Guidelines: New Applicants – Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant Program

You can learn more about the program guidelines and application process by watching our online information session, or by bringing your questions to our open office spaces.

Online Information Session

This online information session is for anyone interested in applying to this program.

Calgary Arts Development staff provided information about the program guidelines, updates to the program and application process in an online information session on September 15, 2025. Find more information on this session and watch the video here.

Open Office Spaces

One-on-One Meetings
Online meetings are available for anyone interested in applying to this program. These sessions are a chance to bring your questions and talk to a program specialist.

Applicants are welcome to register for a one-on-one meeting block any time during the available dates. Each meeting block is 30 minutes long on Microsoft Teams.

When:
September 22 – October 15, 2025. Sign up here.

Drop-In Open Office Sessions
We are also offering drop-in open office meetings for anyone interested in applying to this program. These sessions will be in-person at the Calgary Arts Development office.

Applicants are welcome to drop in at any time during these sessions to ask questions about the New Applicants — Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant.

When:
September 23, 2025, from 12:30 – 2pm
October 1, 2025, from 4:30-6pm
October 7, 2025, from 1 – 2:30pm
No sign-up required

*ASL interpretation is not currently booked for Open Office Spaces.

If you require translation or interpretation services, or any other access needs, please let us know as soon as possible.

These sessions will not be recorded.

Questions? Email perpetual.atife@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or areum.kim@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

This program provides unrestricted operating funding to non-profit professional arts organizations in Calgary for the 2026 funding year. This program is intended to build the capacity of professional arts organizations that have not received municipal operating funding before the next competitive multi-year application process. Success in this one-year program does not guarantee success in the next funding cycle. Organizations will reapply in Fall of 2026 to the Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant for a four-year funding cycle beginning in 2027.

This program only supports Professional Arts Organizations that did not receive an operating grant in 2025. Please see ‘Who Can Apply?’ for more information. All applicants must be screened by program staff through the Letter of Intent process prior to applying.

Professional arts organizations that received an operating grant in 2025 will be assessed through the Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant.

Information about the Community Arts Organizations Operating Grant can be found here.

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.

Calgary Arts Development is committed to the process of eliminating institutional racism, ableism and barriers in our programs, policies and practices by centring the creativity and leadership of those communities most impacted by structural inequities. Read our full Commitment to Equity statement on our website.

Professional Arts Organizations are non-profit arts organizations whose primary purpose is to create access to professional artistic work with artistic mandates that may include:

• Creation, production or presentation of professional artistic work (must pay or intend to pay professional artist fees according to sector or industry standards)
• Service, support or education for professional artists or professional arts organizations
• A focus on advancing professional artistic practice

In some cases, the Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant Program may be the most appropriate program for organizations whose mandates do not match the above definition. Program staff will work with applicants to place them in the most appropriate program. At Calgary Arts Development’s discretion, non-profit arts organizations whose mandate is the creation, production or presentation of youth, amateur or non-professional artistic work may also be considered in this program if the scale of their overall operations meets the below criteria:

• Organization has a significant number of paid full-time administrative or artistic staff
• Average annual revenues exceed $500,000

Organizations must submit a Letter of Intent to apply for this programming by October 1, 2025. Organizations will be screened for eligibility by Calgary Arts Development staff and be given access to the application on approval of the Letter of Intent. Please see ‘How to Apply?’ for instructions.

Eligible applicants must be:

• Registered non-profit organizations under the Alberta Societies Act or the Alberta Company Act, Part 9
• In good standing with all appropriate legislation
• Arts-focused as outlined in their mandate
  • Mandate must be primarily focused on advancing the arts in community through any of the following: creation, development, production, presentation, education, mentorship
• In operation for two or more years
  • Organizations that have not been registered non-profit organizations for two years may apply, if they can demonstrate consistent annual programming and comparable community relationships and governance models for at least two years prior to registration
• Calgary-based
  • Organizations not located in Calgary must demonstrate that the majority of their activities benefit and/or serve Calgarians
  • Must be located in Alberta
  • 50% of the organization’s board members must be living in Alberta
  • Organizations with a provincially-focused mandate must demonstrate that Calgarians are equally served by their programming as other areas of Alberta

Ineligible applicants:

• Organizations that are not in good standing with non-profit legislation and other relevant regulations
• Organizations with outstanding final reports for other grants from Calgary Arts Development
• Organizations receiving a grant through the Community Arts Organizations Operating Grant Program
• Organizations that received an operating grant in 2025
• Post-secondary institutions
• Organizations that are Civic Partners to the City of Calgary and organizations receiving annual unrestricted operational support for their arts programming directly from the City of Calgary
• Organizations registered under the Religious Societies Land Act
• Individual artists or artist collectives
• For-profit businesses

Operating funding is considered unrestricted, meaning it can be used in almost any area of your organization’s operations. Funding is disbursed on a calendar year basis, but does not need to be used within that calendar year. Funding is generally intended to be directed towards your current or upcoming fiscal year.

Calgary Arts Development stewards municipal funds on behalf of the public, and operating funds are not intended to be used towards the following ineligible activities. Use of funds towards expenses related to these activities may result in grant reductions, or removal from the program. This list is not exclusive, and further conditions will be outlined in the grant agreement for successful applicants.

Ineligible Activities:

• Activities that do not comply with or respect cultural protocols.
• Activities that use or present Indigenous cultural material, traditional knowledge or stories without express permission from the community and/or clear connection to the originating community.
• Activities or individuals that willfully or in bad faith promote intolerance, hatred or hate speech to incite violence or harm.
• Activities that are illegal or contravene provincial or federal law, or municipal bylaws.
• Fundraising activities on behalf of another non-profit organization, charity or political party.
• Activities related to campaigning for a specific political candidate or party in an election.

Funding Requests

Organizations will be given the opportunity to make a specific funding request in this program. Applicants will be asked to outline how their funding request was determined, and will be assessed on appropriateness and reasonableness of the request, as well as how the request aligns with current levels of impact and activities.

The ‘How Are Grants Awarded’ section outlines in details how funding decisions will be made.

To ensure that peer assessment committees are considering similar organizations, applicants will be assessed within program streams based on artistic discipline and mandate, and organizational size (e.g. annual budget, number of staff, scope of work etc.).

Each program stream will be reviewed by independent assessment committees made up of artist peers and community members. The membership of the peer assessment committees will be chosen through public nominations and staff expertise, and committees will be convened for overlapping terms of two to three years.

Standing committees are responsible for reviewing applications and making funding recommendations to Calgary Arts Development staff, and deepening their knowledge and awareness of the organizations they are assessing by attending public events and reviewing reports. The purpose of the standing committee is to ensure that funding commitments made on a multi-year basis are informed and monitored through recommendations from community members with familiarity with the organizations outside of what is written in applications, and who have the benefit of seeing how their work shifts over time. The Assessor Terms of Reference outlines the roles and responsibilities of the standing committees in more detail.

Anyone can ask to participate on a Calgary Arts Development assessment committee by completing the assessor nomination form or by emailing grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

Assessment committees are chosen to represent the broad diversity of Calgary and its artistic communities, including artistic discipline, gender, sexuality, age, religion, beliefs, nation, race, ethnicity, physical and neurological identities, and more.

Calgary Arts Development reserves the right to adjust assessment processes and the program timeline due to application volume. Applicants will be notified if significant changes occur.

Assessment committees for each program stream will review and score individual applications according to the program criteria and considerations outlined in the ‘Program Criteria & Considerations’ section. Committees may also take into consideration publicly available information such as web content or social media not included in the application package, as well as their own experiences of the organization’s artistic work and programming.

The committee for each program stream will meet with Calgary Arts Development program staff to discuss each application and make recommendations. Final grant amounts will be determined by program staff based on the committee’s discussion and recommendations.

Each organization receiving funding through the Operating Grant program is an important contributor to Calgary Arts Development’s vision and mission. The program considerations and assessment criteria align with the directions and desired outcomes of our strategic framework. Organizations are encouraged to review the strategic framework as they complete this application, which takes an ecosystem approach that emphasizes and values each individual organization’s unique contribution to the arts sector.

Application Scoring:

Assessors will rate the eight criteria statements on a scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. These ratings will be assigned numerical scores, and each statement will be equally weighted. The total score will be averaged across each assessor on the committee resulting in a maximum score of 100 per cent.

• The organization contributes to an inclusive and diverse arts ecosystem in Calgary:
  
  1. The organization clearly describes and understands its role in the arts ecosystem, including those it considers artistic peers.
  2. The organization clearly describes and understands the barriers for audiences, participants, staff or volunteers to access its work, and its plan to address and/or remove those barriers.
  
• The organization improves the quality of life for the people it works with:
  
  3. The organization has practices and policies in place to ensure it creates safe and equitable environments for its staff, artists and volunteers. This could include any hiring, recruitment and commissioning practices for board, staff and artists.
  4. The organization clearly describes its compensation structure for staff and artists and is complying with relevant standard professional artist fee schedules. If the organization is not yet able to meet professional fee schedules, they have a plan to do so within the next three years
  
• The organization creates opportunities for Calgarians to connect, participate, create and relate to the arts:
  
  5. The organization clearly describes and understands the arts programming it offers to Calgarians.
  6. The organization clearly describes and understands the artists, participants and audiences it serves through its work, and how it creates value and impact for those communities.
  
• The organization appropriately manages its resources and plans for the future:
  
  7. The organization clearly understands its aspirations and goals for the next one to two years, and the challenges it faces to achieve those goals.
  8. The organization does not present significant risk to its financial viability or unexplained disruption of activities or impact to community in the past, current or upcoming fiscal years.

Other Considerations:

Organizations will also be considered within the context of its peer organizations in its program stream, the overall context of Calgary’s arts ecosystem, and the makeup of the grantees in the Operating Grant program as a whole.

Assessors will rate each of the below considerations on a scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Organizations that score highly on these ratings will receive up to five additional percentage points in total.

• The organization is consistently led by, works with and serves a specific equity-deserving community
  • The equity priority groups identified for this program are Indigenous, Black, persons of colour, D/deaf persons, persons with disabilities, persons living with mental illness and 2SLGBTQIAP+ individuals. For details, please refer to the equity priority group descriptions. 
• The organization consistently offers arts programming outside of the inner city and downtown core in Calgary wards where lower numbers of annual arts activity occur
  • The inner city and downtown includes Wards 7, 8 and 9. Consistent activity in all other wards will be considered. Activity numbers are tracked through historical programming data and the location of existing arts spaces in Calgary. The City of Calgary ward map can be found here.

Funding Decisions

This program intends to assess organizations on the appropriateness of their funding amount to their overall operations, ecosystem context and peer organizations in the program stream.

Assessors will be asked to rate the statement below on a scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. This rating will inform the final funding decision.

• The funding request is clearly articulated, reasonable and appropriate to the organization’s overall revenues and expenses, and the current impact and amount of its activities in the community.

Organizations that receive a score below 65 per cent will not be considered for funding in this cycle of the Operating Grant Program. It is possible for organizations receiving a score greater than 65 per cent to not receive funding dependent on total competition.

 Actual funding amounts will be determined based on a combination of total funds available, total score, funding request rating, other considerations ratings, and comparison to peer organizations in the program stream.

We accept applications through an online grant platform. 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.

If you do have an account with us, you will need to ensure your organizational profile is filled out and up to date before you submit your grant application. Some of your profile information will be automatically transferred to your grant application, such as your organizational mandate.

Applicants must complete the Operating Grant Letter of Intent — New Applicants in the online grant platform. You will find the Letter of Intent form under ‘Open Opportunities’ when you login. If your Letter of Intent is successful, you will receive confirmation of your eligibility for the program by email and will be invited to complete the full application. Please see the Letter of Intent – New Applicants Only section below for the requirements.

Please contact grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com for help with any questions or technical issues.

Letter of Intent

The Letter of Intent process will be used to assess eligibility for the program and identify the appropriate program stream for your organization. Letters of Intent to apply are due by October 1, 2025. Organizations will be unable to access the full application process until their Letter of Intent is approved by Calgary Arts Development staff. Organizations will receive a notification of approval no later than October 3, 2025, along with information on how to access the application in the online portal. Organizations are encouraged to submit this Letter of Intent as early as possible.

• Organization name
• Organization structure
• Date of registration
• Organization mandate
• Organization discipline
• Primary purpose (check all that apply):
  • Creation, production or presentation of professional artistic work (must pay or intend to pay professional artist fees according to sector or industry standards)
  • Service, support or education for professional artists or professional arts organizations
  • Creation, production or presentation of non-professional artistic work
  • Service, support or education for youth, amateur or non-professional artists
• Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) artistic and administrative paid staff
• Average annual budget
• Average number of public activities on annual basis

Complete Your Profile

In the online grant platform, you will need to ensure your organizational profile is filled out and up to date before you submit your grant application. Some of your profile information will be automatically transferred to your grant application, such as your organizational mandate.

Complete Your Application

The application form is only available to applicants by invitation. Eligible applicants will see the application form under ‘Open Opportunities’ when they log in. As you work on your application, remember to save your progress regularly.  Once your application is complete, please ‘submit’ before the stated application deadline. You should receive an email confirming your submission. If not, please call or email us to confirm.

The application form will ask for the following information:

• Organization contact information
• Organization overview
  • Mandate
  • Most recent proof of filing with the corporate registry
  • Board list including name and contact information for each board member
• Financial information
  • Financial form
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2023 (actuals)
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2024 (actuals and/or projections)
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2025 (projections)
      • This column is used to understand how organizations plan their activities
    • CADAC clients will submit their CADAC form
    • Current grantees will be given the option to reuse the financial form submitted in their reporting in 2025, or update and re-submit the form
  • Financial statements for most recent completed fiscal year
    • Financial statements must include a Statement of Operations and Balance Sheet
      • Unaudited statements must be signed by at least two board members not involved in their creation
• Programming data
  • Programming form
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2023 (actuals)
      • The actual attendance numbers column is optional
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2024 (actuals and/or projections)
    • Fiscal year beginning in 2025 (projections)
      • If the details for projected programming are not fully confirmed, please enter placeholders. This section is used to understand how organizations plan their activities
    • Current grantees will be given the option to reuse the programming form submitted in their reporting in 2025, or update and re-submit the form
• Criteria responses
  • Please describe the role that you play in Calgary’s arts ecosystem. This could include how your artistic mandate contributes to the arts sector, your artistic discipline, or specific geographic, cultural or social communities in Calgary. Please describe who you consider your artistic peers in the sector to be.
    • Note: You will have space to specifically speak in detail about your arts programming and its impact on Calgarians in the Community section of this application.
  • Please describe any barriers that may prevent people from fully accessing or participating in your work whether as artists, staff, volunteers, participants or audience members. What is your plan to specifically address or mitigate those barriers?
    • Note: These may include physical, economic, cultural, mental, sensory or geographic, and systemic or historic barriers. Examples may include affordability, accessibility, historic exclusion or discrimination, etc.
  • Please describe the policies, practices or protocols that you have in place to ensure that the people you engage with have safe, equitable and respectful environments to do their work or experience your work.
    • Note: This includes staff, artists, volunteers, participants and audiences. Examples may include hiring and recruitment policies, HR policies, group agreements, health and safety policies, commissioning and programming policies, etc.
  • Please describe your organization’s compensation structure for staff and artists.
    • Note: Professional Arts Organizations are required to pay professional fees according to the relevant professional fee schedule or standards. If you do not currently pay professional artist fees, you must demonstrate a clear and specific plan to do so within the next three (3) years.
  • Please describe the arts programming that you offer to Calgarians and the artists, participants and audiences you serve through this programming.
    • Note: Please focus on planned arts programming for 2026 in this section. Your Programming Form will demonstrate past programming.
  • Please describe your aspirations and goals for the next one to two years, and any challenges you face to achieving those goals.
  • Please describe the policies and practices you have in place to ensure financial rigor, planning and organizational governance.
    • Note: Examples could include board bylaws, financial policies, strategic planning, etc.
  • Open Space (Optional)
    • Is there anything else you would like to share with the assessment committee?
• Funding Request
  • Amount requested
  • Please describe how your requested amount was determined including any relevant considerations, reasoning, or calculations
• Support materials (optional)
  • Examples of artistic work
  • Strategic, governance, or policy documents
    • If you reference specific documents in the written section, we recommend including them as support material
  • Financial planning documents
    • E.g. budgets or cash flow projection for fiscal year beginning in 2026

Notification of Grant Results

Applicants will be automatically notified of their results by the online grant platform to the email address indicated in your profile. Please add the email address donotreply@smartsimplemailer.ca to your contact list to minimize delays in receiving notifications from us.

If you have not received an email notification by the end of December 2025, please check your junk/spam folder before reaching out to grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

Successful applicants will receive an automated notification through the online grant platform with instructions on how to accept their grant and receive funding. As this funding is for the 2026 funding year, grants will be disbursed between February – April 2026 once Calgary Arts Development receives funds from the City of Calgary for this purpose.

Successful applicants will be required to sign an investment agreement which outlines conditions of grant funding, including use of images and reporting, logo recognition and use of funds.

Operating grantees will be required to complete a report on the previous funding year annually. The report for the 2026 funding year is due February 17, 2027. Reporting requirements will be listed in the investment agreement, and Calgary Arts Development will provide detailed information about the reporting process by email.

Reports will be assigned in the online grant platform and can be found under “Action Required” when you login.

Grantees may also be invited to participate in optional surveys, research and peer-to-peer learning.

This program commits funding for one year (funding year 2026) and does not guarantee funding in 2027. Successful applicants in the 2026 program will be considered new applicants for the next 4-year funding cycle for 2027 – 2030.

Next Steps for Unsuccessful Applications

The Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant will reopen to new applications for the next 4-year funding cycle for 2027 – 2030. Information about that program can be found here. Organizations do not need to have received funding in 2026 to be eligible to apply to this program.

Program staff may provide feedback on unsuccessful applications, although this will depend on volume and staff capacity. Your notification will include the deadline for requesting feedback. We will also welcome any feedback you may have on the application process at any time.

If you would like to know more about other opportunities in the arts ecosystem, including other arts funders, you are welcome to reach out to any of our program specialists.

Policies

Applicant Support & Accessibility Policy
Deadline Extension Policy
Disclosure of Grant Information Policy
Fair Notice Policy

Forms

Financial Form
Programming Form

Other

Terms of Reference
Group Agreements
Frequently Asked Questions
Assessor Nomination Form