Arts
Organization
Grants

This is the second round of a program that was created following an open survey to gauge the priorities of organizations in the field; more than 600 organizations responded. Three specific themes emerged: the need for multi-year funding, the value of supporting early career artists in developing careers and/or creating new work, and the need to help organizations address core needs beyond a particular supported program. The guidelines try to address each of these themes.

We invite you to learn about previously funded programs. Please note that we are interested in many kinds of programs that may or may not be represented there.

The Foundation knows that submitting a grant application is time consuming for any organization, and that more organizations will apply than our panels can reasonably consider. By speaking with Program Staff, you can immediately determine your eligibility. The Letter of Intent allows an organization to make its case without investing the amount of time required for a full application, and to avoid wasting time completing a lengthy proposal for a program in which it is not comparatively competitive.

The reduced full application review load also makes it feasible for busy working professionals to participate on panels, and for the Foundation to expedite the overall process by recruiting a panel with relevant expertise and without conflicts of interest even before the full applications are received.

This is the second round of the Arts Organization Grants program. In the first round, 254 organizations submit a preliminary application. Of those, 118 were invited to complete a full application. 50 ongoing grants were made totaling $3,261,000 over two years.

Multiple surveys of artists and organizations conducted by Jerome revealed widespread confusion over the term “emerging,” with various interpretations of length of tenure in the field, level of public awareness and fame, and even (at one extreme) the idea that all artists are always emerging. The use of “early career” is our attempt to define more precisely the kinds of artists we hope Jerome-funded programs will support.

Jerome-eligible artists are in the relatively early stages of their generative career (generally less than 12 non-student years) and are often still developing their artistic “voice.” They show enormous potential and have demonstrated seriousness about pursuing the arts as a central vocational goal, see themselves as part of a larger aesthetic or social community, and have a sense of purpose beyond financial gain or fame. They challenge traditions or norms within their art form, ask significant questions and provoke new ideas, whether aesthetic or social, in their work.

Any artist who would be described as mid-career or established in any artistic discipline is ineligible for Jerome support, even if they are changing disciplines and would make the case that they are early career in their new field. Artists who have been working in their field for more than twelve years, who receive ongoing support and recognition for their work, or who are at a point in their career where they are mentoring other artists are generally beyond early career artists.

Artists who have won major awards (e.g., multiple MAP Grants, a Doris Duke or MacArthur) have moved beyond consideration, as have artists who have completed major features with commercial studios in film, have released multiple books with major publishers in literature, are receiving major commissions and productions in various locations in dance, theater or music, or have commercial representation with major galleries and are featured in major institutional collections in visual arts.

Organizations are asked to provide their definition of early career, noting how it may differ from the Foundation’s definition at the full application stage.

The Foundation values and supports artists and organizations that challenge and engage traditional aesthetic practices and norms. Jerome priority artists bring an original perspective to the reclaiming or reviving of traditional cultural forms.

While we support artists whose primary goals are aesthetic innovation or “art for art’s sake,” we are equally dedicated to supporting social justice artists whose primary claim to innovation involves:

• shifting how we, individually or collectively, think and/or behave;
• challenging and engaging traditional social dimensions;
• reclaiming or reviving traditional cultural practices;
• using an artistic practice as a form of resistance or empowerment;
• creating space for and building a sense of community;
• exploring new subject matter;
• creating and/or presenting work in new contexts; and/or
• engaging new collaborators or communities in the creation or presentation of work.

All artists, whether driven by social justice or by aesthetic innovation, are expected to bring an original perspective to the work they create.

Single programs are those in which the participants are a defined group, and all participants are participating in most or all phases. A performance-related program that includes in-house workshops, public viewings and possibly even full premieres is a single program, even if it takes place over multiple weeks and embraces multiple discrete projects.

Multiple programs embrace different, discrete and generally non-overlapping groups of artists for distinctly different purposes. A publisher that offers publication of new works by emerging/early career artists, but that also offers ongoing seminars and technical development for writers beyond those that it intends to publish would be seen as multiple programs.

The panel in the first round of this initiative was deeply concerned and unsupportive of residency and commissioning programs where the artists were not compensated for their investment of time, and where artists were compelled to use significant levels of personal resources or incur significant debt to complete their work. Such programs were seen as inadvertently promoting a kind of class bias and limiting their reach about the kind of artists who could even consider applying.

That said, the range of programs, the very real differences in professional practice and creative methodology in different fields, in organizational sizes and infrastructures, in the timing of when the organization intersects with the artist (a commission vs. an exhibition, for example), and in local cost of living make it impossible to articulate specific rigid standards.

Highest priority will be given to organizations who amply compensate artists for their time, their materials and their process, as appropriate for the given field and project. Programs that require an artist to devote significant personal resources in order for work to be completed or that compel an artist to significantly increase personal debt in order to participate will not be supported.

There are some resources you may want to look at for reasonable and adequate compensation for artists:

• WAGE Fee Calculator
• NPN Artist Contract for Performance and Exhibition Residency Programs
• New Music USA Commissioning Fees Calculator
• The Bindery Agency’s “Royalties: How Do Publishers Pay Authors?”
• Artist Communities’ Residency Fees, Stipends and Funding

The Foundation understands that small organizations may find it difficult to meet these fees and that compensation to artists that significantly exceeds that to ongoing staff or resident artists can affect organizational dynamics. In such cases, panels may consider the percentage of the overall organizational budget dedicated to artist compensation.

The IRS “public support test” requires that one-third of an organization’s support come from the general public and/or governmental sources to avoid “tipping.” For more information on how this is defined, visit https://grantspace.org/resources/knowledge-base/public-support-test

Disproportionately large grants from a single source can upset this ratio, resulting in the potential loss of charitable status for the grantee nonprofit. Additionally, organizations overly dependent on a single source of income are often de-stabilized—sometimes fatally—if that single funding source changes direction or alters its level of funding. Concerned both with IRS regulations and with an organization’s longer-term stability and viability, the Foundation has decided to institute this maximum grant size cap.

Please remember, however, that organizations that are not currently supported with ongoing funding may not request more than $30,000 for a single program, service or activity, or a total of $60,000 for multiple programs, services and activities, no matter how large their annual income may be.

Organizations that received prior funding are certainly welcome, but not required, to apply for activities which Jerome previously supported. Whether or not you are applying with the same program, you must consult with Program Staff.

Organizations receiving exit grants are certainly welcome to re-apply for support for programs, services and activities that had been supported before 2018. That said, exit grants were often awarded because of significant panel reservations that made the programs less than fully competitive. In such cases, organizations are advised to openly address those past concerns in the new application.

Organizations who received exit grants in the prior round may request a maximum of $30,000 for a single program, service or activity, or $60,000 for multiple programs, services or activities. That said, organizations whose average unrestricted operating income was less than $120,000 per year for the past three years are limited to the 25% request explained above and earlier in the guidelines, and must request less than $30,000, regardless of how many programs are to be supported.

The terms “exit grant” and “ongoing grant” were used in your grant letter. If you cannot locate your grant letter or cannot locate such language in your letter, please contact Jerome staff for clarification.

The optional 25% of grant funds can be used to meet both ongoing organizational costs tied to the supported program that many consider “indirect,” including utilities, rent, overhead, etc. and for longer term needs connected to early career artists even if they are not specifically connected to the Jerome-supported programs, services or activities.

This 25% might include but is not limited to:

• staff travel
• program assessment
• research
• conference attendance
• consultants
• etc.

Funds cannot be used for noncharitable purposes (e.g., lobbying) or to support costs for programs, services and activities that omit or exclude participation by early career artists. Using funds to assess a commissioning program for established artists, for example, would not be permitted.

With the exception of a small program open to national arts and philanthropic services organizations (which has separate guidelines), Jerome Foundation supports only artists and not-for-profit arts organizations located in Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City. Organizations with multiple office sites must have their primary legal mailing address in New York City or Minnesota. All artists who benefit from Jerome Foundation funds must be legal residents of New York City or Minnesota.

No, not in this program. This program is open only to nonprofit organizations or organizations with a fiscal sponsor that offer programs for early career artists. Individual artists, collaboratives or ensembles who meet eligibility requirements and are interested in support for their own work should apply through the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship program, which will next accept applications in 2020 or directly to the organizations that are funded through this program once grantees are announced. We often post these opportunities.

The grant period for this round will begin no earlier than May 2020, and no organization may request payment before that start date.

Payments are made through direct deposit; organizations which do not yet have direct deposit established for Jerome should expect approximately three weeks for the completion of paperwork and the establishment of that system before the first direct deposit payment can be processed. The Foundation makes grant payments monthly on the second Friday of the month. Your payment schedule will be stated in your letter of agreement/grant contract.

Grantees are required to submit interim and/or final reports, established by the Foundation in the letter of agreement/grant contract.

Contact the Foundation staff at least one month prior to an application deadline to discuss your circumstances.

Submittable, the online software we use for our applications, meets the Level AA standard according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Submittable has also attained a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (or VPAT), affirming the platform is now more accessible to a wide range of submitters with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these.