What’s at stake?
Fresno Arts Council expects that many applicants to the Measure P arts funding will be writing grant applications for the first time. They're hosting a series of workshops to help artists navigate this process.
Applications are open for Fresno’s artists and arts-based nonprofits to vie for an estimated $9 million in grants, funded by revenue from the Measure P sales tax.
Fresno Arts Council, the local arts agency administering the funds, will accept applications through March 25.
Fresno artists previously told Fresnoland the city has never seen local arts funding like this before, and they’re hopeful it could make the city an easier place to make a living as an artist – if distributed equitably.
Though Fresno Arts Council leaders acknowledge this is a “learning year” for them as they award grants for the first time since voters passed Measure P in 2018, the organization eagerly awaits the first round of Measure P grant applications.
“I encourage everyone who is eligible to apply for this incredible opportunity,” said Fresno Arts Council Executive Director Lilia Gonzáles Chávez in a news release.
Here’s what applicants should know about the types of grants available, who’s eligible, and how to get application support.
What kinds of grants are available?
Applicants can compete for two types of grants, according to the Fresno Arts Council.
There are the project-specific grants, which will fund proposals between $2,000 and $200,000.
There are also general operating support grants, which are meant to support eligible nonprofits with rent, utilities, staff salaries, and other expenses. These vary in amount, depending on the size of a nonprofit’s budget, but are capped at $300,000.
The arts council has said approximately 10% of each award category will be set aside for “emerging organizations” that have annual revenue of less than $50,000.
These organizations can double their budgets with up to $50,000 in general operating support grants.
Who’s eligible for the grants?
The awards are open to nonprofit organizations that “support and expand access to arts and cultural programming,” according to the grant guidelines.
These organizations are also supposed to “reflect the cultural, geographic and demographic diversity of the City of Fresno” and must have their principal place of business in the city.
Ineligible organizations, on the other hand, include K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and government agencies that receive 25% or more of their funding from Fresno’s city budget.
The awards also aren’t available to individual artists, unless they have a fiscal sponsor supporting their application to the project-specific grant category.
This particular stipulation has raised concerns for some in the Fresno arts community, who worry that will bar younger artists without existing ties to nonprofits from accessing the funds.
Gonzáles Chávez told Fresnoland in an interview Tuesday that the council is in the process of recruiting fiscal sponsors and compiling a list to share with artists.
She expects to have at least some of these names ready to share by Jan. 27, during the first of a series of information sessions regarding the Measure P arts grants.
That session will take place at the Community Media Access Collaborative, or CMAC, office in downtown Fresno from 1 to 3 p.m., and will be recorded for the public to view online after-the-fact.
What’s the timeline for the Measure P grant applications?
Applications opened Dec. 31 and are being accepted on a rolling basis until Mar. 25, Gonzáles Chávez said.
Grant winners will be announced in the summer, and the grant period for winners is expected to begin in July and conclude in June 2025.
How do I apply?
The Fresno Arts Council is collecting applications online via the online platform Submittable. Applicants can create an account to submit their forms.
Translated versions of the application are available in Spanish, Hmong, and Punjabi upon request, Gonzáles Chávez said. Folks who need to submit a handwritten application can also do so under special circumstances.
Applicants can contact the Fresno Arts Council at 559-237-9734 to inquire about translated or handwritten applications.
What information do I need to fill out Measure P grant applications?
Applicants will need to gather information including their organization and/or their fiscal sponsor’s EIN, annual operating income, an IRS designation letter, and other federal forms, depending on the size of the organization’s budget.
A complete list of required documents are included in the grant guidelines.
How can I get support with my application?
The Fresno Arts Council is hosting multiple information sessions about the grant application process. The tentative schedule for these sessions, according to Gonzáles Chávez, is from 1 to 3 p.m. on the following Saturdays:
- Jan. 27 at CMAC’s office
- Feb. 17 at Fresno’s United Way office
- March 9 at the Woodward Park Regional Library
The council has also teamed up with Fresno City College to put on a two-part grant-writing workshop, with the first session taking place Jan. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Fresno City College. The next session will be held Feb. 7.
“They agreed to partner with the Arts Council to provide this workshop,” Gonzáles Chávez said, “because we understood that there’s probably a lot of people in Fresno that might be eligible for this fund that have never written a grant before.”
She added that these sessions are not exclusively focused on Measure P grants, though interested applicants could still benefit from it.
Registration for the two-part workshop is at capacity with 130 attendees expected, Gonzáles Chávez said. CMAC will be recording the session, however, so people who miss it can play it back after the fact.
The high level of interest in the grant-writing workshop shows the effect of the never-before-seen level of local arts funding, Gonzáles Chávez said.
“Now there’s an opportunity,” she said, “and so people want to learn how to do it.”
