Guidelines: Project Grant Program — Organizations 2025

This program is intended to provide one-time project funding to registered non-profit arts organizations in Calgary, working in any artistic discipline. 

Projects funded through this program cannot be completed before the program opening date of April 2, 2025, and must be completed by December 31, 2026.

If your project ends before the program deadline of May 7, 2025, then your application must be submitted before your project is fully completed. If your project will be completed before successful applicants for this program are notified, you must include a contingency budget and plan for completing your project without the funds.

Organizations may apply for up to $30,000.

Total funding available for this program is $800,000.

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.

Registered Non-Profit Arts Organizations

This program is open to registered non-profit arts organizations that are located in Calgary, including those that currently receive operating grants and those that do not currently receive operating grants from us. Provincial Arts Service Organizations are also eligible.

Organizations must demonstrate that the arts are at the core of their mandate.

If your organization is not located in Calgary, 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.

NOTE: This program CANNOT accept applications from:

• Individual artists or artist collectives
• Registered non-profit organizations who do not have a primary arts mandate
• Registered for-profit corporations or businesses
• Post-secondary institutions
• Civic partners and other organizations receiving operational funding from the City of Calgary

In previous years, we accepted applications from registered non-profit, non-arts organizations for projects that are created in meaningful partnership with artists, communities or other non-profit arts organizations. However, this year we will NOT accept applications from organizations whose primary mandate is not arts focused. This change was made as we recognize the financial struggles that our core arts organizations are facing, and to prioritize support for the arts sector for which these grants were created.

Please review the following eligibility requirements before applying and reach out if you have any questions or need clarification:

• You may not have more than two open grants with Calgary Arts Development, including grants for which a deadline extension has been approved. For more information, please review the Open Grant Policy.
• Applicants may submit only one application per program deadline.
• We cannot fund the same phase of a project more than once (regardless of calendar year) so please ensure you are planning larger projects ahead of time and clearly outlining the phase of work you are applying for. As long as they are distinct phases of a project, you may apply for a future Calgary Arts Development grant to support the next distinct phase of the work.
• You may not apply to this program if you have any final reports past their due date for prior grants.

Organizations may apply to this program for one project, or one distinct phase of a project. Projects should have a clear start and end date, with a specific set of activities, processes and goals.

Projects funded through this program cannot be completed before the program opening date of April 2, 2025, and must be completed by January 31, 2027.

If your project ends before the program deadline of May 7, 2025, the application must be submitted before the project is fully completed. 

If your project will be completed before successful applicants for this program are notified, you must include a contingency budget and plan for completing your project without the funds.

Organizations may apply for up to $30,000.

Eligible Activities

Projects may include any of the following activities, which can take place online or in person — locally, nationally or internationally:

• Research
• Creation, development or production of artistic work
• Presentation or dissemination of artistic work
• Experimentation or development of new or adapted approaches to how the organization operates, including artistic, operational, administrative or governance practices
• Cross-sector collaboration, creative economy and neighbourhood-level initiatives

If you have questions about other potential project activities, please contact our program specialists to discuss before applying.

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.
• Contests and competitions.
• Fundraising activities (e.g., undertaken to raise funds on behalf of a political party or charity). 
• Activities related to campaigning for a specific political candidate or party in an election. 
• The purchase of or financial contribution toward land or buildings.

Eligible expenses

Please ensure that your project is eligible for this program, then refer to the list below for guidance on eligible expenses. Any expense requested must be directly related to the completion and success of your proposed project.

• Accessibility expenses
• Artist fees
• Salaries and wages directly related to this project (e.g. contractors, additional staff)
• Professional fees (e.g. fees paid to individuals offering professional services such as web design, publicity or marketing, financial, accounting or legal services)
• Technical fees (e.g. web service fees, licensing fees)
• Elder and knowledge keeper fees
• Honorariums (a gifted payment made to a person who provided their services in a voluntary capacity)
• Materials and supplies
• Documentation (for capturing and documenting work through photography, videography, audio, etc.)
• Marketing, promotion, publicity or outreach
• Travel expenses (e.g. flights, mileage/gas, taxis, ride services, or transit costs)
• Accommodation (e.g. hotels or short-term rentals while not at your primary residence)
• Rental of space
• Rental of equipment
• Purchase of equipment, including hardware and permanent software (must be specific and directly related to the completion and success of your project)
• Expenses related to small physical infrastructure upgrades required for community accessibility and/or safety (must be specific and directly related to the completion and success of your project)
  • NOTE: Capital requests for building upgrades must be approved by the program specialist prior to applying to confirm eligibility.

Ineligible Expenses

Funds from this program are not intended to support the following:

• Debt or loan repayment
• Salaries and wages for existing staff (e.g., salaries for permanent full-time employees, ongoing contracts, etc.) not directly related to the project
• Expenses related to regular administration or operations (e.g., fixed operating expenses such as rent, mortgage payments, utilities, etc.) 
• Financial contributions to major capital infrastructure projects, such as the purchase of land or buildings, or major building renovations 
• Purchase of any equipment not directly related to the project
• Any other expenses not directly related to the project

Applications may be submitted to one of three streams. Applicants should select the stream that best fits the core goal and purpose of their project. The below outlines a general recommendation for stream selection:

CREATE & DEVELOP

(For the creation and development of artistic work)

• This project is focused on the creation, development or research of an artistic work.
• This project will not result in something that will be shared with an audience or the general public at this time. It may eventually be shared publicly, but it is not part of the project timeline and goals for this grant application.
• Examples: Research project, creating or developing new work, adapting previous work, pre-production or production processes, etc.

PROGRAM & PRESENT

(For the sharing of artistic work)

• This project is focused on sharing your artistic work with the public, or raising awareness of your work, including marketing and selling. This could involve the creation and production of artistic work all the way through to presenting it to an audience.
• This project will result in something that will be shared with an audience or the general public (online or in-person) as part of the project timeline and goals for this grant application.
• Examples: exhibitions, presentations, performances, releases, touring, publishing, distribution, marketing or selling, etc.

GROW & ADAPT

(For adapting or developing your organizational practices, mandate or operations)

• This project is focused on the experimentation or development of new or adapted approaches to how you work, including artistic, operational, administrative or governance practices. Organizations must demonstrate that projects of this nature are distinct from work typically considered to be part of regular operations or build upon this work in a meaningful or transformative way. 
• This project supports staff training, education or relationship and community building in any of the following areas: Truth and Reconciliation, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA).  
• This project may not have an artistic outcome or clear end result, but there should be clear reasoning with potential for learning and change in how you work.
• Examples: strategic planning, business adaptations, projects related to developing practices and policies related to advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility and/or Truth & Reconciliation, internal learnings or trainings around bias, inter-cultural competency, anti-racism, treaty education and other related matters.

Program Considerations

The following program considerations are what your application will be scored and evaluated on:

Artistic Impact

• The applicant shows a clear and in-depth understanding of their artistic practice, artistic goals and what success will mean for them.

Community Connection

• The applicant shows a clear and in-depth understanding of the relationships and communities connected to this project, their community-related goals and what success will mean for them. This can include future relationships and community connections, as well as those occurring during the project itself.

Planning

• The applicant has included enough information to clearly show what they want to do and how they will do it. There is an in-depth understanding of what it will take to carry out the project and meet their goals. This is shown by a clear, realistic, well-supported project description, timeline and budget.

NOTE: If your project will be completed before grant results are released, you must include a contingency budget and plan for completing your project without the funds.

Scoring Process

Committee members will review applications and rate the level to which they agree or disagree with each of the program considerations listed in the section above, based on the information provided in the application. The four (4) ratings are: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree.

Each program consideration will be weighted equally. The score assigned to each rating will be consistent (for example, ‘Strongly Agree’ will always equal the same number of points).

Applications to the program 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.

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, physical and neurological identities, and more.

Assessment committees are responsible for reviewing and scoring the applications assigned to their committee online, and meeting to discuss applications together and make recommendations. Calgary Arts Development staff will review these recommendations and finalize the funding list. Partial funding may be allocated.

In the final 10% of funding, if there are applications that are tied, but not enough funds in the grant budget to support all tied applications, priority may be given based on the following considerations:

• Projects from organizations that have not received a Calgary Arts Development grant before, or within the past two (2) years.
• Projects that help to ensure representation across all artistic disciplines within the overall grant program.

For more detailed information about the assessment process, please review the Assessor Terms of Reference.

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.

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.

The application form for this program will become available on the online grant platform on April 2, 2025. You will find it under ‘Open Opportunities’ when you login.

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

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

To begin your grant application, login to the online grant platform and select ‘Open Opportunities’. There you will see any grant programs that are currently open. Once available, select this program and begin a draft application. 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:

• Project Name
• Brief Description (25 words or less)
• Funding Request (up to $30,000)
• Project Start and End Date
• Primary Discipline
  • Select the artistic discipline that is most relevant to this application.
• Program Stream
• Organization Introduction (100 – 200 words)
  • Write a brief introduction to your organization including what you do, how you do your work, and any helpful context about your organization you want to share with assessors.
• Project Description (250 – 750 words)
  • Describe your project including what will occur, when it will take place, and where it will take place.
• Artistic Impact (250 – 750 words)
  • Describe your organization’s artistic goals for this project and what success will mean for you.
• Community Connection (250 – 750 words)
  • Describe the direct relationships or communities connected to this project. This could include artists, audiences, volunteers, staff, board, other organizations, etc. What are your relationship or community goals for this project and what will success mean for you? How will this project impact those relationships during or after the project?
  • NOTE: If this project is intended to work with or serve a specific community that your organization is not an active part of, you must speak to the following in your application: 
    • How you are engaging with that community in the design and delivery of the project in a way that is authentic and appropriate.
    • Confirmation that you have been invited or accepted by the community to do this work.
• Project Budget
  • Fill out the budget template with all relevant project expenses, revenues and/or in-kind contributions.
  • Use the notes section to describe each item in detail and show your calculations. Please be specific wherever possible and break down your expenses for clarity.
• Budget Support
  • Upload budget-related material to help support your budget items and estimates, e.g. research, quotes, standard fee schedules, correspondence that confirms rates, past examples of revenue, etc.
• Project Timeline
  • Include a timeline or project plan that clearly outlines how you will accomplish this project. Your timeline should include dates and other relevant details for any important activities, tasks, events, milestones or process periods.
• Support Material
  • Upload additional material that will support and strengthen your application, and help assessors understand more about your project or your organization. There are options to include PDFs, images, videos, audio files, links, etc.
  • Examples of support material: samples of work, mock-ups/drafts/works in progress, excerpts or a synopsis, letters of support, resumes or bios of collaborators or others involved, letters of support, confirmations, research material, planning documents, etc.
• Assessors will only be asked to review up to 10 minutes of support material for each application. They are reviewing many applications, so please be succinct and ensure that what you are providing is clear and relevant.

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 July 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.

Successful applicants will be sent an investment agreement via DocuSign and must sign and return the agreement within 30 days to receive funding.

Final Reporting

Successful grantees will be required to complete a final report to share learnings and how the grant benefited their organization and communities, along with an updated budget with actuals. 

Final reports are due within 60 days of the stated ‘project end date’ in your application. If you need to request an extension, please reach out to discuss this with program staff before your current reporting deadline.

Final reports are assigned in the online grant platform and can be found under “My Action Items” when you login.

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

Next Steps for Unsuccessful Applications

Applicants who are not successful in their application may apply with a new/different project or for the same project to this program or to other Calgary Arts Development grant programs, if the project still meets eligibility requirements.

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
Open Grant Policy 

Other 

Terms of Reference 
Group Agreements
Frequently Asked Questions
Assessor Nomination Form