sample. This was close to Fuji.
18:19:19 We actually applied to this. And just to give you a quick, this is like a piece of our application.
18:19:24 But that number 3. This is the example I was talking about.
18:19:27 Does this location require permission of a property owner and in our case we do.
18:19:30 We have the Parks Department has to give us a permit to use the park, and then, if yes, upload a letter of approval from Owner.
18:19:40 So again, that's something that I note early on. So that I'm like, Okay, I've gotta send a letter over and explain this to the Parks department.
18:19:48 And whatever, and get the letter back. And then, just in 7, I kinda just highlighted kind of how we talk about our place making.
18:19:59 And you know, okay, please, making for it's funny cause we're a local food organization.
18:20:04 But we really work to turn our farmers, markets, and our mobile farm stands into please, making opportunities where people can come to build community and celebrate the different diverse communities and cultures in the community in your Bedford and then we love to hire local musicians because
18:20:25 we're all about the local economy, local food, economy and same thing with local musicians and local creatives and artists.
18:20:32 So that is kind of that example. And then again, some of this is, gonna be repetitive of Don.
18:20:42 But this is really where I try to kind of backup from all my applications, and just make sure, like, okay, have I demonstrated a clear need like, what's the gaps in services? What's the community need that we're filling?
18:20:53 And then backing up with any relevant data and statistics whenever possible.
18:20:58 And I added, this little thing, it's a great one of you guys wanna steal it.
18:21:01 But I just love this like as reported by the Robert Wood, Johnson Foundation research suggests that individuals who feel a sense of I can't see the whole thing and belonging trust in their community have better health.
18:21:12 So it's just a great little quote to throw in there and kind of backup what you're trying to say, and I do.
18:21:20 I try to use data whenever possible, or even again, not even necessarily data, but just pulling.
18:21:27 You know, someone from somewhere that has some kind of reputation backing up what you're saying, and then a clear, your clear scope.
18:21:37 What are you gonna do? And then defining the impact of the project, you'll have again.
18:21:41 Don Don touched on all of this, using your own organizations, statistics, and data.
18:21:48 I know we'll kind of cringe at the idea of data, but you really can't have like too much of it, you know, who are the people you serve.
18:21:57 How many people do you serve? What ages are they? What demographics are they?
18:22:04 The data can kind of you can go down like a data rabbit hole.
18:22:07 But it's just. It's always good to just show that you are like you are serious about implementing your project and making sure that you have an impact.
18:22:18 And then again your credentials and ability to meet it.
18:22:22 So, just you've done this before this is, and it's your first time you can point to that and say, you know, starting out slow, because it's our first time that we're doing this, hey?
18:22:32 Great word to use when you are starting out is, Pilot, you are piloting this program, or piloting this activity and then presenting a clear and realistic and detailed again, the more numbers like Johnson, instead of just saying, Yeah, give us like $10,000 that should do it.
18:22:51 It's like, okay, we've thought this through cause. The other thing you don't want to do is not think it through, and then not have enough money to be able to put your program on.
18:23:01 So, thinking it through a little bit like, What is this really gonna cost us?
18:23:05 And the same thing with presenting a clear and realistic timeline.
18:23:08 Again. I reallyistic is the key word. You don't wanna so you're you're gonna do a festival.
18:23:14 And you're gonna do it next month like, that's probably not attainable.
18:23:20 And they will probably say, that's not attainable.
18:23:22 So really thinking through these pieces is important. And then is it sustainable and or scalable?
18:23:31 Grants love to ask if you're going to sustain the program, and that's where you could made a great opportunity to say something like, well, you know, of course, we are, and we're doing fundraising, and we are.
18:23:42 We're charging these fees you know, a minor fee to community members when possible.
18:23:49 And we are. We're charging these fees, you know, a minor fee to community members when possible, and we always are looking for funders who will support our general operations because they are so important and critical to us, being able to do the work.
18:23:55 We do right. You kind of throw in a little nudge on that.
18:24:02 And then this last piece, the Whoa! When, where, how?
18:24:05 I kind of just use that again. It sounds silly, but the number of I when I finish drafting I go back, and I literally say to myself, Okay, have I said who we are?
18:24:15 And have I said what we're gonna do. And often I'll I'll like I'll be like, Oh, God!
18:24:20 I didn't even say when we're gonna do this or where we're gonna do it.
18:24:22 So it's a simple little kind of checklist to go through to make sure you're covering all the bases so that the review committee isn't left with these questions.
18:24:32 And again. I won't go through this in detail, but just some more tips again follow.
18:24:38 The application is presented. Sometimes they want a certain font.
18:24:41 They want a certain size. Again, page limits, character limits.
18:24:45 Knowing your audience like, Don pointed out, don't throw in a whole bunch of acronyms that people are like.
18:24:51 I don't know what you're talking about.
18:24:54 Make sure you are talking to them like they wouldn't know what you were talking about if you were trying to explain it to them.
18:25:00 And the same thing with simple language. You don't have to use big fancy language.
18:25:05 I write grants like I would be talking to somebody and explaining it to them like at a party.
18:25:12 Brevity is key, you don't need to ramble on and on and on.
18:25:16 I feel like this is like everything you. This is the unlearning of history or history of high school English, or, if you took any English classes in college, and then weave their language into the proposal, use bulleted lists whenever possible, and this kind of the same thing, with right short
18:25:32 paragraphs and whitespace. We all know what it's like when you get an email or some kind of like correspondence.
18:25:38 That's just a giant block of text you immediately like your brain, just kind of shuts off to it, and you don't wanna read it.
18:25:45 So white space is a really important way to to hold someone's attention and break up, break up what you're writing.
18:25:55 I mean, again, you have to watch out for page limits, and sometimes you end up just putting in blocks of text.
18:25:59 But as much as you can waste space is a great friend to the reviewer.
18:26:05 This is just a nod to drafting letters of support for partners.
18:26:09 Again. It's always nice to kind of draft something up for them, and letters of support can be 2 or 3 paragraphs.
18:26:16 They do not have to be. These super intense letters, but it's just a nice.
18:26:22 It's a nice gesture for the person again, instead of asking them to just create something out of sinner. When then they don't. Really they don't really know what you're trying to do, or what the project is any operations to collaborate, I think funders like to see that
18:26:36 and again being aware of other projects in the in the city or in your area, and not duplicating the same thing, and then I also like the last bullet.
18:26:47 Just think about if you are being asked to donate to your project, or just how you think about donating to somebody else's organization or project, what are the things that kind of either like are like oh, I wanna donate to them because they're doing A B and C or like oh, I
18:27:03 don't wanna donate to them, cause they kinda look like they don't really use the money.
18:27:07 Well, I mean, but it's a good mindset to shift into to think about how you put together your proposal, and then just last, I just put together a slide on Grants.
18:27:18 Management, because again, the writing of the grant is great. But yay, you get the money.
18:27:24 Now you have to actually implement the project. So just the best practice.
18:27:29 Send a Thank you letter, and then again write down all reporting deadlines and requirements, and any other requirements that they have, and then meet those requirements.
18:27:41 Keep in contact with the feel, free to reach out to people and just ask them for clarification on anything that you're confused with.
18:27:48 If you're finding that like. Oh, God! Our outreach isn't working, or this part isn't working.
18:27:54 It's always good to just keep in, you know. Keep talking to the Funder to let them know.
18:27:59 Here's the things we're trying to do. Because the last thing you want is to get to the end and then write a report that says something like what we put the program on, and nobody came to it.
18:28:09 So there we go. But you you don't wanna submit a report like that.
18:28:13 And then again create a data tracking system, if not already placed.
18:28:18 And that sounds really intense, but it could be like simply a word document.
18:28:22 That just is like, okay. 10 people came on this date, and then 20 people came on this date.
18:28:27 Again. Don't spend any money until you have a signed contract or the approval, or they've said that you can spend the money, provide publicity where appropriate, and then you know, it's like, thank the funders online through your social media.
18:28:43 Or other publicity. If you want to do, and then again, just make sure you follow the guidelines of the Funder on their publicity.
18:28:49 And that's like the local cultural councils. They have specific guidelines that they want you to follow and follow up and build a relationship with the Funder.
18:28:57 Again. You get funded in the future, and then I just put it, you know, if you don't get the money, it's always good, and I do this when we don't get grants.
18:29:06 Follow up with the funder and ask for any feedback on your proposal.
18:29:11 Ask if you can have a debrief with them.
18:29:13 A lot of places are very happy to do that with you.
18:29:18 Rarely do I get like a complete like. No, we will not give you feedback on your proposal, and then, of course, try again.
18:29:26 So hopefully. That was helpful. That's it.
18:29:34 Okay. Great Abby. That was wonderful. Some great presentations. And we've got some stuff going on in the chat which we're gonna actually get on screen.
18:29:44 So start off Jaclyn asked the first question and she has to quit quite a ways back.
18:29:49 Jack and Williams. But, Jacqueline, would you unmute yourself and ask it out loud, so we can have that conversation on the recording?
18:30:03 Is still there.
18:30:14 Trying to find Jacqueline on the list hopefully, hopefully, she has not left.
18:30:23 It does look like she has as well. That's too bad. Okay, well, let's let's get the question up there, anyway.
18:30:31 So? Jacqueline asked, will the whole Grant writing process be an online process?
18:30:40 And we had some good responses. So those of you who responded in the chat, let's have that conversation.
18:30:48 I'm wondering if Ashley could answer that cause.
18:30:51 This is for the it, for about the ignition fund.
18:30:54 Yes.
18:30:54 Yeah, I think, Jacqueline, specifically asking about the ignition fund.
18:30:58 So in terms of the ignition fund program. Yes, it it is completely digital.
18:31:04 So we've offered one workshop with practice.
18:31:07 Best practice last January. That was virtual, just like this virtual offering.
18:31:11 Will have another workshop coming up in May. That will be virtual as well and then in September also, virtual.
18:31:17 The Ignition Fund grant itself was also all through online. The eligibility For it as a Google form and same thing with the actual application that's also been presented to folks as a Google form.
18:31:31 I will say that not everyone has Google, and I recognize that.
18:31:34 So we actually have 2 variations of the Google form, one that allows for uploads, and one that allows people to submit attachments in a different way, because it for at least for frack.
18:31:46 At this point, in in our, in our existence, we're not ready for something like submittable, which is a larger platform.
18:31:52 So we're utilizing something like Google.
18:31:56 And I'll add a tip. Always keep your document outside of that online submission.
18:32:03 Yes.
18:32:03 Form. Some of them don't save as you go. Some of them have time out.
18:32:08 So you're typing and you're inactive for 10 min and oh, it just timed out, and it didn't save your text.
18:32:14 So I, you know, in preparation. If you're if you know, it's only online, I think, no matter what always keep like a word, Doc, with all of your ears, I even cut and paste the questions and the word limits into my word, Doc, so I know, exactly for next year you know and
18:32:31 That's a good point. I'm glad you said that.
18:32:30 I can prepare everything that way.
18:32:33 Yes, always put it in a different document, I think we've all said that at this point during tonight's session.
18:32:40 But what I will also stress is that it's great if funders can give you the questions outside of the application, and you may want to go as far as to take the step to ask them to provide the questions for you outside of the application the ignition fund.
18:32:57 We do have all of the questions available on our website. So you can see everything ahead of time.
18:33:02 And it's done, suggested you can get the word, Doc up and going, and I believe in be creative heads done the same thing with their programs.
18:33:07 Yes, where all of the questions are available. Online like, we want you to prepare and know what's gonna be asked of you before you begin the application.
18:33:16 Because, as it's been pointed out, it it may take longer for certain components.
18:33:22 And more and more organizations are actually putting stuff online.
18:33:27 And usually when they put stuff online, they get asked for availability of that information.
18:33:31 So it's starting to become fairly standard that you can see that stuff easily ahead of time.
18:33:45 Hmm!
18:33:38 But I totally agree keep that in a separate dialogue, learn how to use your wordpressors, character, count, and word count features, so you can do your edits before you're in a hurry.
18:33:52 That makes a huge difference when.
18:33:55 I'd also just add to that. You also. It's great to save your own copy, because the number of times I copy and paste into another application is frequent.
18:34:05 So you have. Sometimes you lose this information right where you're trying to figure out how, if you can get back what you wrote into a portal, so it is great to have your own record of what you what you actually wrote.
18:34:16 And most of the portals. Let you paste into them.
18:34:19 So if you write it somewhere else, and then have to do it, you know, copy and paste into the portal.
18:34:24 It's a whole lot easier.
18:34:27 Also you will find that some of the portals count spaces as characters, and others don't, so that can make a difference.
18:34:40 We also had some resources that are in the chat that you might want to check out for demographics that Margo posted.
18:34:48 I believe, Mark, you wanna say a little bit about that information.
18:34:52 Well, I learned this from Abby a few years ago. So thank you, Abby, when you are trying to determine the demographics of a specific geographic area to use the HUD's website, which then I don't know.
18:35:10 We can provide that to the members here, and that can break down by census tracks.
18:35:20 You really can get granular if you want to, into to the income, the race, the education level, the ages.
18:35:30 It really breaks down some, it'll it at least gets you closer to being very specific, as Don and Abby said, you want to be as specific as possible, the what we're talking about today are project-based Grants.
18:35:49 And so, who are these projects for? Who's going to benefit from them?
18:35:52 And most funders, the more specific you can be, the higher a score you'll receive on your grant. And then, Ashley, you had another data statistics, resource, too.
18:36:07 By did, and so mine is. It's a lot of the same sort of information where it's all pulled from census.
18:36:14 It's just displayed a little bit differently.
18:36:16 But it a lot of it, because it's public information.
18:36:19 There's only so many things that are public at the same time.
18:36:22 So you might kind of need to think outside the box.
18:36:27 So like, for example, one of the things that I've done in Flow River is pull up.
18:36:30 The police Department's annual report. That is another great source where, depending on maybe you're doing a place making project for me. I was.
18:36:37 We were looking at safety. So there are other reports that might exist within your municipality that are just sitting on your city's website waiting for you to dig them out of like the cobwebs and use them.
18:36:50 But yes, census information, as Margo mentioned, whether it's HUD based or just general demographics about your city. They're a lot of it out there.
18:37:03 Great. I'm gonna add a few comments here, and then we have a question from cat that I'll throw out there.
18:37:11 I'm going to launch the poll. You can take the poll right here online.
18:37:15 And we really appreciate all of the information in the poll.
18:37:19 That is part of our ability to write good grants, because we know who our audiences so I really appreciate it.
18:37:25 If you will take care, take the time to fill that out.
18:37:27 It's easy. And it's right there online. And we are also going to be putting this information up along with the slide decks from from the 3 presenters earlier.
18:37:42 That will be up in Pdf format on our website in the Resources section. And I'm going to put a little information about the resource section in, because there's another thing I'm going to talk about little later.
18:37:53 Alright! So the poll is launched, feel free to fill that out.
18:37:58 If you have more questions, feel free to type them in or raise your hand, get our attention. And, Kat, you had a question that I would like you to bring up on screen. If you don't mind.
18:38:11 Thank you so much. Jen, this has been a really helpful workshop.
18:38:15 I really appreciate listening to all the speakers. My question was, if there could be a little bit more detail going into the difference between the operation cost versus the program cost the reason I'm asking this because I think I work with neural neural design animation illustration.
18:38:36 And I teach workshops, and sometimes I feel like there might be a bit of overlap between those 2.
18:38:41 So I would just love some clarity if that could be possible.
18:38:46 I know Abby is gonna talk on this, too.
18:38:53 Well, I think we should find out more about what you're trying your you, what you think our program versus operational to answer specifically what you might be able to fold into.
18:39:05 But I think what what I reading grant applications, even if they say this won't support salaries but this won't support overhead.
18:39:16 I think in many cases you can still justify expenses if you say like, this is a direct cost for doing this program.
18:39:26 Like, even if it's Dawn's 10% of dawn's. So.
18:39:30 And annual salary, because I'm spending 10% of my time implementing this program, which is what the grant is paying for.
18:39:40 That's one way to get kind of overhead costs into your budget.
18:39:44 I think, if not, every grant will let you do that, but some do local cultural council grants do, even though they don't like to pay operational costs.
18:39:53 If you say like this, this has to be. This person delivers the program.
18:39:56 This is the teacher, even though they get a salary just make sure you're not putting in your whole salary, because obviously you're only using part of your time for this project, and I think in some cases you can do that.
18:40:11 Like maybe a portion of your software could be written off.
18:40:15 It gets tricky when people and I've seen it.
18:40:18 People wanna buy a new computer because they're delivering this program where kids are going to do animation on a computer.
18:40:23 So they buy all new computers there may not be a rule about that, but it can be hard to get that into a grant.
18:40:30 So I don't know if you want to give more specifics on what you're trying to count.
18:40:36 As as program versus operational.
18:40:35 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I run a few projects. One of them that's running recently is figure drawing at co-creating.
18:40:45 So I have to pay subcontractor to model for those sessions.
18:40:50 And so that's directly paying for someone's salary.
18:40:52 But they're a figure model which makes the event possible.
18:40:55 I also had to pay a subcontractor to build the model stand, and so the model stand wouldn't be built without paying for that labor.
18:41:04 So the event, you know. So that's one example. Another example is, I put in a proposal recently, I don't know if it's gonna go through or not.
18:41:11 But it's for an art publication that's online.
18:41:15 A part of that overhead would include paying photographers to be able to use their photographer for capturing footage from events that are going on, or to pay.
18:41:26 Let's say, illustrator, if I'm one of the projects I wanted to do with that within.
18:41:31 The publication was to hire an illustrator, and I'm one of the projects I wanted to do with that within.
18:41:35 The publication was to hire an illustrator to create comics. So I'd wanna pay them. That would be a subcontractor, but that I and so a lot of times the projects that I run have people's time and labor directly involved so Hi, that's it it's
18:41:48 always a big gray area, like figuring out if it qualifies or not.
18:41:51 But those are just 2 projects that I feel like would be really helpful for me to figure out how to describe them in proposals.
18:41:59 So I would say those are not overhead costs. Those are direct program costs I don't know what everything is like.
18:42:09 Yeah.
18:42:08 Think of overhead. It's like what's over your head, you know the lights it's it literally is like keeping the lights on paying your electric bills, paying for your time.
18:42:16 But those are all direct. Deliver. Those are like they're direct delivery of the program costs. What do you think, Abby?
18:42:23 Yeah, no. I do think that like. And I probably was to.
18:42:28 When I think of general operating, I think of like our, it's the insurance we pay for everything like which you usually have, like a 10% administrative line.
18:42:36 So yeah, if there, if they say like, we only pay for programming costs.
18:42:39 Yeah, I would put that in as a direct programming cost cause.
18:42:44 Yeah, you can't. If you can't run the program without that specific thing.
18:42:48 Which again, that's that could become like a bigger thing.
18:42:51 But it the staff, and how John said we, that's how I would set it up.
18:42:56 It's like we estimate this person is gonna spend 5 h of their time on this project, you know, per week for a few weeks times their salary, and just show that broken out and depending on the budget template.
18:43:10 You use you, you could almost show it as like, here's we pay them $50,000 a year.
18:43:16 But this project is only gonna cost, you know, $8,000 of their time, and it shows the it shows the funder that you're not asking for this full thing.
18:43:28 It's just when you see an an application like we will not fund staff time, you know, like those are the ones that it's like, okay.
18:43:37 But even then I have to say Don and Margaret like, if you're talking about a subcontractor, that's not a staff time right like that's a subcontractor.
18:43:44 And the only other thing I would say is.
18:43:48 I. That's probably the biggest thing that that comes back will still get funded.
18:43:54 But they'll say we're not funding these line items.
18:43:56 We'll fund these ones. But we're not funding these ones, and that happens often.
18:44:01 So, usually and again. I'm not saying this like, throw everything into your grant budget possible, but if you put together a great project and all the pieces are there, and you put in a realistic budget, they often will fund you.
18:44:17 And they might just say we're just not gonna pay for cats time, but we're gonna pay for all these other things.
18:44:23 Is that fair Don and Margo? I feel like I see that a lot, and it's not necessarily just that sometimes they'll say we're not paying for this capital expense that you stuck in here.
18:44:35 But I don't usually see things get thrown out.
18:44:39 I really don in a Marco, I'd like your feedback on that, because, as Grant reviewers I used to be on the Cultural counsel, and we would, when I reviewed similar thing.
18:44:49 It would be like. Well, we'll we'll pay for this portion but we're not gonna like we can't pay for this like food is a common one, that they won't pay for, and people will just kinda they won't realize it.
18:44:57 And they'll put it in. So then we'll just say, listen, we'll pay for your program.
18:45:00 But we're not. We can't pay for the food.
18:45:05 Yeah.
18:45:06 Yeah. Great.
18:45:03 Yeah, that happens. That's all that still happens. And hopefully, you know, hopefully, that happens, because then they still give you money rather than throwing out your whole application.
18:45:13 Yeah.
18:45:15 Also! Oh, go ahead! Go ahead!
18:45:15 Yeah, I would. Oh, I was just gonna say that on a lot of the local cultural council applications you cannot have food, or there's certain line items.
18:45:29 So just be aware of. If that is party your program not to add that into the budget, because it's you never know it.
18:45:37 Hopefully won't. But I could throw your application out the window.
18:45:42 There are also some things that you have to pay attention to.
18:45:46 For example, some grant writing some of the grants, will let you put in certain operational costs like they will let you put in accounting time to manage the grant because you're gonna have to right Chs, you know. So you're gonna have to keep track of that money.
18:46:06 And what it was spent on. Sometimes you do that as a percentage, sometimes you do that as a percentage, sometimes you do that as a specific, you know, item with amount of time.
18:46:15 And what you pay your bookkeeper, or whatever, or if you're the bookkeeper, what the cost for you to do it?
18:46:20 But so there are ways to look at some of those costs, as you know.
18:46:27 As we were talking about that as part of the actual budget, because they are very much programmated, and other things that you might think of as operating costs, not program costs, but they really have to be program costs because you can't take a grant in and not manage it they won't let
18:46:44 you!
18:46:46 Thank you.
18:46:46 And I would add just one more thing, feel free to reach out to the Funder and ask them the question directly beforehand, and have that discussion with them.
18:46:56 Most funders, Margo knows. I pester her often with questions on her.
18:47:00 The grants, but feel free to ask them, and sometimes it's fine, sometimes they'll say, Oh, we can't answer that, but most of them they'll they will say, like, yes, that would be eligible, you know, put it in this way.
18:47:12 So I think open communication, and another Perk.
18:47:16 Then you can spend a few minutes letting them know what your project is, and then they get to know you, and then, when they see your application, come across their desk, they're like, Oh, I remember talking to cat.
18:47:26 Okay, let's see where application is. So it's don't be shy.
18:47:28 Call them, and that's not even just budget I anything that you're like.
18:47:33 What are they talking about? What are they looking for? I suggest calling your emailing and getting that clarification from them?
18:47:41 It doesn't hurt at all.
18:47:42 Yeah, I will reiterate that because Ashley is here.
18:47:47 If you're applying to that grant, or if you apply it like, you develop a relationship with her.
18:47:54 Same with me, I mean, I know many of you who are on this wicked, cool places is one of the most competitive grant programs we have.
18:48:04 We received 45 applications. We had funding to 4.
18:48:09 13. So a lot of people got rejections we're about to send out notices for the artists everywhere. Grants.
18:48:19 We were able to fund 17 of those a little bit more, but there will still be some people as significant people getting rejection letters.
18:48:28 I know, because I'm on both sides. I had to write a grant in order to get the funding to do wicked, cool places.
18:48:39 Art is everywhere, and art net. So it is devastating.
18:48:44 So when you receive a rejection letter. But what Abby said is, use that to continue building the relationship with the funder.
18:48:54 So we have met with many people who did not get a grant, and they've sat with me or Marionella, who's the New Bedford creative senior, Arpa fellow, and taking the advice on how they can improve their grant application the next time.
18:49:13 And then some of them have success. Some of them are receiving acceptance letters right now.
18:49:19 So it's it's building that relationship. Try to not take it personally.
18:49:26 And if you do need help, reach out the goal, you know at least, for I'm speaking for myself, like we want to build all of your capacity to apply for grants so that you are receiving funding to do these important projects that's going to impact all of our communities.
18:49:47 So it's important for us that you are continually learning and and building that skill set because these are local funding right where we're being funded by the city of New Bedfords.
18:50:00 Arpa funding right now. There's mass cultural council, those they have more grants than the local cultural councils.
18:50:09 They have project, they have festivals, grants, they.
18:50:12 Have. They have a lot of other grant programs. And then there's a lot of grant programs for artists.
18:50:17 Okay, so there are a lot of opportunities out there.
18:50:22 Start small builds the relationship, continue to build that skill set and success will come.
18:50:30 Also, even if you're not in a position where feedback would make some sense.
18:50:37 For example, you're in a position where it's just a generic kind of grant, and you submit the information and how you write.
18:50:43 It is not important. The fact that you qualify, and then maybe get selected.
18:50:46 Maybe don't, no matter what, send them a thank you, even if they reject you.
18:50:52 Say thanks for considering my grant. Thank you for reading it and reviewing it.
18:50:57 I understand always more requests than you can possibly fund. I hope that will, you know, talk again in the future, and we can learn from this, and maybe do better next time funders love that.
18:51:14 We have a question from Ron that he sent directly to me, but I'm I'm gonna read it out loud. He says.
18:51:21 Are the presenters, Powerpoint files available, they will be.
18:51:25 They will be on the website under the workshop in the resource section.
18:51:29 All of our workshops have a resources section. If there are resources available, he also wants to know how you can save the chat if you look at the bottom of the chat.
18:51:38 There's 3 little dots, and if you click on the 3 little dots, one of the options is save chat, so feel free to save chat.
18:51:47 That'll save all of those those links that are in the chat, and all the other conversation that's in the chat for you as well it's a good thing to know about Zoom, anyway.
18:51:57 Another thing, and I'm gonna put a note, a link in the chat right now.
18:52:05 Is that for those of you who may have already gotten grants or trying to get grants, especially if trying to get individual grants practice best practice put together a tax advisory for individuals who are getting grants because it's income.
18:52:26 You need to know how to help for it. You need to know how to keep track of things so that you don't have a tax surprise at the end of the year.
18:52:33 You want to make sure all this money goes into your arc or your project, so I'm putting in a link and if you go, that's the resources Page.
18:52:41 Now resources are often broken out by workshop on our website, but some of them are just general resources and they're in a long list very near the bottom of the current list is the tax advisory and it's geared towards people who are so proprietors.
18:52:58 And who are getting grants particularly first time. Grant recipients and that you should check it out and read up on it to learn what you should be keeping track of, and how to be keeping track of it.
18:53:13 We had this invited by Boston Legal Services Tax Department, and by one of the accountants that we've worked with for workshops before.
18:53:22 So the information is accurate. It is not tax advice, it's simply an advisory for you to, so you can learn some stuff about how you should.
18:53:30 You should also talk to your own tax accountant, or you should talk.
18:53:33 You should go through your tax forms, your tax software to know more.
18:53:40 Other questions.
18:53:42 Did you see crystals? Question? I can address it.
18:53:46 Yeah, go ahead. What? Where is the question?
18:53:51 Crystal. Oh, now I lost it!
18:53:57 I have. Is it the Grant report?
18:54:01 This is business career, plan.
18:53:56 Oh, grant. Report, yeah. Grant, report, versus business career plan for our.
18:54:06 So all of the artists who are part of our art net program at the end of the year are required to submit a business slash career plan, and I think we have language in the contract called an impact report, or something like this.
18:54:24 So this goes to what Abby was talking about earlier. Yay, you received a grant.
18:54:30 Now you need to do the project or do the things and then report on them.
18:54:36 So we will have. There's several view on here who have received this grant.
18:54:43 We will have a template for all of the artists, you know.
18:54:49 Yeah, we'll be working on it in the next few months, so that you're not going to have to do this.
18:54:55 It's all on your own, like we are going to provide you with the template for submitting your final report.
18:55:01 But you do want to be keeping track of what you are using.
18:55:06 The funding for and and the trainings that you're doing and thinking about your artistic practice and the future of your artistic or cultural practice.
18:55:23 And what are your goals with that? So I hope that crystal, if that doesn't answer your question, please reach out directly to me. Okay.
18:55:31 Thank you. No, I appreciate that. I was. Gonna say, you sort of already answered it when you said Reach out to me directly already.
18:55:39 So I appreciate that. Thank you.
18:55:41 Great. Also get in the habit of tracking all time and funds spent on, you know, on anything that you do that's even remotely, Grant related.
18:55:52 If you do it while it's happening, it's easy.
18:55:56 If you try and recreate it afterwards. Even a week later you're gonna have a really hard time.
18:56:01 So keep track as it's going on. Taylor has a taylor.
18:56:05 If he has a a question to Taylor, you wanna ask an ask?
18:56:10 Thank you. I was just curious. If anyone with more experience knows our promo materials.
18:56:18 Something that funders are typically willing to cover with these kinds of grants.
18:56:26 I'll answer that one. Yes, a lot of times funders will be willing to cover promotional materials and so you even mentioned, like social media posts.
18:56:36 Yes, a lot of us. That's how we communicate is through social media, especially boosting and sponsored posts.
18:56:43 So do feel free to put that into your your application when you're doing it.
18:56:49 Margo. You wanted to add more.
18:56:50 I was gonna say, the same thing definitely include that budget line item.
18:56:56 It might not be funded like, you know, the reviewers may say, Okay, we're gonna pay all of the artist fees this and this.
18:57:04 But we're not going to fund marketing and promotion, so be prepared for that.
18:57:09 But certain only definitely, at least for for my program and for Ashley's program include that in your budget.
18:57:20 Cool. Thank you very much.
18:57:19 And the other thing is that there are funders. Oh, and Taylor wanted to add to that, there are funders out there that actually pay for promotion.
18:57:27 So, for example, I think it's also depending on like the scale of what you're doing.
18:57:35 But there is the southeastern mass, visitors Bureau.
18:57:38 That entity does exist. They do have funds available for marketing.
18:57:41 There's also the Massachusetts office of Travel and Tourism known as motto.
18:57:46 They also have funds. It available for marketing.
18:57:51 Both of those are really looking for tourism, focused work.
18:57:56 But perhaps what you're doing would fit a the tourism definition, which means that people are travelling.
18:58:01 What is it? 40. How far? There? There's a certain amount of time travel 50 miles.
18:58:08 Thank you.
18:58:06 50 miles. If they're the travelling 50 or more miles away.
18:58:12 It's that's I don't know if that's mess office of travel and tourism's definition.
18:58:18 But that's the definition that they use. And so it depends.
18:58:23 Like, Ashley said. If it's something, Taylor, that the Art Museum is doing, I could see that as attracting tourists, some programs more so than but yeah, definitely check that out because it's specifically for marketing and promotion.
18:58:45 Awesome. Thank you. And that's the one that you just sent the link for.
18:58:50 And you had some dad there, I see.
18:58:51 Thank you.
18:58:53 Just that. I know. Mass call well, local cultural council grants also pay for marketing.
18:59:00 They call it marketing, though. So this can be something that is your you might think is overhead, but if it's like well, it's 4 h of So-and-so's time to put out all that social media each week, then there's your budget.
18:59:16 If they don't pay for it, it's a little more complicated to understand in kind services in a budget and build that in.
18:59:23 But some grant grants will have an in-kind column so if they don't pay for it, but you're spending the money, make sure that goes into your inkind column, because then it looks like a match, and if you've ever heard of like matching grants, or something matches are always
18:59:39 always look good, even if they don't ask for it.
18:59:43 I can tell you. It looks good to the Grant reviewer to see that.
18:59:46 Well, they're sinking other money into this. So it's not just our grant.
18:59:49 It's other money, which is the whole separate topic it's like goes into that sustainability thing that Abby also asks, mentioned that, like the question of like, How are you going to do this? After this?
19:00:06 Also.
18:59:59 Gram is over. At least they can see that you're already investing your own money in the project.
19:00:06 We could. Probably I was just gonna say we could probably do a whole session on budgeting and budget.
19:00:12 Yeah.
19:00:12 Okay, I hope we plan to do that, in the not too distant future.
19:00:17 Some of that will also be part of the the taxes for creatives for schedule.
19:00:23 Cs, that we're doing later on in the season the fracas funding one of the things that you can also do when you're trying to do promotion.
19:00:32 If you, grant, doesn't fund from promotion, you can find organizations that have us a relationship to what it is you're doing that it would make sense for them to have their name all over it, and you can ask them to put up the money to for to fund the promotion.
19:00:52 Deanie, you had something in there to usual scroll past before I got to read it.
19:00:54 Oh, it was just it came to mind. I know that, like once you receive it, the Grants funding.
19:01:04 Sometimes you wanna get off the Gr, if you're a small organization or individual and start paying people.
19:01:10 And then, but always rule. If I try to get it in, it's pretty obvious, but a.
19:01:16 W. 9. In an invoice from every contractor or artists that I'm working with before I cut any checks.
19:01:24 That is pretty simple. But at the end of the year you'll be thinking yourself because you won't be trying to find everyone's W.
19:01:30 And I. And when you're doing your 1099.
19:01:37 Other questions out there.
19:01:44 It's like we're thinning down. Then.
19:01:46 Okay. Well.
19:01:48 I had one question. Don was mentioning something about the in-cind column, and that really perked my interest, and so it would.
19:01:57 It'd be a to learn what you can include. Cause if if you're doing a ton of time like volunteer time on the email, on the marketing, on the organizing, on the like, a lot of things like it, we need to just look at a website, or link that provides more information on
19:02:17 what that means in time, like? What is it that cool advises in kind?
19:02:23 How do you report in kind? Because if you're a new a fairly new organization, and you're doing a lot of the work in kind to show that there's a lot of resources going into your projects, and you don't have as much of a record of like grants it seems like it would be really
19:02:37 awesome to list the of like in kind, activity, energy, and resources that are going to something and learn how to archive that and show that very clearly.
19:02:50 Dan, you can sign me up for the Budget session.
19:02:53 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:02:56 It works out. Hello, doing a budget.
19:03:00 I don't know if I could. Do you. Do you want?
19:03:03 I mean it is. It takes it's a whole new way of thinking.
19:03:06 In kind, and and different granters won't even care.
19:03:11 They won't have it in their budget template, but many do, and some don't define it, but if you put it in, it'll still look good like I think you know the wiki cool places in local Cultural Council, you know, if you show that it's a match but in kind
19:03:26 can be anything that your that's a grants not paying for, but that has a cost.
19:03:31 So it could be definitely a lot of salary time. It could be your overhead could go in as a match. In some cases.
19:03:36 That's all kind of in kind. Meeting is donated services, donated costs.
19:03:41 I wonder? Is there? Has there been a party that's dedicated themselves to illustrating data?
19:03:48 That is totally about in kind, just to highlight. More of what's usually expected to be in kind of services, or what's generally what's very often.
19:03:59 Expected to be, I guess, more of an inkind contribution reason. I'm asking this because one of the side projects I'm working on is a project that's around the hashtag troops like, whenever you as an artist individual small business sole proprietor wanna get something done there's resources
19:04:16 available. And then there's the overhead, or whatever to get something done. There's resources available. And then there's the overhead, or whatever true cost it's gonna take to execute the project and it's just trying to lay out clear examples of like if a project is gonna come into life what are the true
19:04:30 cost of things that actually have to happen whether they get funded or not, just to like, create more like maybe illustrated indexes of like.
19:04:39 And that's the teacher and me coming up. So I teach at Bristol Community college design, visual art courses, digital media.
19:04:46 And we have a lot of these conversations sometimes about. If the students are gonna become independent contractors if they're gonna work for another company, that's be mindful of developing their professional habits and looking at what things are going to cost so I know I went on a bit of a tangent there.
19:05:02 I'm sorry, but I'm just. I'm still new to the finance side of things, learning about stuff like in kind.
19:05:09 It's like, Oh, there's already a term to tone about these things.
19:05:12 It'd be neat to learn more about how others have.
19:05:14 Like, you know, talked about, describe gave it information about that. Yeah.
19:05:18 Also, if you have things like people volunteering their time, that's in kind as well keep track of the time and treat it as professional services. You know.
19:05:29 Treat it as the value of what those services would be. It's not minimum wage.
19:05:35 So think about what would cost you to pay somebody to do something that's volunteering to do, and then track the time and put it in your budget as in kind. At that rate.
19:05:47 Thank you, Dan.
19:05:49 I don't know if we have time for this.
19:05:51 I can share a quick. I pulled up one of a like a budget that we put together, and I will.
19:05:56 I'm gonna my disclosure like I would go to the Budget workshop.
19:06:00 Budgets are. I've been doing this for 10 plus years.
19:06:03 I they, I've they just run the gamut of like.
19:06:08 Just say how much you want great this is, how much more.
19:06:12 We're $50,000, and that's like all you have to do from they ask you for these like insanely detailed spreadsheets, that luckily I work with a lot of staff that usually they take care of that side of it.
19:06:27 But in kind to. If people it I don't know if that I if they don't ask for any kind, I do not include it.
19:06:40 If they bring kind that I'm like, Okay, great.
19:06:41 We'll figure it like, and it's. And again, you're not making up numbers, but it's anytime any overhead.
19:06:47 The how much you pay for rent, how much like in kind can be like this is these are the office supplies we're gonna use to.
19:06:55 I mean, you could go. Yeah, if you were a Cpa.
19:06:58 Would probably have like a field day with an in kind. I keep it more simple.
19:07:03 I try to always stick with. Just let's do like a simple budget.
19:07:06 But it does show it. I do like the ones that show.
19:07:10 Listen! It costs us $50,000 to put on this project, and we're only asking you for $10,000 because it shows funders how much this stuff to your point like this is, it really costs this much money to do.
19:07:25 And a lot of funders, I think, are catching on to that more and more, and are aware of that.
19:07:30 But it doesn't hurt to show it on paper.
19:07:33 But yeah, I don't know if that's helpful at all. I just in kind can be like.
19:07:39 Do you have a quick budget you can share, adding.
19:07:43 Okay.
19:07:41 I do have one, I have one, hopefully. Bernadette doesn't get madly. I don't know.
19:07:45 It's from Iou I can show it shows a little bit of income, but it shows like this is actually for the city of New Bradford's investing kids program.
19:07:57 So you see the first like, and this is just for this program.
19:08:01 So this isn't like an app. This is not an organization. Wide budget.
19:08:05 This is just I think it was like 2 days, a week, or something that we applied for for like 4 or 5 h to staff something along those lines, but you can see in the first column we've got the amount requested, and then our cash match, which is again, it's the total is that
19:08:22 5,776, and that's the salary and wages that's not even including the fringe which you can see on the next line.
19:08:30 So it shows that breakdown. And again, this is working with somebody who know like this is the you know, the bookkeeper who knows like this is how much we pay these people per hour, and we broke out the hours.
19:08:41 And all of that. Oh, shoot! I can't! Oh, there we go!
19:08:45 I just.
19:08:45 And then the in kind is that third column you see down there we've got office supplies, and that was literally probably budgeted towards the program.
19:08:55 And then the program space rental. That's an in kind. And that's a truly like an in-kind donation.
19:09:02 And that was all we really put for in kind again.
19:09:06 I these things I try to keep, because the other side of it is I'm gonna stop sharing.
19:09:13 If that's okay, I if I don't know how to say this nicely, they, if they ask you to show proof of this in the end, you want to be able to show proof of this in the end.
19:09:24 So you want to be very careful that you don't just start throwing tons of stuff into your budget that like.
19:09:33 Oh, this will make us look good if we oh, yeah, yeah, it's like $10,000.
19:09:36 And then they say, Okay, show us your share. Your invoices that show that you spent $10,000 on this.
19:09:42 And then you're like, Oh, God! You add up your invoices.
19:09:44 You're like, I spent $2,000 on that, so that's why I try to be more conservative with that stuff.
19:09:51 Just because I have a good fear of like audits. I guess I don't know.
19:09:54 Not that I get audited a lot, but you don't wanna be audited and then get stuck like, okay, we didn't.
19:10:01 We didn't do half of what we said we were gonna do I don't know if that makes sense.
19:10:09 You. A 100% don't wanna be known as is that.
19:10:03 You also, Abigail, don't wanna be known as the organization or the artist that has misappropriated Grant Funds or lied to the grander about what you were doing.
19:10:14 Yeah, no, you don't. You don't want to.
19:10:15 I. And that's where, like with people, I'm like, cause a lot of times, and I get it.
19:10:19 Budgets are annoying. People are like it's like a 500 bucks.
19:10:23 That sounds like a good number, and I'm like, no, no, no, no!
19:10:25 Think this out for a second, because one you don't wanna underpay yourself, and 2.
19:10:30 You don't. You also don't want to be known as the person who submits applications with like inflated crazy numbers, because reviewers are smart.
19:10:39 They know when they're like this doesn't cost, you know, $5,000 to market this one day.
19:10:47 Event, right? Like. So that's why I just the realistic, always be realistic with everything.
19:10:54 And again, sometimes you're you're still just like somewhat.
19:10:57 It's an educated guess. Right? You're trying to figure it out to the best of your ability.
19:11:02 But again, you want to be as realistic as possible.
19:11:05 And I just wanna throw out one more tip that. So at the beginning we talked about creating a word document to put all of the questions in and to fill all your answers into copy and paste.
19:11:15 Do the same thing for a budget create whether it's Google sheets or excel, create yourself a template, and that template can travel with you from from Grant.
19:11:24 To grant. I actually find that to be really helpful like make that template like, put in the project manager.
19:11:28 Your contractors like you have all your lie items right there, and if you know a little bit about excel, you can maybe put some math in it too, and that's great for us creatives that maybe don't have the math.
19:11:39 Mind it will make sure that what you're doing is actually like one plus one is actually eating equallying 2 on your budget.
19:11:46 You don't wanna make Selema mistakes like that as well.
19:11:50 But do use a template like use, excel the same way, and in a lot of funders like the one Abigail showed like they gave a template take a couple minutes and just put that into excel.
19:11:59 You'll be glad you did.
19:12:02 Also. The thing. I this is a bugaboo for me, but I will keep harping on this forever.
19:12:10 Make sure that you treat the people you're paying reasonably.
19:12:17 You avoid the nonprofit martyrs, syndrome.
19:12:20 It is not helpful. The people who work for you are the people who volunteer, for you are professionals, and should be treated professionally, and there are times should be accounted for as a value of a professional.
19:12:33 We actually have a workshop on that, on called Pay Equity, that is, up on our website.
19:12:39 In addition, I just want to go back to the whole operating cost thing.
19:12:45 Some of the funders are getting smarter about this, and 2 organizations are working really hard to make funders smarter about this one is called class action.
19:12:55 They're really working on trying to level the playing field amongst nonprofits and for profit organizations and salaries.
19:13:06 The other is called Staffing the Mission, and they're really trying to also work in the same space but they've been working with funders, you know, Grant Grant makers to try and get them to understand that operating costs are program costs.
19:13:26 And that setting a too low level of what you will allow for operating costs in your budgets and in your grants just means a lot of programs don't ever run.
19:13:39 I really appreciate, you know, talking about the in kind greatly, because that definitely, I think it provides it.
19:13:48 Highlights, some really important information, for like labor that goes into making events come to life.
19:13:54 Yes, be mindful of like making sure the prices are accurate, and proper, but it's wonderful to know that what would be just considered volunteer time, and it just you're just gonna give your time could have a label in a proposal so that those who are possibly funding it could
19:14:14 see! Oh, this entity, this individual artist, or whatever they're going ahead, no matter what, and making the project happen.
19:14:22 And here's proof of that with a column saying in kind time, or whatever, and it's not, and it can be something simple like like, if it's like minimum wage like, here's this person that spent 20 h of their time, you know, this month doing this thing and it's a
19:14:38 basic simple. That'd be awesome to be able to include that in the budget and be like, yeah, they're not gonna get paid for that.
19:14:43 But they are like the organization funding could see, oh, yeah, they are putting their time into this.
19:14:49 Yes, be mindful of like not inflating costs. Yes, being mindful of like things like audits.
19:14:54 But just it's wonderful to hear and learn more about the fact that that exists and me like I didn't go to a business school.
19:14:59 I didn't go to finance school. I just went to art school, and I'm learning about businesses.
19:15:03 I go. And so these these types of workshops are extremely helpful and mentioning little bits of really important details like that.
19:15:09 Because that could help. You know, a lot of creatives that are trying to be professionally, you know, lucrative outside of becoming an art professor like they tell art students to do when you go to art school.
19:15:20 So I know it's a tangent, but thank you so much for taking the time to spend.
19:15:25 Give us more details about that topic.
19:15:30 Okay, Brooke, do you have something there?
19:15:35 I do? I have kind of a long, nebulous question.
19:15:38 This is all been super helpful. So thank you guys so much for all of this information, I definitely follow the camp of people who have a proposal for an idea.
19:15:46 That's essentially a public project that I had, you know. To me it has.
19:15:50 It has connects with the community. But I had not planned to go.
19:15:56 I think I need to enhance the placekeeping function of my project, and how that's gonna work.
19:16:02 And so I've been thinking, like you know, how do I do this in an authentic manner that doesn't fundamentally change my project, because I already have a really clear idea.
19:16:09 I've already worked with the Heritage part Visitor Center to come up with a plan for appropri that works with their existing site.
19:16:17 And that continues and connects with other artwork.
19:16:20 They already have, and their program, but I fear that it does fall into this it's a thing I don't placing in public, and I don't want it to be one of these.
19:16:30 It's getting neglected because it's not involving a big event, and so I'm trying to think about how I can connect it to something that involves people more than just the fact that people walk through the visitor center all the time.
19:16:42 So they had offered to hold an unveiling reception. Is it?
19:16:46 I guess I'm wondering if there's a way I can sort of make that more of a community invent, or if this is something that even counts, I guess I'm just wanting a little bit of advice, and about how to better deal with the place keeping function, of this project.
19:17:05 I would. Can I ask you what your the like specific part of your art in public art is for the project.
19:17:14 Sure. So I'm so the visitors center is Heritage per visitor Center has, like an educational function of they highlight fall rivers, fiber textiles and industry history.
19:17:27 So they have a number of different exhibits of, you know, mill workers and different things that have been done with fabric in the area.
19:17:32 And so you know to me. Oh, creating fabric, sculpture is like Oh, that like obviously connects.
19:17:40 But I you know, maybe I have to connect the dots more so.
19:17:43 I have 3 sculptures that I'm planning that will hang in the center so they'll be hanging ceiling sculptures.
19:17:48 They'll go right underneath the skylight, so light will pass through them, and it will connect the idea of clouds in the harbor with, you know, just highlighting the beauty of fabric in a material that has been used to make clothing and in a different way it can be used you know and
19:18:09 Hmm!
19:18:02 there's a value in public art, you know, going to a place that really your, your, your people are basically walking in because they're gonna go use the bathroom a lot of their times where people go after their seeing the fireworks.
19:18:12 But oh, look! I'm encountering public art in a place I didn't expect to see it, and there's a value in that.
19:18:18 So that mean? That's the heart of what I'm what I'm proposing.
19:18:21 Yeah, I, I mean, this is just my opinion. I you know we see a lot of projects in a similar vein, like connecting the history of textiles or what not.
19:18:33 In the Bentford to like a public art piece, and I I think that in itself is is a form of like keeping in place, making where you're like connecting the lineage of textile, and to into your work.
19:18:53 I would just make sure that it is clearly you're clearly connecting those dots in your proposal, because sometimes you are I we reins certain proposals, and that you know, we can connect the docs.
19:19:08 But that it's very important for it to be like spelled out even.
19:19:12 I think Abby said it like pretend that you're talking to someone that has no idea.
19:19:18 Hmm!
19:19:18 You know and you're kind of none making it too simple.
19:19:23 But it's kind of like a really easy way to understand the project.
19:19:27 It sounds exciting. I think. One a couple of things that come to mind is I don't know, and again, I don't really know Paul River.
19:19:36 But or that exact place, but you know, like what kind of event I think you work kind of like.
19:19:42 Really, I'm quite with the opening event, or some sort of series of events where you could to either like teach, possibly like your techniques or work with someone from the community.
19:19:56 That area that also teaches certain skills and textiles, or just talks about the history of textiles.
19:20:04 So I think, like linking in some sort of community engagement to ignite what the powerful.
19:20:14 And I know your work, so I know I can like. See that it's it will be amazing.
19:20:18 And like very powerful. So I think, anyway, you can kind of like bring the community in to talk about what you're doing.
19:20:26 And then like, I don't know if there is a historic society there, or I don't really know much. Ashley might be able to kind of bring in those partnerships, but I think it sounds great.
19:20:39 I the I would add, I don't know if this is possible, or if this helps kind of checked the place, making box or place, keeping box if there's even a way you could just write up like couple of paragraphs about you that could be available for people to take when they come into
19:20:59 visitors sentence. It's like, here's what this artwork represents.
19:21:01 It's not just this, it's this is the history of Fall River.
19:21:05 So it's a handout somebody could leave with to really better understand that the connection to the heritage and history of the of the area and the relation to your project.
19:21:17 Thank you.
19:21:20 Yes, thank you. I appreciate your help.
19:21:19 I didn't see that answer your question. Great. Okay. Vanya has a question.
19:21:26 Oh, no, I didn't have a question. I was just gonna try to put in some input for Brooke in regards to Fall River, and as far as history goes, I think I think your project in itself being textile is gonna be incorporated into full room being known, for text style.
19:21:43 And so that I think the place keeping has, you know, a great significance.
19:21:48 I think the place making may be more specific, like you said, with the unveiling, maybe you can kinda connect with some sort of textile industry.
19:21:57 That might still be in Fall River, or connect with the Historical Society, which we do have, which has lots of information in regards to the textile community prior to and engaging with, that, there's, you know, there there are lots of individuals I'm not sure what type of textile
19:22:15 you're gonna be in cooperating Brooke.
19:22:20 If there are like, it's gonna be sort of Organza is my is the I mean, it's not a locally made, as far as I know.
19:22:27 I don't think any Fall River companies make organans.
19:22:28 If they do, I should definitely talk about them. But I don't think that's that's currently something locally offered.
19:22:34 No, it probably isn't currently off it. But there, I do believe there there was at 1 point in time.
19:22:41 It is quite a beautiful type of textile material, and I do believe there were companies that did.
19:22:50 It might maybe even Rothschild at one time.
19:22:52 Oh, okay.
19:22:52 So, yeah, the Historical Society might be able to help you out with that, and maybe connect even with maybe some of the vocational schools to try to get some information and maybe come to that with the vocational school diamond.
19:23:05 Perhaps new drifies programs with textiles.
19:23:08 Thank you. I appreciate your suggestions.
19:23:11 There is also the New England alpaca fiber pool, and they're in Florida, and they are also part of the fiber shed which is, I think, it is the south coast that might be something contemporary, or current, to link back in to make like a full
19:23:32 circle.
19:23:34 Thanks.
19:23:36 Great! Oh, we're coming up towards the end of our time.
19:23:41 Are there any other questions out there?
19:23:47 Okay, well, I really wanna thank our panel. You guys have done a great job of answering questions and presenting valuable information.
19:23:57 And I really want to thank our funders, particularly frack and and I really want to thank our funders, particularly frack and fall over ours and Cultural Council and the Bedford creative, who are the primary sponsors of this evening's workshop.
19:24:11 I hope you get to know them as well, and I hope that you will continue to follow practice.
19:24:18 Best practice, feel free to donate. If you're in the mood.
19:24:24 If you think this was worth a couple of bucks, we have a donate button on our website.
19:24:28 And we get a 100% of that. That none of that is taken by Paypal, which is a wonderful thing.
19:24:34 So, I think, unless if you, any of you on the panel want to say any last words.
19:24:46 Yeah.
19:24:43 Good luck with all your grant writing. Yeah, and keep going with it.
19:24:43 Just good. Luck. Everybody. Yeah. Don't. Don't lose faith.
19:24:51 I mean, you gotta it's like sports. You're gonna lose some games.
19:24:55 You're gonna win some, and you'll feel really great. But don't feel bad if you lose.
19:25:01 Hey? Great well, keep track of us, and you'll see what all our other workshops are coming up.
19:25:08 The next one will be in the spring, and it's going to be marketing for creatives and then there will be more coming.
19:25:15 The next one we know for sure is the one on the taxes for creative.
19:25:22 Planning for creatives and your schedule.
19:25:25 See, but we hope to find funding for even more.
19:25:29 We try and do at least 6 of these a year if we can get the funding together.
19:25:33 So thank you all so much for attending again thanks to our workshop presenters, and thank you all very much.
19:25:41 Good night.
19:25:44 Good night.
19:25:46 Thank you.
19:25:50 Thanks. Jen.
19:25:47 Thank you so much.
19:25:45 Bye. Thank you.
19:25:50 Bye, thanks so much.
19:25:51 Are you welcome?
19:25:52 Thank you all.
19:25:52 Thank you. Everyone. Have a good night.
19:25:55 Thank you.