Springfield Cultural Council

]Tips for Completing the Project Grant Application for FY2010.

• General Tips
• Project Description
• Describe the Planning Process for this Project.
• How will this Project Reach and Benefit the Citizens of this Community?
• Describe your Plans for Promoting this Project to your Target Audience and Community
• Detail your Qualifications
• Budget Information Section
• Instructions Listed in the Guidelines
• Required Support Materials for Project Grant Applications

General Tips: Read the SCC Guidelines before attempting to fill out your application.You should detail all of your answers on a separate sheet of paper orpapers.Have someone not familiar with your project look over the application after you have completed it and give you feedback on how understandable and clear it is.

Project Description: Summarize the proposed project in the space provided. Describe who is the target audience; what will happen; when and where it will occur; and how the project will be executed. NOTE: You may provide additional narrative on a separate sheet of paper, but you must summarize the project here. Your answer in the space below may
not exceed 750 characters.

Tips: Be as specific and clear as possible. Assume the councilors reviewing your application know nothing about you, your organization or project. This application and supportive material may be the only information we have to judge your application. Though we are asking for a summary on the application, use a separate sheet of paper and give us more detail. Remember to include a supporting letter from the organization that is hosting the event confirming the location and date of your presentation. This document must be on the organization’s letterhead and be signed by an officer of the organization.

3. Describe the planning process for this project. What individuals and organizations have been involved as partners and/or advisors? How would partial funding impact this project? Your answer in the space below may not exceed 500 characters.

Tips: This is a three part question and we need answers to all of the parts.

Part one: How did you plan this project? For instance, if you are planning to produce a play, how and why did you choose this play and why did you choose the particular performance space?

Part two: Who was involved in the planning and implementation of this project besides yourself? We want to know the names of the participants and their backgrounds. Make sure you include their resumes with your application as well as your own. If this is a collaborative effort between a number of organizations, list all of the organizations and give us information about them.

Part three: How would partial funding impact this project? Most successful applicants do not receive full funding for their projects; most projects are partially funded. For example, will you be able to put on your concert if we give you 50% of your requested funding? We strongly suggest that you seek additional funding from other sources.

4. Explain how this project will reach and benefit the citizensof this community.
How will you know the project is successful? Include promotion, expected results and plans for evaluation. Your answer in the space below may not exceed 500 characters.

Tips: This is a two part question. Part one is a crucial question: How will this project reach and benefit the citizens of Springfield? For your application to be successful, it must reach and give a benefit to our residents. Explain who it will benefit and what the benefit will be. For instance, you will be putting on a piano concert of show tunes for the elderly in a specific neighborhood or community center to entertain them and bring music into their lives. Then in part two, explain to us how you will know that you have been successful. We need to know how you will evaluate your project’s success. If you are putting on a classical concert, how many people from what neighborhoods are you targeting and how will you collect the information to know if your met your targets? We want specifics of how you will collect the evaluation information. For instance, you will ask concert goers to fill out a survey listing their neighborhood and how they liked the concert.

5. Describe your plans for promoting this project to your target audience and your community.
Include information on planned out reach and publicity activities. Your answer in the space below may not exceed 500 characters.

Tips: Tell us how you will get people to your performance, dance class, art workshop, theater performance, etc. If you will be advertising the project, tell us specifically how you will do this, what media you will use to get the word out, and if you will be paying for advertising. In the budget part of the application, list what it will cost. If you are doing outreach to neighborhoods and community centers, by what method will you get the word out?

6. Please detail the qualifications of key artists, humanists,interpretive scientists or organizations involved with leading the cultural component of this project.
Applications will be considered incomplete without this information. Please attach resumes. Your answer may not exceed 500 characters.

Tips: This is a simple, but often overlooked question. We need detailed resumes so we can judge your ability to successfully complete your project. We will only get to know you and your qualifications from your resume and supportive material. We need resumes from all of the key participants in your project, not just the applicant. If we do not get resumes, your application will be disqualified. If we get a partial set, your application will lose points and may not make the cutoff
for funding.

The Budget Information Section:

Tips: Income must equal expenses. Give us more than just the numbers. Give us the details and use a separate sheet of paper, if you can’t fit all of the information on the budget form. For example, if you are renting equipment, what equipment? If you are using the “other” category, detail what this includes. If you are claiming “in-kind contributions”, detail what these include and how you valued these items. If this is part of a larger budget, what part of the budget is our contribution going to cover? Remember, that we cannot fund food and prefer not to fund transportation.

Remember to sign your application. We cannot accept an application which arrives unsigned. You must provide us with an original application and (8) eight copies; one for each councilor.

If you have additional questions, please call the Springfield Cultural Council office.

The following instructions are listed in the guidelines. Follow these exactly to insure that your application meets our requirements. We want you to be successful, but you have to do your part by submitting a complete and detailed application.

Instructions listed in the SCC Guidelines for Completing the Project Grant Applications

1. Use the current Massachusetts Cultural Council application form.

2. You may continue your answer on an attached sheet, but short answers for every question must appear on the form itself.

3. All applications must be typed.

An editable PDF is available here www.massculturalcouncil.org/applications/lccapp.pdf

4. Sign your original. (Your signature must appear on all copies.)

5. Submit the original and 8 collated copies. Each SCC member will receive a collated set for review. Make sure to copy all paper support materials, but you do not need to copy audio-visual materials.

6. Do not send any materials separately. All supporting documents including letters of recommendation must be submitted together with your application.

7. Label your artistic support materials carefully. Include a stamped, self addressed envelope or container to have your artistic support material returned.

8. Complete all budget information. Balance both columns. Income must equal expenses.

Required Support Materials with Project Grant applications:

• Resumes from artists and planners, including your own, listing relevant experience.

• Site Confirmation – The location and date of your presentation must be confirmed in writing in a site confirmation letter. This document must be on the organization’s letterhead and be signed by an officer of the organization.

• Letters of recommendation and support (no more than 3).

• Documentation of past presentations (reviews, programs, brochures and advertisements) if available that show the nature of your work.

• Acceptable forms of documentation of your work or your past projects and presentations. Include a stamped, self addressed envelope or container to have your artistic support material returned. Label all of your work and documentation carefully.

• Visual Art-Slides, a minimum of six slides (do not send originals) in a clear plastic viewing sheet. Label each item with the artist’s name, date of work, medium size, and arrow indicating the top. Number each item and key it to a slide list. Alternatively, you may submit the slides in electronic format on a cdrom or DVD in PDF or jpeg format.

• Written original work. Please label it and place the shortest, best and more relevant piece first.

• Music and Audio: CD (10 minutes maximum). Please label it. Give us a description that includes the place and date of performance, the names of the performers, the title and composer of the work.

• Dance and Theatre: VHS video cassette (10 minutes maximum), cdrom or DVD. If sending a VHS tape, please label it and cue the video cassette to the portion you would like the panel to review. Attach an explanation of the selection, including its relevance to the project and the applicant’s role in the production.

• Film/video: VHS video cassette (10 minutes maximum), cdrom or DVD. Please label it and if sending a VHS tape, please cue the cassette to the portion you would like the panel to review. Attach an explanation of the selection including its relevance to the project and applicant’s role in the production.