Guidelines: Project Grant Program — Organizations 2026

We understand that our programs and processes create barriers to access for many artists and organizations who want to apply. Help is available for applicants even if they choose not to apply for the program.

If you experience accessibility, cultural or language barriers, our staff members can help you with:

• Checking if you are eligible to apply.
• Finding the right grant program for your project.
• Creating and submitting your grant applications.
• Providing any project updates. 
• Submitting your final report.

Staff Support for Applicants

One of the options for application support is working one-on-one with a staff member to identify your needs and how we can meet them. Our team can assist you over the phone, in-person, or online.

Outside Support for Applicants

You also have the option to seek personal one-to-one support from someone outside of Calgary Arts Development to help you with the application process. If this is something you need, we may be able to directly pay that external support person for the hours they spend helping you with your application. It is up to the applicant to determine the amount of time and kinds of support needed, and to set an hourly rate with whoever they choose to work with. If you are new to grant writing, it may be helpful to seek support from someone who has applied for an art grant before or is familiar with writing grants or essays.

To learn more about the kinds of services you can request, please review the Applicant Support & Accessibility Policy.

Staff are able to provide feedback on your drafted application if you reach out before April 22. 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.

Please review these guidelines in full prior to reaching out to program staff. If you have any questions or need help applying, please contact Community Investment Program Specialists Perpetual Atife at perpetual.atife@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or 403.264.5330 ext.229 and Areum Kim at areum.kim@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or 403.264.5330. ext.122

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

Projects can include research, creation, development, production, presentation or dissemination of artistic work, or the development of new or adapted approaches to an organization’s operations or administration.

Projects funded through this program cannot be completed before the program opening date of April 7, 2026, and must be completed by January 31, 2028.

If your project ends before the program deadline of May 6, 2026, then your application must be submitted before your project is fully completed. 

If your project occurs before successful applicants for this program are notified and funding is released, you are still expected to carry out the project and report on your grant as it was originally proposed.

Organizations may apply for up to $30,000.

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

You can learn more about this program by watching a video information session or by booking a time slot for an online one-on-one meeting with program staff.

Information Session

A video information session for the Project Grant for Organizations is available here.

In this info session, we provide an overview of the program guidelines and application process. ASL interpretation is included in the recording. 

One-on-One Meetings

We have one-on-one online meeting slots to support organizations interested in applying to this program. 

Applicants are encouraged to read the guidelines, watch the pre-recorded information session, and bring their questions and/or ideas to program staff. Each slot is set for 30 minutes, but the session can end as soon as your questions are addressed.

Once you have booked a slot, you will receive a Microsoft Teams link via email. Please go ahead and accept the invite so it will save to your calendar. Please book only one slot for your organization and let us know if anything changes for you and you are no longer able to attend.

When:

• Availability: April 13 – May 1, 2026. Book a meeting here. 

*ASL is not currently booked for these meetings. If you are an applicant with specific access needs or require translation or interpretation services, please let us know and we will arrange to make sure you have the support and information you need to fairly access the application process.

We acknowledge that the land we gather on 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 located in Calgary, including those that currently receive an operating grant from Calgary Arts Development and those that do not currently receive an operating grant from Calgary Arts Development. 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 must 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 that 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 were created in meaningful partnership with artists, communities or other non-profit arts organizations. However, we no longer accept applications from organizations whose primary mandate is not arts focused. This change was made 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:

• Applicants may not have more than two open grants with Calgary Arts Development. An open grant refers to any grant that you have not submitted a final report for. This does not include open projects in Public Art programs. For more information, please review the Open Grant Policy.
• You may not apply to this program if you have any final reports past their due date for prior grants.
• Applicants may submit only one application per program deadline.
• A project may only be submitted by one applicant per program deadline. This means that multiple members of a group or organization cannot submit for the same project to the same program deadline.
• We cannot fund the same phase of a project more than once, regardless of calendar year. Please plan larger projects in advance and clearly identify which phase of the project you are applying for. You may apply for future Calgary Arts Development grants to support the next distinct phase of the work.

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.

For larger or long-term projects that have multiple stages or phases, please clearly identify what phase of the project you are applying for. If you have questions about your project phases, please contact one of the program specialists.

Projects funded through this program cannot be completed before the program opening date of April 7, 2026, and must be completed by January 31, 2028.

If your project ends before the program deadline of May 6, 2026, the application must be submitted before the project is fully completed. 

Organizations may apply for up to $30,000.

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

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. 

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 (e.g., interpretation, translation, aid devices or tools such as screen readers)
• Artist fees
• Salaries and wages (e.g., contractors, additional staff)
  • You may only request salaries and wages that are directly related to the completion of this project.
• 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, subscription fees – for the duration of your proposed activity)
• Elder and Knowledge Keeper fees (fees paid to an Elder or Knowledge Keeper who provided their time and expertise)
• Honorariums (a gifted payment made to a person who provided their services in a voluntary capacity)
• Materials & Supplies
• Documentation (e.g., photography, videography, audio, etc.)
• Marketing, promotion, publicity or outreach (e.g. ad purchases, printing promotional materials, hiring a marketing company)
• Travel expenses (e.g., airfare, gas mileage, transit or ride services)
• 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)
  • You may only request the purchase of equipment if it is necessary to complete your activity. You must specify the equipment you wish to purchase, why it’s needed, and what it costs.
• Infrastructure upgrades (expenses related to small physical infrastructure upgrades required for community accessibility and/or safety)
  • These expenses must be specific and directly related to the completion and success of your project.
  • 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

• This stream supports the creation, development or research of artistic work.
• Your project will not result in something that will be shared with an audience or the 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, creating or developing new work, adapting previous work, pre-production, etc.

Program & Present

• This stream supports sharing your organization’s artistic work with the public. This could involve the creation and production of artistic work all the way through to presenting it to an audience.
• Your project will result in something that will be shared with an audience or the public (online or in-person) as part of the project timeline and goals for this grant application.
• Examples: Exhibitions, presentations, performances, releases, tour, book publishing, distribution, marketing, etc.

Grow & Adapt

• This stream is for adapting or developing your organizational practices, mandate or operations. This stream supports experimentation or development of new or adapted approaches to how your organization works, 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 your regular work in a meaningful or transformative way. 
• This stream 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 stream may not have an artistic outcome or concrete result, but there should be clear 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.

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 at 9 am on April 7, 2026. 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 complete 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,’ where you will see open grant programs. Once available, select this program and begin a draft. As you work on your application, remember to save your progress regularly. Once your application is complete, please ‘submit’ before the 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
  • Select the program stream that best fits the core goal and purpose of your project.
• Organization Introduction (100 – 200 words)  
  • Write a brief and clear overview about your organization, such as what you do and how you do your work. This should provide information that goes beyond your organization’s mandate. This question is to help contextualize how your proposed project fits into the broader picture of your organization.
• 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: 
    • Show how you are engaging with 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 (PDF format only)
  • Upload budget-related material or documentation to help support your budget items and estimates. For example, researched costs, quotes, standard fee schedules, correspondence that confirms rates, past examples of revenue, etc.
  • Feel free to combine multiple PDFs into one upload area.
• Project Timeline
  • Include a timeline 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 (PDF or audio/visual files)
  • Support material is mandatory to include. Upload additional material that will help assessors understand more about your project and/or your organization. There are options to include PDFs, images, videos, audio files, links, etc.
  • Examples of support material: Samples of work, mock-ups, works in progress, excerpts or synopsis, letters of support, resumes or bios of collaborators, confirmations, research, planning documents, etc.
  • Assessors will only be asked to review up to 10 minutes of support material for each application. Please only provide information that is directly relevant to your activities and budget.
  • Feel free to combine multiple PDFs into one upload area.
• Contingency (only for projects ending before the grant funds are released)
  • For projects that will be completed before the grant funds are released, please state how you will finance the project as proposed, i.e. you will draw from your general operational funds to cover the costs, you will draw from reserves. 

Program Considerations

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

1. Artistic Impact
   • The applicant shows a clear and in-depth understanding of their organization’s mandate, artistic goals and what success will mean for them.
2. 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.
   • Community could include those who view, participate, collaborate, engage or benefit from your work. Depending on your project, this may include audiences, participants, students, artists, collaborators or partners, institutions or venues, mentors or teachers, neighbourhoods or specific communities.
3. 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 successful applicants for this program are notified and funding is released, you must fill out the contingency section of the application.

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 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 per cent 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.

Applicants will be automatically notified of their results with an email from the online grant platform to the email address indicated in their 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 July 15, 2026, 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 receive an investment agreement via DocuSign and must sign and return the agreement within 30 days to receive funding.

We use electronic fund transfers to make grant payments.

Final Reporting

Successful grantees will be required to complete a final report to share an update on their completed project, any 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 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 Required” when you login.

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

 Applicants who are not successful may re-apply to this program or to another Calgary Arts Development grant program, with the same project, or a different project, as long as the project still meets all eligibility requirements.

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

To find other opportunities at Calgary Arts Development visit All Opportunities at a Glance. 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