Roanoke Arts Commission: Funding for Arts & Culture in Virginia

The Roanoke Arts Commission oversees funding for arts and cultural organizations collaborating to advance the city’s Arts and Cultural Plan.

Donor Name: Roanoke Arts Commission

State: Virginia

City: Roanoke

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 01/27/2022

Size of the Grant: $2,000 to $30,000

Details:

Funding Criteria

• Economic Value 
  • The program helps support a healthy economy and adds to the vibrancy of the region.
  • The Program fosters an innovative and vibrant arts and cultural scene that is engaging to Roanoke’s diverse population and attractive to tourists and visitors.
  • The program includes strategies to increase collaboration among groups in the arts and cultural community for purposes of increased efficiency and scale of impact on the community.
  • The organization uses city funding to leverage other funding
  • The program expands the reach of Roanoke’s art scene by connecting with other programs regionally, nationally and internationally.
• Livability 
  • The program enhances Roanoke’s vitality as an attractive, diverse, culturally inclusive, vibrant and livable city.
  • The program connects art and cultural institutions with local neighborhoods or encourages neighborhood generated programs and events and showcases local and regional artistic talents.
  • The program draws and retains artists and others and encourages them to be engaged in their community.
  • The program supports a diverse offering of cultural events and exhibits
• Educational Value 
  • The program fosters an environment for lifelong learning.
  • The program encourages arts and cultural programs for people of all ages and social sectors.
  • The program achieves greater collective impact through strong networks and new collaborations.
  • The program builds links among area education (K-12 and/or higher Ed), performing and visual arts and cultural institutions.
• Community Need
  • The program will develop diverse audiences through art in education or new programming.
  • No other organization is already providing this program or service.
•  Management of the Organization
  • The application was clear, complete and accurate.
  • The organization consistently produces high-quality work.
• Previous city
• • funded programs were completed and favorably reported on by the monitor.
  • Organization makes an effort to collect demographic info from the population it serves
  • Organization has outreach and engagement goals aligned with increasing or maintaining diversity among board and staff.
• Collaboration
  • The organization has structured, mutually beneficial relationships with at least one organization that work towards a common goal by sharing resources, responsibility, authority and accountability for achieving results.
  • The collaborations demonstrate a jointly-developed structure and process for shared decision-making, problem-solving, communication, planning, allocation of resources, monitoring and evaluating the outcomes and deliverables of the project.
• Financial Stability
  • The organization is financially stable, based upon accurate financial reports, audits, project budgets that are complete.
  • The organization has a broad base of supporting funding sources.
• Program Plan
  • There is clear evidence of how the proposed program fulfills the stated mission and long-range goals of the organization.
  • The proposal contains a plan for effective promotion and publicity that is an integral component of the proposed program.
  • The program timeline is realistic.
  • The key artistic and technical participants of the project are highly qualified.

Funding Information

• Grants have generally ranged from $2,000 to $30,000.

General Guidelines for Applicant Agencies

• Requests for funding shall be submitted using the City of Roanoke’s Funding Application which is part of the United Way of Roanoke Valley’s E Impact program. Hard copy proposals will not be accepted. Proposals received after the deadline will not be accepted.
• All grant proposals will be considered on an individual and annual basis.
• Funding from one year to the next year is not guaranteed.
• While there is no cap on funding requests, grants have generally ranged from $2,000 to $30,000.
• No more than 20% of the funds awarded can be used for costs associated with the overall management of the program.
• At the direction of City Council, funding allocated by the Roanoke Arts Commission is not intended to provide an operating subsidy; therefore the agency should apply for programmatic funding not general operating support. Requests for capital improvements shall not be considered for funding.
• Organizations must have conducted programming that benefits the citizens of the City of Roanoke for a minimum of three years before applying.
• Organizations must have a democratically elected Board of Directors meeting at least quarterly and its membership shall consists of volunteers regularly attending its meeting and serving without compensation.
• The Board’s membership must be broadly representative of community interests and of needs of the people it is designed to serve.
• Organizations must operate on a nondiscriminatory basis with respect to race, religion, age, sex, national origin, and disabilities. The nondiscrimination policy shall apply to employees of the agency, users of its services and its governing body.

For more information, visit City Funding for Arts & Culture.