Special Arts

The Special Arts Grants program guidelines and eligibility criteria have recently changed. Please review the information below carefully.

Annual grantmaking in this program now takes place once each year at the Foundation’s spring Board meeting. Letters of Inquiry are generally due by December 1, and applications are generally due by January 15.

Special Arts Grants are awarded to anchoring arts and culture nonprofit organizations with annual budgets between $750,000 and $2 million that produce and present new work and that also operate performance venues or exhibition spaces in San Francisco, Alameda, or Contra Costa counties and meet the other eligibility criteria listed below.

The Foundation strives to make grants that advance a diverse array of artistic disciplines, aesthetic sensibilities, and forms of cultural expression. We prioritize grant requests that best support working artists. We also place particular emphasis on funding organizations that represent and engage artists from historically marginalized groups and under-resourced communities.

The Special Arts Grants program accepts applications for general support from organizations that are engaged in the production and presentation of new work by Bay Area artists in the disciplines of dance, music, theater, visual arts, interdisciplinary arts, or film.

General support grants are flexible and may be used for operations, staffing, facilities, health and safety compliance, artists’ compensation, rehearsals, performances, presentations, exhibitions, and other administrative, program, or production costs at the grantee’s discretion.

Project-specific grants are no longer considered for this grant program.

Grants in this program will be at least $10,000 and will generally not exceed $15,000 annually. The Foundation will award single-year grants as well as a limited number of three-year grants to selected anchoring arts organizations.

Letters of Inquiry for the 2025 review cycle were due by Monday, December 2, 2024. No further Letters of Inquiry are being accepted for this grant program for consideration in 2025.

Letters of Inquiry for the 2026 review cycle are due by Monday, December 1, 2025. The Foundation will inform prospective applicants by December 15, 2025 if a full proposal is invited for consideration in 2026.

Funding decisions will be communicated in May each year.

Fiscally sponsored projects and individual artists are not eligible for this grant program.

Applicants must be:

• An arts and culture organization incorporated as 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

• Located and operating a performance venue or exhibition space in San Francisco, Alameda, or Contra Costa counties.

• Engaged in the production and presentation of new work by Bay Area artists in the disciplines of dance, music, theater, visual arts, interdisciplinary arts, or film.

• An organization that financially compensates artists for their work.

• Of an annual budget size between $750,000 and $2 million.

• An organization that evidences strong support from the community and its Board of Directors. (Please see details provided in the review criteria below.)

Not eligible are:

• Organizations with more than 50% of their annual expense budgets directed toward educational programs, youth training in the arts, youth ensembles and performances, exhibitions of youth artwork, and/or productions designed for youth.

• Organizations whose primary purpose is to present historical works by artists no longer living.

• Organizations whose fundamental purpose or benefit falls within the social services, health, youth, or community development fields.

• Fiscally sponsored projects or individual artists.

The most important considerations in assessing Special Arts Grant requests are:

• Does the organization have a significant history of artistic accomplishment, and what are its contributions to the local arts community and the Bay Area at large?

• What are the organization’s upcoming artistic plans and projects?

• Does the organization represent and engage artists from historically marginalized groups and/or under-resourced communities in a meaningful way?

• Does the organization reasonably compensate artists?

• How viable are the organization’s plans for the future?

• What are the financial needs of the organization?

• Is there strong evidence of Board and community support for the organization; specifically, what percentage of Board members made financial contributions and what other income has been raised or generated within the last year?

• Does the organization use its resources efficiently and well, seeking to collaborate and share resources when appropriate?

The Special Arts Grants program guidelines and eligibility criteria have recently changed. Please review the information above carefully before preparing a Letter of Inquiry.

Annual grantmaking in this program now takes place once each year at the Foundation’s spring Board meeting. Letters of Inquiry are generally due by December 1.

No further Letters of Inquiry are being accepted for this grant program for consideration in 2025. Letters of Inquiry for the 2026 review cycle are due by Monday, December 1, 2025.

The Foundation will inform prospective applicants by December 15, 2026 if a full proposal is invited. The deadline for invited grant proposals is January 15, 2026. Funding decisions will be communicated in May.

Letters of Inquiry may be sent by email to: [email protected] with subject line “Special Arts Grant: LOI.” The communication should provide a brief description of the organization, its mission, location, key programs, annual budget size, the venue(s) it operates, and the artists and communities it engages.

Potential applicants must send a Letter of Inquiry to the Foundation’s Executive Director to approve the submission of a proposal for this grant program. Please review the Letter of Inquiry procedures above for instructions for doing so. Letters of Inquiry for the 2026 review cycle are due by December 1, 2025.

If your Letter of Inquiry is approved, you will be provided with an access code to apply. To do so, please go to our online portal. Create an application account, if your organization does not yet have one. Choose a username and password and follow the online instructions. Please note your login information, since you will need it every time you access the grantee portal.

Once you have logged in, click apply, and enter the access code you were provided (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen). You will then be able to view and complete the Special Arts Grants Program application. You may save and return to your draft application using your login information, but applications may not be edited once they are submitted.

In order to review a Special Arts Grants application, the Foundation will need the following information. (Please note that character-count limits include spaces.)

1. A brief description of the organization that includes: its mission and history, when it was founded, its key accomplishments, and a short summary of its artistic activities, programs, and the benefits it provides for the local arts community. Please also provide a brief description of the performance venue(s) or exhibition space(s) that it operates, including the size, location, whether made available for use by art groups and artists in the community, and, if so, how. (Up to 5,500 characters.)

2. A brief description of significant recent or upcoming changes or challenges (organizational leadership, finances, operations, or major shifts in programming), if any. (Up to 3,250 characters.)

3. The amount of any existing deficit, if applicable, and a brief description of plans for how it might be addressed. (Up to 1,500 characters.)

4. A description of the artists and communities the organization serves and how it engages them. Please include any relevant demographic information the organization may already have available about its artists, audiences, leadership, and/or staff, and the approximate total attendance at public events and performances during the past year, separating in-person and online participation, if any. (Up to 2,750 characters.)

5. A description of the organization’s artistic projects, plans, and priorities for the year ahead, focusing on activities between November 15, 2025 and October 15, 2026. Please note that the strength of the organization’s planned artistic projects during this period will be a key consideration in the evaluation of your proposal.

Attachments: (Please note that all documents must be uploaded as PDFs.)

1. An organizational budget for the fiscal year for which funding is being sought, with itemized income and expenses, including the amount(s) for compensation for artists clearly separated out.

2. A financial statement for the organization’s last completed fiscal year, with itemized income and expenses (actual).

3. A list of confirmed and pending foundation, corporate, and government grants for the current fiscal year with amounts.

4. Board of Directors list and the percentage of Board members who made a financial contribution to the organization within the last year.

5. Optional: A link to a video or audio work sample and an image. (Providing a video or audio sample is strongly encouraged.)

6. Optional: Up to three supporting documents such as press reviews and program material.

All applicants will receive written confirmation of receipt of their proposal. Funding decisions are made once each year in the spring and will be communicated in May.

Apply