Artist Development Microgrant: Online Information Session

Taylor Poitras: Welcome to the Online Information Session for the 2025 Artist Development Microgrant.

The purpose of this recording is to share information and context about the Artist Development Microgrant for the 2025 grant year.

That said, the most important information about this program is included in the Program Guidelines and the Assessor Terms of Reference. So please, whether you watch this recording or not, read through those documents in full before applying and reach out early if you have any questions or need any support!

Program Contacts

The primary contacts for this program are myself, Taylor Poitras, and Van Chu. Our roles and contact information are shared on this slide.

If you have questions about the program itself, please feel free to contact me, and if you have technical questions about the online grant portal, please feel free to contact Van.

Vision & Mission

For those of you who may not be familiar with Calgary Arts Development Authority, commonly referred to as CADA for short, we are the City of Calgary’s designated arts development and municipal granting organization. We are mandated by The City of Calgary to steward public taxpayer dollars for the public good for the benefit of all Calgarians.

We believe in arts-led city building, and fostering a sustainable and resilient arts sector, which we do primarily through making grant investments and providing opportunities to individual artists, artist collectives and non-profit arts organizations here in Calgary, otherwise known as Mohkinsstsis in Blackfoot.

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that the land we gather on, Mohkinsstsis, is the ancestral territory of the Siksikaitsitapi — the Blackfoot people — comprising the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations, as well as Treaty 7 signatories, the Tsuut’ina Nation and the Îyârhe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations. Today this land is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Districts 5 and 6 as well as many First Nations and Inuit from across Turtle Island.

We acknowledge that there has been art, music, dance, storytelling and ceremony on this land since time immemorial and it is in the spirit of this land and its people that we do our work.

Commitment to Equity

I wanted to take a moment to talk about CADA’s commitment to equity, which is an ongoing, never-ending commitment and learning journey.

It’s important to acknowledge that systems like granting and public funding are usually designed in a one-size-fits-all way, meaning they are designed for the ‘dominant culture’ and are rooted in colonial, Western European academic systems which create barriers to access for many artists in our communities who are seeking and deserving of support. One obvious example of this is that we currently share our programs and accept applications primarily in an online, written format in English. This alone creates technological, linguistic, communication and cultural barriers, to name a few.

As a public funder, we have a responsibility to ensure equitable access to public funding. We envision a city where all artists have the freedom, agency and platform to share and amplify their stories, art, cultures and experiences: a city where Calgarians of all backgrounds can access, create and participate in art as part of their everyday lives.

To that end, we are dedicated to addressing and working to eliminate institutional inequity in our programs, policies and practices. Our staff are accountable to ensuring that lines of communication are welcoming, clear and open, and that our application and assessment processes are fair and deeply considerate. While we have been continuing to expand and improve our processes and policies around equity, accessibility and accommodation, we still have a long way to go. We aim to continue building relationships and learning from our communities, particularly those most directly affected, about the specific challenges that exist in granting and working to create more equitable systems for everyone.

Accessibility & Support

We understand that our programs and processes create barriers to access for many artists and organizations who want to apply.

In recognition of these barriers, our Applicant Support & Accessibility Policy is available for those who may need support from program staff, or financial assistance to access support from someone outside of Calgary Arts Development.

This could include support for any part of the granting process, whether that be: understanding our programs and who is eligible and deciding if you want to apply or not; creating and submitting a grant application; or receiving support after getting a grant such as understanding your grant agreement, sharing project updates or submitting a final report.

Some examples of accommodations are: translation of written materials into other languages; transcription of verbal meetings or audio and video recordings into a written document; language interpretation for phone or video meetings; video or audio applications, this means that if you would prefer to answer application questions verbally you can submit an audio or video recording of yourself or our staff can help record your responses using an online platform, such as Zoom or Teams; and general grant writing assistance.

We will work one-on-one with applicants and develop accommodations through conversation and check-ins. Our team can assist you over the phone, in-person or online. Help is available for applicants even if they choose not to apply for the program.

If you need help or have any questions about accessibility and the supports available, please contact our team by email at grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or by phone at 403-264-5330 ext. 115.

We can also provide information about other community resources for established, emerging, newcomer, refugee and immigrant artists.

Program Overview

The Artist Development Microgrant is intended to provide one-time funding to support artists with accessing either professional and artistic skill development or business and career development activities or opportunities.

The goal of this program is to contribute to the skills and knowledge required to advance artists’ careers and develop artistic practices in Calgary by investing in access to education, training and mentorship, marketing and promotion, building skills and networks and developing entrepreneurship and business acumen.

This program is available to Calgary-based individual artists, artist collectives and cultural workers working in any artistic discipline at any stage of practice.

Please read the program guidelines to understand what we mean by individual artist, artist collective and cultural worker to ensure that you are eligible.

Please keep in mind, this program does not accept applications from arts administrators, agents or managers, production companies, registered for-profit corporations or businesses, or registered not-for-profit organizations.

While activities do not have to take place in Calgary, eligible applicants must be Calgary-based. This means you primarily live and work in Calgary for at least six months of the year. You should be able to demonstrate that the majority of your work is accessible to the citizens of Calgary and that you have a meaningful and ongoing relationship with the city and its artistic communities. If you are not currently based in Calgary, please contact program staff to discuss your eligibility before applying.

We acknowledge that there are many artists who are new or returning to the city of Calgary and may not be familiar with grant programs or the local arts community. If you are a newcomer, immigrant, refugee or re-emerging artist in Calgary and have questions or concerns about eligibility or navigating the grant process, please know that our program staff are available to help guide and support you.

It’s also important to note that you do not need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to receive a CADA grant, but you do need to be able to report on this grant to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Assessors will be evaluating whether you meet the criteria around being a Calgary-based artist, artist collective or cultural worker so please make sure this is clear in your application.

Applicants may apply for up to $5,000 towards their activity and the total pool of funding available through the program this year is $650,000. We are offering two separate deadlines, or intakes, this year so that pool will be split in half across the two intakes with $325,000 in each.

Please note, this program is not intended to support activities primarily focused on the research, creation or production of artistic work, or the creation or production of shows, events, workshops, tours or exhibitions. If you are seeking funding for these activities, please refer to the 2025 Project Grant Program for Individuals and Collectives which runs this spring.

Intake 1 Timeline

Here is the timeline for Intake 1 of this program.

Applications opened on March 5. This means that the program is now available in our grant platform online and you can begin working on your application.

Staff can provide feedback on your drafted application if you reach out before March 24 for Intake 1. After this date, staff cannot guarantee that your application can be reviewed, based on the volume of requests. Please keep in mind that requesting staff feedback is optional and does not guarantee success within a program; however, it may help ensure your application is generally clear, eligible and complete.

April 2 is the application deadline. We don’t accept applications after 4:30pm MT so please make a note in your calendar about the deadline, so you do not miss it. We make our deadlines at 4:30pm instead of midnight, so that it’s during office hours and program staff are available to help with any last-minute technical issues or questions. Staff will do their best to answer questions up until the application deadline. Please see the Deadline Extension Policy for information about extensions.

Between April to May, the grants will be reviewed and evaluated by a peer assessment committee and staff, and all eligible applications are entered into a lottery draw with equal chances of being selected for funding. I’ll share more about this lottery process later on.

Notification of results will be shared over email by Mid-to late-May.

Funds will be distributed directly after results go out, between late May to June 2025. Funds are released after grantees sign and return their grant investment agreements.

NEW this year: we have expanded the eligible timeline for when activities can occur and be funded. For the microgrant this year we are able to consider fully retroactive activities that have already occurred so long as they start and end between January 1 to December 31, 2025.

However, since the grant results and funding will not occur until May or June of 2025 applicants must keep this in mind when planning. Before applying, please consider your own timeline, cashflow and circumstances. If your activity has already occurred or will already be done before the results and funding are released, please ensure that you are able to cover all costs on your own and be aware of the possibility of not receiving a grant. If you cannot undertake the activities or opportunity without first confirming and receiving funding, then please ensure your activity takes place after the funding is scheduled to be released.

Virtual Open Office Spaces

We are hosting four virtual open office spaces online over Zoom for Intake 1 of the 2025 microgrant. These sessions are open to any artist interested in applying to the program. 

Artists are welcome to login and join at any time during these Zoom sessions to ask our program specialists questions about the microgrant, and to listen to other artists’ questions. Folks can stay for as long as they like. There is no formal presentation — just 90 mins of artist Q+A.

The dates for these are: Thursday, March 13, from 5 – 6:30pm; Wednesday, March 19, from 9:30 – 11am; Monday, March 24, from 3:30 – 5pm; Tuesday, April 1, from 11:30am – 1pm.

Please register on our website ahead of the Q+A session to get the zoom links. These sessions will not be recorded. 

ASL interpretation is not currently booked for these drop-in sessions. If you are an artist with specific needs or require ASL translation or other interpretation services, please let us know and we will arrange to make sure you have all the support and information you need to fairly access the application process. This could include booking a one-on-one session with us.

Intake 2 Timeline

The timeline for Intake 2 is as follows:

September 17, 2025: Applications will open online. October 6 is the last day to request feedback, after this date, staff cannot guarantee that your application can be reviewed, based on the volume of requests. October 15 at 4:30pm is the application deadline for Intake 2. Between October to November, evaluation of grants and lottery draw will occur. Notification of results will happen by late November. And then funds will be distributed in either December 2025 or January 2026.

Because Intake 2 runs so late in the year, we offer our Instalment Policy. This means that successful applicants will have the choice of receiving their grant payment either entirely in December or entirely in January. For tax purposes, we encourage folks to receive and accept payment in the year in which most of their expenses will be incurred.

Activities funded through Intake 2 may occur anytime between April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. We chose April 1 since that is just before the Intake 1 deadline, so if folks miss the opportunity to apply to Intake 1, they still have the potential to support Spring, Summer and Fall activities through Intake 2.

As I mentioned before, please keep this program timeline in mind when planning. If your activity has already occurred or will already be done before the results and funding are released, please ensure that you are able to cover those costs. If you cannot undertake the activities or opportunity without confirming and receiving funding first, then please ensure your activities take place after the funding is scheduled to be released.

There will be virtual open office spaces offered for Intake 2 between September 17 to October 15. Those dates are still to be decided and will be announced on our website.

Eligibility Rules

Application eligibility varies by program, so always read the guidelines for the program you’re intending to apply to.

Some important eligibility rules for the microgrant are as follows:

Applicants may not have more than two open grants with CADA, including grants for which a deadline extension has been approved. So long as you’ve completed and submitted your report for a past grant, then it is no longer considered ‘open’, even if staff have yet to review and approve your final report. For more information, please review the Open Grant Policy.

Second, you must be in good standing if you wish to apply. This means that you cannot have final reports past their due dates for prior grants. If you do, you’ll need to submit the report before applying or be granted an extension on your final report.

Applicants may submit only one application per program deadline. That said, individual artists may be involved in more than one application, either as a participant in another artist’s application, or as a member of an artist collective.

Please apply with the correct account. Individual artists must apply using their individual artist accounts and artist collectives must apply using their collective account.

If your application is unsuccessful, you may reapply to the next intake so long as the activity is still eligible within the program timeline.

Applicants may not receive an Artist Development Microgrant in back-to-back intakes, regardless of calendar year. This means that if you already received an Artist Development Microgrant in 2024, you cannot apply to Intake 1 of 2025. If you receive an Artist Development Microgrant in Intake 1 of 2025, then you may not apply to Intake 2 of 2025.

And lastly, CADA cannot fund the same phase of a project or activity more than once, regardless of calendar year. Please do not apply to more than one CADA program for the same project, or phase of a project.

Please reach out if you have any questions about eligibility or want confirmation about the number of open grants you currently have.

What can you apply for?

Eligible applicants may apply to one of two program streams to support activities that are primarily focused on either professional and artistic skill development, or business and career development.

Applicants may only apply for activities that fall within one of the two program streams, not both. Applicants should select the stream that best fits the core goal and purpose of their activities.

An important thing to note is If activities are not fully complete or fully confirmed at the time of applying, the application must include specific details about your planned activities. For example, applicants cannot be vague or too high level about details such as who they will be engaging as a mentor, what course they will be taking or which residency they are applying to. Please be specific about your planned activities when applying to this program.

Stream 1: Professional and Artistic Skill Development

This stream is for activities related to the professional development of your artistic practice, skills, knowledge and relationships through mentorship, continuing education, training, learning or development opportunities. Activities may take place online or in person; locally, nationally or internationally.

Eligible activities in this stream may include:

Courses, classes, or workshops: This refers to accessing and attending artistic training opportunities to develop your artistic skills, techniques or knowledge. Please keep in mind, this does not include planning or offering your own courses, classes or workshops to the community.

Invited opportunities or conferences: This refers to opportunities where you have been invited to share your work or knowledge, such as being invited to perform at an awards show, present or teach at a conference, or attend a screening of your film during a festival.

Mentorships: This refers to a structured agreement with a mentor with clear learning goals. Mentorship in this stream would be related to developing artistic skills, techniques or approaches to your practice. Applicants must clearly describe the benefit of the mentorship, their learning goals, the mentor’s role, time commitment and compensation.

If the mentor relationship is within an organization, please reach out to a program specialist before applying.

Artistic creation or production cannot be the primary activity or focus of a mentorship, but it may be a byproduct or a secondary outcome. To clarify, this does not include activities related to hiring someone to help edit or finalize your artistic work, such as hiring an editor to complete your book, or a dramaturg to workshop your play, or a producer to record your album. While you may learn through these artistic relationships, they are primarily centred on the creation and production of work, not on mentorship.

And lastly, residencies: This refers to a formal residency program with an application process and a cost to attend. Self-planned residencies are not eligible within this program.

Stream 2: Business and Career Development

This stream is for activities related to the development of the business skills and knowledge required to advance your artistic career. This could include undertaking activities or opportunities related to documenting, marketing, promoting or sharing your completed artistic work. Activities could also involve learning specific business skills or developing business models for your art practice, or developing artistic networks, markets, or income streams. Again, activities may take place online or in person; locally, nationally or internationally.

Eligible activities in this stream may include:

Courses, classes, or workshops: This refers to accessing and attending training opportunities to develop business skills and knowledge, such as legal, finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing, etc.

Mentorships: This refers to a structured agreement with a mentor with clear learning goals. Mentorship in this stream would be related to learning business skills and knowledge, such as legal, financial, accounting, entrepreneurship or marketing.

Applicants must clearly describe the benefit of the mentorship, their learning goals, the mentor’s role, time commitment and compensation. Again, if the mentor relationship is within an organization, please reach out to a program specialist before applying.

Business plans, models, frameworks or strategies: This refers to the development of strategies, models, frameworks, tools, templates or plans related to your personal artistic practice. This might include hiring a professional service provider to work on developing these with you or purchasing tools or equipment to help support the administration of your artistic practice.

Documentation of work: This refers to having your artistic work or processes professionally documented for portfolio development, marketing and promotion, archiving, and more. This might include photography, audio or videography costs to have your completed artistic work professionally documented. This grant cannot cover costs related to the creation or development of the work itself.

Marketing, branding and promotion: This refers to activities related to the marketing, branding and promotion of your artistic practice or completed work. This might include website development or redesign, social media marketing, content strategy and development, interviews, business cards, releases or launches, etc.

This grant cannot cover costs related to the creation or development of the artistic work itself. While this grant is not intended to produce shows, events, tours or exhibitions, we will consider launches or releases of newly completed work to be part of marketing and promotion. For example, a book launch, album release, film premier, or an invited performance showcase that is intended to get your work picked up or programmed.

We will also consider the production and release of a music video to be part of the marketing and promotion of a specific song or album that has already been created.

And lastly, conferences, industry events, and networking events: This refers to attending events with the primary focus of networking, learning the industry or developing business skills and knowledge to advance your artistic career. It could also include opportunities where you have a chance to promote and share your work, such as having a booth at a market, fair or convention.

Eligible Expenses

Please ensure that your proposed activities are eligible for this program first. If your activities are eligible, then you can take a look through the list of eligible expenses in the program guidelines.

When it comes to requesting expenses, please make sure that any expense you request is directly related and necessary to accessing and undertaking your proposed activities. If you include ineligible expenses, please be aware that they may not be included or awarded funding through this program.

There is a list of eligible and ineligible expenses in the program guidelines that we strongly recommend you read over, but I want to highlight a few specific things to be aware of:

The first is around course fees. While course fees are eligible, this refers to individual courses or continuing educational courses that do not count toward a credit, diploma or degree granting program. Meaning we can’t pay for your diploma or degree, so if you are taking courses in pursuit of this or making work related to this, we cannot cover any costs associated.

And artist fees. Artist fees are specific to the creation, production or presentation of work. As this grant is not intended to support the creation, production or presentation of work, artist fees are generally considered an ineligible expense within this program.

Other fees such as technical fees, professional fees or honoraria are eligible for compensating mentors, teachers, service providers, etc. And applicants may request subsistence expenses for themselves if it’s needed to undertake an eligible professional development or business development activity. However, subsistence, fees and honoraria are not intended to support the creation of work.

There may be exceptions around the inclusion of artist fees in some cases, so please reach out to a program specialist to discuss before including artist fees in your budget.

And third, since this grant is not intended to fund activities primarily focused on the creation and production of artistic work, equipment, materials, space and subsistence are only eligible expenses if they are necessary to fully access, participate in, or undertake their professional development or business development activities.

For example, if you are attending a residency that is primarily focused on learning and developing your practice or a particular skill, or growing your network and connecting with other artists, but there is also an expectation or an aspect of the residency that involves creating work while in attendance, then you may request material expenses since it’s necessary to fully participate and benefit from that residency.

If you also needed to be able to pay your rent while away at this residency, for example one month, you could include that as a subsistence request.

Another example could be that you’ve designed a mentorship opportunity with someone to teach you a new painting skill over the course of three months and you need to rent functional studio space for the duration of the mentorship as well as purchase materials for the mentorship sessions.

Another example might be if you’re doing an online course that requires a particular tool, software or equipment to be able to take the course and maximize the benefit.

If you do include the purchase of equipment, please make sure to include a description of the specific equipment, its cost and how it’s related to the completion and success of your proposed activities. And if you include subsistence, please include a very clear description of what it includes and a breakdown of the time period and how you calculated it.

For those who are not aware, subsistence refers to monthly expenses such as rent, food, utilities, childcare, etc.

If you have any questions about expenses, please reach out to discuss before applying.

Where to apply?

We accept applications through an online grant platform, which is called Smart Simple.

This can be accessed from the CADA website under Login, which is always in the upper right-hand corner of the website. And it’s also linked in multiple areas of the Program Guidelines as well. You can also bookmark the portal login page for convenience when actively working on grant applications.

How to apply?

If you don’t already have an account with us, you will need to create an account and set up your user profile before you can apply. As mentioned, if you are applying as a collective rather than as an individual, you must have a separate collective account that you apply through.

If you have already applied to CADA before, you may login as usual.

If you can’t remember your password, click forgot password to reset it. You can also reach out to Van to ask if you already have an account in our system and she can search the system, update information and reset passwords as well.

When you login, you will notice that there is a section called My Profile. Please ensure that your individual or your collective profile is fully complete and up to date. The profile sections include information about you and your artistic practice such as current contact info, years of practice, the disciplines you work in, your artistic resume or CV, and your artistic practice statement.

Parts of your profile will be automatically transferred over to any grant application that you submit, so please ensure its accurate and up to date before submitting to any grant programs. If you make changes to your profile after submitting, those changes will not be reflected in your application. 

When you login, you will also notice a section called Open Opportunities. This is where you will find any open grant applications currently available. There you should see the Artist Development Microgrant. Click apply and begin application to open a draft application form. If you already received a microgrant in the most recent intake of the program, it will say that you are ineligible and prevent you from being able to apply, as we do not allow applicants to receive the microgrant in back-to-back intakes. You will need to wait for the next intake period instead.

The application form will contain important instructions throughout. Please take the time to read all instructions as they are very important and give guidance for what to include, how to make changes, and where to find more information as needed.

There will be multiple tabs that contain all the parts of the application form including written questions, a budget, and support material. Remember to save as you go. You can save and return to your draft application as much as you like.

After you’ve opened up a first draft you no longer need to go to Open Opportunities. Instead, you will see your draft application on the home page when you login under the drafts tab.

When you’ve completed your application, you can hit save & validate first and the platform will check your application to make sure you aren’t missing any mandatory information or sections. Once everything looks good to go, you can hit submit, before the stated program deadline, and the system will still validate and check your application before it lets you submit.

You should then receive an email notification informing you of your successful submission. If you don’t, please reach out to confirm.

Application Checklist

Besides your profile information, here is a checklist of what you’ll be asked to provide directly in the application form.

You’ll include a brief one sentence description of your proposed activity, meaning you’ll basically tell us here what you want to do with the grant in 25 words or less.

For example, “to attend a three-week writing residency in Banff this fall” or “to hire a web developer to create a new artist website for documenting, marketing and selling my work”.

You’ll indicate the amount you are requesting from this grant (up to $5,000 maximum for all applicants).

You’ll indicate the start and end date of your proposed activities. Remember to ensure that your activity falls within the eligible date range for the intake you’re applying to.

Intake 1 activities can take place anytime between January to December 2025, while Intake 2 activities can take place anytime between April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.

You will select a primary artistic discipline that best describes the focus of this application, as well as the specific program stream you are applying to; either Professional & Artistic Skill Development or Business & Career Development. Choose the one that best describes the core focus of your proposed activities and goals. Remember that we are not funding applications that have multiple activities that cross both streams, so ensure your activities clearly align with one stream or the other.

There are two written questions in the application which I will describe in more detail in a few slides. Each question is up to 300 words.

There will be a budget form within the application itself that you will fill out, including all relevant expenses and revenues. And lastly, you will upload any relevant support material, which is mandatory but what you include will depend on your activities and expenses.

We will dig into the budget and support materials later on as well.

Artistic Practice Statement

Your artist statement, located in your profile, is basically an introduction to you and your overall artistic practice and goals.

Artist statements shouldn’t be long or difficult to understand. It should be a concise and helpful overview that speaks about who you are as an artist, what you value, what kind of work you make, how you make it, such as processes or approaches, and what is important to you and why.

Your artist statement will likely change over time as you and your practice do. Remember that context matters. This means the type of artist statement that you would submit to accompany a gallery show or as program notes is going to look different than the type of artist statement you share with a grant committee.

This introduction provides helpful context for how assessors understand how the activities proposed in your application connect to your overall art practice and goals.

Artistic Resume/CV

Another piece that is now located in your profile, is your resume or curriculum vitae (CV).

This is a clear list of experiences relevant to your artistic practice, and can include things like education, trainings, workshops, past work, media, awards, grants received, etc.

A resume or CV can be a helpful tool for assessors to view alongside your artist statement to better understand you, your practice and where you’re at in your career.

There are many formats, and some may be discipline specific. For the purposes of our programs, simplicity and readability are more important than fancy formatting.

Be sure to include important information such as dates, locations and a very brief description of each experience, if it’s needed.

Written Question #1

There are two written questions in the application.

The first question asks you to describe what you want to do with this grant, including what will happen or has already happened, when and where activities will take place and who is involved.

The most important thing is that your response is specific, straightforward, easy to understand and answers each part of who, what, when and where.

Assessors and staff need to have a clear idea of exactly what you are proposing in order to determine if it’s eligible within the program. If you are not sure, please reach out before you work on preparing an application.

In this section you are welcome to speak a little about why and how you came to decide on the who, what, when and where of your project. For example, why have you chosen a particular mentor to work with? What specifically did you look for when researching and selecting a web designer? Why is it important for you to partake in this specific residency overseas?

Since we have expanded the program timeline to include fully retroactive activities, you may have already completed your activity in which you can use past tense and share what did happen, when and where it took place and who was involved.

Written Question #2

This section asks you to describe your goals and why this activity or opportunity is important to you at this stage of your practice/career.

This question helps assessors and staff understand the primary focus or reason for pursing your proposed activities and it helps us to determine eligibility within the program as well.

As mentioned, the primary focus and goals for activities funded by this program should not be centred on the research, creation or production of artistic work or the creation and production of shows, events, workshops, tours or exhibitions. Artistic creation or production cannot be the primary activity or focus of the application, but it may be a byproduct.

If you are interested in applying for activities that are centred on creation and production or sharing work publicly, please refer to our Project Grant Program which has a deadline of May 14 this year.

Depending on what you are applying for, this written section could include goals or outcomes related to your artistic practice, skill development, learning, training, experimentation, marketing, financial skills or literacy, expanding or developing platforms, audiences or networks, relationship building, growth, sustainability and so much more.

Consider why these goals or outcomes are important to you at this stage in your career. How will this specific opportunity or activity allow you to achieve these goals or desired outcomes?

Budget

Your budget will ask for a list of all relevant expenses and a list of all relevant revenues. You might only have one revenue item, which is the amount you are requesting from this grant, or you may have other revenues contributing towards the cost of your activities. Just be sure to account for the entire scope of the activities that you are applying for, and make sure your budget tells the same story as your grant application and that there are no surprise expenses that don’t seem to align with your activities and timeline.

Our advice for approaching a budget is to first consider what opportunity or activities might fall within the general range of the grant program, and budget for what you realistically need to complete the activities. Start by imagining how that activity would run ideally and then build your budget off of that, rather than starting at the maximum amount available and building a budget backwards.

If you add all your true estimated expenses up and you go over the maximum amount that you’re able to request in this grant, then you might reconsider the scale or scope of your proposed activities, look for where you can reduce costs or break out your plan into multiple phases. Or you can think about other funding sources and revenues to supplement your overall budget.

Your budget should balance to zero, meaning your total expenses should equal your total revenues. If your total expenses are higher than the amount you are requesting, you’ll need to show how you will fund the remaining expenses, either through fundraising, other grants, sponsorships, your own personal contribution, earned revenue or in-kind donations.

If you are applying for additional funding outside of this program but it won’t be confirmed before the deadline, do your best to demonstrate that you have done the proper planning and indicate what is confirmed or pending at the time of applying.

Each line item in your budget has a notes section that we strongly recommend using to give additional information about each expense or revenue item, including a description of what it is or what it includes and any helpful calculations, breakdowns or context for how you got to that number.

Assessors will be reviewing your budget to determine if all of your expenses appear to be eligible based on the program guidelines. So, make sure you are only requesting costs that are required to access and undertake eligible activities, and that you are being clear and detailed about each expense item.

Remember that if you are including any kind of payment for the creation or completion of artistic work, you must first reach out to get permission to include this first, as artist fees are generally ineligible in the program. Any kind of fee for creation of work will be flagged by assessors, for staff to review.

There is also room to upload support materials to back-up your budget estimates, such as confirmations, quotes, rates, receipts, invoices and more. Budget support gives assessors confidence in your planning, especially for bigger expense items and important things like payments, fees or rates.

Support Material

Assessors will be asked if the application provides sufficient support material to describe their proposed activities and expenses. What is provided will obviously vary depending on the activities and expenses that you are applying for and where you’re at in the process.

If your activity has already occurred, you will need to include documents that indicate what occurred, when it occurred and how much it cost, such as receipts, paid invoices, invites, confirmations, etc.

If your activity has yet to occur, you will need to include documents that indicate what will occur, when it will occur and how much it will cost, such as quotes, researched costs, invites, letters of support, confirmations or proof of registration.

If activities that you are applying for are not fully complete or fully confirmed at the time of applying, a reminder to make sure that you are including specific details about your planned activities. Be as specific as you can in your application.

Depending on your activity you will need to include things like: for mentorships, a confirmation letter from the mentor outlining the terms of the mentorship including goals, outcomes, time commitment and compensation; bios or resumes of mentors, teachers or service providers; course descriptions; letters of acceptance, confirmation or invitation; quotes, negotiated rates or researched costs, especially for any larger budget items or fees; descriptions of any specific equipment being purchased or rented; and event information for things like conferences, conventions, markets, fairs, or networking events.

Not every expense item to needs be backed up with documentation or proof, but we want to ensure that the applicant has a clear understanding of what is required to undertake their proposed activities, how much it will cost, and who is involved.

If an application involves accessing mentorship from a specific person, outside of a formal course, has the applicant clearly described the benefit of the mentorship, their learning goals, the mentor’s role, time commitment and compensation? This can be in the form of an email or letter of confirmation from the mentor directly. If there are other people that are being hired or engaged (such as photographers, website designers, service providers, a marketing company, trainer, legal expert, etc.), has the applicant clearly included information that demonstrates the service they are providing, the scope of the work and their payment (from either a quote, negotiated rate or researched cost)? We include this in assessment to ensure that there are clear and supported relationships with anyone else involved in the applicant’s activities and to ensure fair/equitable compensation for those involved.

You can upload PDFs or audio/visual files in the support material section. If you want to include links, please save any links (along with a description of the link) as a PDF so that assessors can easily click the link(s) directly in the PDF. Feel free to combine multiple PDFs into one upload area as needed. Just keep in mind that assessors will only be reviewing up to five minutes of support material for each applicant. They are reviewing many applications, so please only provide information that is directly relevant and easy to read or view.

Peer Assessment

Applications to the program will be reviewed by a committee made up of artistic peers which is individual artists and arts workers with experience and knowledge from a variety of artistic disciplines and practices.

Assessment committees are chosen to represent the broad diversity of Calgary and its artistic communities, including but not limited to artistic discipline, gender, sexuality, age, religion, beliefs, nation, physical and neurological identities.

We pay assessors an honorarium to serve on any of our committees. This honoraria is outlined in the Assessor Terms of Reference, which are linked within the guidelines. I would encourage you to read those terms to understand the responsibilities and expectations that assessors are asked to commit to. It also includes information about how we are asking the committees to review applications for eligibility and completeness in much more detail (under Program Considerations).

Assessors are kept confidential and anonymous until next year, when a full list of assessors is posted as part of our annual report. Assessors are required to declare conflicts of interest according to the Conflict of Interest Policy which means they will not evaluate applications where there is a real or perceived conflict.

Become an Assessor

The membership of the peer committees are chosen through public nominations and staff expertise.

If you or anyone you know is interested in assessing any of our programs, there is a nomination form on our website!

How are grants awarded?

After you’ve submitted your application, assessment committees are responsible for reviewing applications for eligibility and completeness, based on the following 5 Program Considerations:

1. Does the applicant appear to be eligible based on CADA’s definitions of Calgary-based “individual artist”, “artist collective” or “cultural worker”?
2. Do the activities included appear to be eligible within one of the two program streams, based on the guidelines?
3. Do all expenses in the budget appear to be eligible expenses, based on the guidelines?
4. Does the application present sufficient support material to describe their proposed activities and expenses?
5. Does there appear to be clear and supported relationships and compensation for others involved, if relevant?

For the full descriptions please see the Assessor Terms of Reference.

Any potentially ineligible applications will be further reviewed by program staff before a final decision is made on a case-by-case basis. Staff will follow up with applicants as needed to determine eligibility. NOTE: Only eligible applications and expenses will be included in the lottery. If your application includes a combination of both eligible and ineligible activities and expenses, Program Staff may include the eligible portion of the grant request in the lottery.

All eligible applications will be entered into a lottery for each program stream. All eligible applications have an equal chance to receive funding in the lottery.

The funding pool available, which is $325,000 per intake, will be prorated (divided) between the two program streams based on the number of applicants that apply to each stream, and the dollar amount requested within each stream.

The lottery process will be conducted by our Research & Policy Manager using software to randomize the eligible list of applications. Once the list is randomized, we will work down the new list awarding the full amount of each request until all funding is allocated. All identifying information connected to the application, such as the artist’s name, is removed from the list, and only the unique application ID number will be visible when the list is randomized, and the grants are awarded to ensure that there is no staff bias. Just like our peer assessment processes, the lottery is not a public event. The process will be witnessed by the grant investment team, the Director of Community Investment and impact, and one other member of the CADA leadership team to ensure the validity and integrity of the process. The lottery process is recorded and kept as part of our confidential records.

 If anyone declines the grant after being awarded, the next person on the original randomized list is offered funding.

So why a lottery process?

We piloted a lottery process for this program last year for the very first time. The change came after two years of running the Artist Development Microgrant and getting feedback from applicants, assessors and program staff.

For one, we noticed that the number of applications we were receiving to the microgrant program each intake were so high that the assessment process took months, and the workload was quite high for committee members and staff, especially when the program ran multiple times per year, in addition to our other granting programs.

Secondly, we noticed that the assessment committees for this program had challenges deciding which applications merited funding in comparison to other applications. For example, for the many artists that asked for funds to build websites to promote their artistic practices, assessors and the members of our team who reviewed the applications felt challenged to determine which applications were more “deserving” of funds than others given the similar nature of the proposed activities and the comparable impact on the artists applying. The vast majority of applications to the program were scoring highly and the difference between scores was very minimal and did not feel meaningful when funding top-down based on total average score.

Thirdly, as a team, we were also grappling with the amount of time and effort that artists put into their grant applications. The amount of time, effort, detail and case-building that applicants were required to include in order to compete was not commensurate to the amount of funding being offered in a microgrant and was more than should be reasonable or necessary to include to meet the goals and purposes of this grant program.

We took these factors into account when designing the simplified application and assessment process. We wanted to acknowledge that, regardless of artistic experience, artistic practice or previous experience receiving grants, all artists have equal opportunity to funding that would help them grow and develop in their careers. We noted that other fields in Health Research and other arts and civic recreational programs have used lottery processes and received positive feedback from the communities they support.

As a result, and after much discussion, our team piloted the lottery process last year.

After running the lottery process for the program last year, to much success, we decided to continue to pilot the lottery process for 2025 as well.

To highlight some of the successes: the application process was far more accessible to artists applying and took less time to complete. The assessment process was much faster so results could be shared much sooner, which also makes it possible to run multiple intakes each year instead of only offering one deadline. We were able to fund half of the eligible applications that we received (in other words a 50% success rate!) which included many first-time applicants and artists who experience barriers to access or living with disabilities. And when looking at the proportionality of who was funded against who applied (in terms of artistic discipline, years of practice, etc.) the lottery produced extremely proportional results.

There were also aspects of last years’ pilot that revealed where we could improve the process as well. For one, getting much clearer in the guidelines about eligible activities and eligible expenses (to further decrease the number of ineligible applications and expenses), as well as decrease the number of staff follow-ups that were required. We also expanded and clarified the Program Considerations to make it clearer what assessors are reviewing when it comes to completeness and eligibility and how we’ve asked them to approach those reviews. We also decided to limit back-to-back applications so that different artists in the community can be supported by the lottery each round. This combined with the open grants policy should help ensure that volumes remain manageable, success rates remain higher, and many different artists have the opportunity to be supported by CADA’s programs.

Staff will continue to evaluate the program throughout the year to ensure that the process is as accessible and equitable as possible, and we welcome any feedback from artists applying in the community as well.

Also I wanted to mention that we are not considering a lottery process for larger grant programs like our Project Grants, because we feel that peer assessment is important and valuable especially when it comes to larger budget projects and projects that may involve collaborating with artists, engaging communities or participants and creating, sharing and presenting work with an audience or public. We will still use specific criteria to competitively assess those programs with input from peer committees.

Voluntary Self-Identification Form

Included in the grant application is a ‘Voluntary Self-Identification Form’ which includes optional questions based on equity priority groups that CADA has identified. These equity priority groups include Indigenous, Black, persons of colour, D/deaf persons, persons with disabilities, persons living with mental illness, and 2SLGBTQIAP+ individuals. For details on these equity group descriptions, please refer to the equity priority group descriptions in the application and guidelines.

Access to this information is limited to the grant program staff and research team at CADA. These responses are not visible to assessors.

Information shared in the Voluntary Self-Identification Form helps us track and understand who is applying to our programs, identify gaps and ensure that grants are awarded in an equitable manner.

Equity Priority Group responses are not used as a tie-breaking measure in this grant program since a lottery process is being used.

Successful applications

Successful applicants will receive an automated notification through the online grant platform with instructions on how to accept their grant and receive funding. This includes reviewing, signing and returning a grant investment agreement which is like a contract between CADA and the grantee and outlines the terms and conditions of receiving and accepting a grant.

It is important to consider the tax implications of receiving a grant. If you receive a grant from Calgary Arts Development, we are required to issue a T4A tax form for the full grant amount in the calendar year that you received payment. When filing your taxes, you may deduct all “reasonable” grant expenses related to the project or activity from the total grant amount.

In order to show the amounts of the grant that were spent out, you must track all your expenses, keep receipts, invoices, contracts, proof of payments etc. so that you can properly deduct these expenses. The CRA, Canada Revenue Agency, may request these things if you are audited. Some expenses, such as subsistence may not be considered deductible by the CRA and applicants may be required to pay income tax on any amount of the grant that could be considered income or non-deductible. Our FAQ has some information and resources about artist grants and taxes, however CADA does not offer tax advice. We highly recommend that you consult a tax professional or accountant when planning your grant applications and preparing your taxes each year.

Successful grantees will be required to complete a brief final report to share an update on their completed activities, any learnings and how the grant benefited their practice, along with an updated budget with actuals.

Final reports are due within 60 days of your stated ‘end date’ in your application. For folks whose projects were already completed we will likely give 60 days from the date of notification for final reports to be submitted.

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Thank you so much for your time. We hope this info session was helpful. We welcome any feedback or questions from you.

Here is our contact information again and we look forward to connecting with you and staying in touch.