#grantmaking

[studyanthropy]

23.03.25 - weekly studying summary

submitted essay assignment

watched one lecture

read one chapter

set up dsa support software on laptop

forum post for module

duolingo french march badge

song: feminine rage by peggy

pretty happy with this week, given how busy work has been. still working on my desk set up - I'm thinking fairy lights or leds under the shelf, and something better for file organisation.

[cupboardgods]

I'm seeing a lot of "what are arts grants" in the tags. I want to help!! I used to be the Grants Manager at an arts council and ran like 5 different grants programs. I am also a solo artist myself (illustration/visual arts).

Who gives grants?

Arts organizations, including arts councils, foundations, collectives, agencies, government departments (often parks and rec if not a separate arts dept), nonprofits, and associations have money to grant to artists!!! This usually requires an application (hopefully an easy one) and possibly a project proposal.

Who is eligible?

ALL art disciplines. Theater, dance, music, choral arts, visual arts, film, writing/poetry, culture/folk arts, etc. Some grants are general, some are specific to disciplines.

Some of these individual artist grants only fund project expenses. Others fund your salary without restrictions on what you use the money for.

If you're an artist who primarily displays your work online, emphasize your IMPACT on your audience. Some grants are hyper local and only open to people living or working in a specific region. You should not be barred from those grants just for having a predominantly online presence.

How to find grants:

Tbh, even I haven't totally figured this out despite working in this industry. Beyond googling, your local libraries may have access to databases where you can search for grants (mine does). If you're an individual artist (not part of a company, collective, or non profit), there are specific grants for you, but they may be more rare and harder to find.

Reach out to your local arts councils. Hopefully they are plugged in to the local grants scene and can steer you in a helpful direction. They might even have a newsletter or webpage specifically for artist opportunities.

You can also try searching on grant application websites. My former organization used Submittable as our application platform.

Why does America lack arts funding?

Fucking politics, man.

Unfortunately, op is right, there is a massive lack of arts funding here.

IMO, this is primarily because artists, regardless of discipline, are not seen as workers like people in other industries despite contributing billions to the economy. Artists are workers, obviously, and need funding for expenses for everything from specialized equipment (like dance studio flooring) to childcare, food, rent, etc. In a perfect world, we artists would all be earning a guaranteed, basic salary just because we make and share art and for no other reason. (Read about AFTA's survey of economic impact of the nonprofit arts sector->AEP6).

Post is getting long so it continues under the cut

I used to work for a really cool arts council in a culturally diverse county in a major metropolitan area with over 1 million residents. All our grants money came from the county budget. Despite HUGE NEED AND DEMAND, we had less than $1 million to give out, and pretty much all of it went to nonprofit, community arts organizations. Individual artist grants were cut during the pandemic, and while I was there, I was working on proving that there was demand for salaries for working artists.

Meanwhile a neighboring county in another state with similar demographics had over $3 million to give out (more than my entire state, I think). And their state has tens of millions to regrant. Maybe more.

I grew up in Maryland which happens to be one of the better funded states. Here's an example of an artist grant (link).

Desantis just cut ALL OF Florida's state level arts and culture funding. The previously approved amount was only HALF of the demonstrated need requested by their arts commission. This is so tragic like, I can't even put it into words (read more: link).

Speaking from the perspective of a former grants manager in an underfunded state, all is not bleak. My county increased arts funding for nonprofits because of the pandemic.

Also, the grant making industry is trending towards very progressive practices and theories, including anti-racism and universal basic income. And I've spoken with grants managers from other orgs with so much funding my head was spinning.

Even if you can't find a single grant you're eligible for, you need to vote for politicians who will INCREASE arts and culture funding. Please vote, please. You can also communicate with your representatives and show up at budget hearings to show your support for arts funding and granting.

[the-resurrection-3d]

I did get a good bit done today! Not just the job stuff but writing and then driving out to do some grant work-- which was far more nightmarish than expected but whatever.

Get this: the ONLY two places near me that have access to one of the most widely used grant databases are EACH 35+ minutes away and onsite-only. On the way back it even started raining so hard I thought I might need to pull over and wait it out.

Hopefully I can start finalizing some proposals soon.

[ourwitching]

What do you do if you’re in the very fortunate position of having more money than you need to meet y...

[noctivagantpodcast]

I Live On Stolen Land

Consider donating to one of these wonderful charities dedicated to preserving the cultures, livelihoods, rights, and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

First Nations Development Institute. Information taken from their 'Our Programs' page: Grantmaker dedicated to addressing financial inequality and its many, many negative impacts. In additional to financial aid, FNDI provides job training and participates in policy-making and advocacy, often focusing on environmental concerns, food insecurity, and tribal sovereignty. Some examples of current projects include "Fortifying Our Forests" AKA restoring and protecting sacred land in partnership with the Forest Service, Native Language Immersion Initiative AKA ensuring the survival of Native languages, and Native Farm To School AKA connecting Native youth with traditional means of growing and harvesting food.

Native American Rights Fund A registered non-profit that provides legal representation in matters of Native interest, be that a single individual or an entire tribe. Since their inception, they have won cases that made critical contributions to the advancement of Native rights in the United States. Their efforts have helped uphold tribal sovereignty, compelled museums, universities, and other institutions to return the remains of Native ancestors, and protected the voting rights of pretty much everyone.

Redhawk Native American Arts Council This organization's primary focus is on the preservation of Native American arts through educational programs. We can also thank them for granting scholarships to Native students seeking higher education, and for running a youth program which aims to help Urban Indigenous youth connect with their heritage through the arts.

Seventh Generation Fund A "fiscal sponsor" for smaller community groups that are run by and for Native tribes/individuals, with the focus of preserving heritage and defending tribal sovereignty, as well as continued survival post-genocide. One example of their work is the Flicker Fund, a disaster fund dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities during times of crisis, be that a pandemic, extreme weather, or a severe drought. Another is the Traditions Bearers Fellowship, which provides financial support to tribal community members who carry on pre-colonization traditions.

Quiluete Move To Higher Ground Stephanie Meyer committed a serious of egregious acts of cultural appropriation and exploitation, and made a very large fortune off a very real tribe. This very real tribe now finds themselves living in a tsunami zone and unable to afford a move to a safer area. As of 2022, the move of the Tribal School, the most important phase, is complete, but there's much more work to be done.

Indigenous Women Rising Abortion Fund A fund to provide Native individuals and family access to abortion care, menstrual hygiene supplies, and midwifery. Here are two separate articles verifying their status as the ONLY indigenous specific (and Indigenous led) abortion fund. For more information on how the destruction of Roe V Wade has negatively impacted Indigenous women, look here and here.

South Dakota Historical Society Foundation So, this isn't a Native led or Native specific organization, but, they work closely with Indigenous communities in South Dakota to preserve their heritage alongside the state's history. I recently had a lovely conversation with one of their representatives about the Ghost Shirt their society is sheltering until such a time as the tribe it rightfully belongs to can house it safely. Article about the shirt's repatriation with some cool info on the shirt's history is here.

[play-now-my-lord]

stem confessions

FOOD SCIENCE: it's all bullshit. Food isn't real. We don't know anything about how it works. Any given food could make you immortal or kill you instantly for all we could say. Maybe it's all placebo or something. Don't get me wrong, if you don't eat you definitely die. But I basically just say whatever Cadbury or the Beef Council or whoever paid my latest grant says. I'm the Nesquik bunny with extra steps. Sometimes I imagine the grantmakers telling me when I'm allowed to piss or jerk off, and I have to admit the thought's been arousing lately

CLIMATOLOGY: you know, when i became a climate scientist i figured we'd be fighting global warming. But so many people donate their bodies to science. It turns out we have to spend so much time blowing up their bodies with dynamite that we don't have time to do climate science. Blowing them up and turning them into goop and mist is a full-time job, at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week I spend doing it. I'll tell you how my day goes: I kiss my beautiful wife goodbye and drive to my job in the morning, I stuff dynamite into the bodies of dead people who donated their bodies to science, and obviously I have to stand well clear which also takes a lot of time - and, well, one thing leads to another, and then I'm home again, zero actual climate science performed. I haven't even read a paper since grad school, let alone written one. I know less about the weather than your local news team. At least they don't have to blow up all these dead guys with dynamite all the livelong day

ENGINEERING: I love murder and death and killing and violence and death and murder and killing and murder and death murder violence murder kill death violence violence violence violence

OCEANOGRAPHY: There's aliens down there man

[eretzyisrael]

by Adam Kredo

As the Trump administration works to shutter the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), current and former U.S. officials who worked closely with the embattled aid group say they watched for years as it funneled millions of dollars to anti-Israel advocacy groups and entities linked to terrorism.

That funding caused internal friction across multiple administrations, according to those who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon. In some cases, USAID fought to conceal how taxpayer funds were spent. And when it came to Israel, officials recalled battling USAID over funding for groups that worked to undermine the Jewish state or maintained ties to terror organizations.

"For those who believe in a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, elements of USAID have been problematic for years," said one former State Department official who worked with USAID during the Biden administration. "There was even a lack of embarrassment among some USAID staffers about being associated with terrorist organizations."

Some of the terror-tied funding initiatives are publicly known. In November 2022, for instance, USAID awarded $100,000 to a Palestinian activist group whose leaders hailed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID handed $900,000 "to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh."

USAID's hostilities toward the Jewish state, however, ran deeper than the agency's grantmaking.

Under Samantha Power, former president Joe Biden's pick to run USAID, agency officials fought pro-Israel policymaking at the State Department, often urging their colleagues at Foggy Bottom to pare down statements that praised the Jewish state, former officials said. In 2021, during a period of conflict with Hamas, Power herself refused to meet with Israel's ambassador unless Israel reached a ceasefire with the Iran-backed terror group. The decision put Power at odds with the White House National Security Council, which had signed off on the meeting, emails obtained by the Free Beacon show.

Years later, in September, Power's USAID accused Israel of deliberately blocking Gazan aid deliveries, which Hamas is known to steal for its own use and for black market sales that fund its terror activities. USAID staffers went as far as to urge the Biden State Department to end military aid to Israel. Former secretary of state Antony Blinken rejected the request.

[dostoyevsky-official]

Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs

One of the United States’ leading funders of science and engineering research is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months, a top National Science Foundation official said Tuesday. “A large-scale reduction, in response to the President’s workforce executive orders, is already happening,” a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said in an email. “The government is restructuring, and unfortunately, many employees will later realize they missed a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the deferred resignation offer.” [...] The Trump administration is trying to “scare the shit out of people so they take advantage of the resignation offers out of fear,” said one NSF program manager who asked not to be identified to avoid retribution. But if the White House and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency are serious about slashing NSF, the result would be catastrophic, the same program manager warned. Cutting the $10 billion grantmaking agency in half would “gut the intellectual center of U.S. leadership in science and technology,” the official said.

[dertaglichedan]

Climate Group Controlled By Bill Gates Hit By Layoffs

Breakthrough Energy, the umbrella organization for Bill Gates' climate change programs, slashed its grantmaking budget last month and has begun laying off US and European workers. This comes as the Trump administration shifts its focus away from inflation-driving (also de-growth) and unreliable green technology, instead boosting proven fossil fuel power and investments. It also coincides with Elon Musk's DOGE dismantling USAID.

Decarbonization news website Heatmap reported one month ago that Breakthrough Energy began reducing its grantmaking budget and "alerted many nonprofit grantees earlier that it would not be renewing its support for them."  

"This pullback will not affect Breakthrough's $3.5 billion climate-focused venture capital arm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which funds an extensive portfolio of climate tech companies," Heatmap said, adding, "Breakthrough's fellowship program, which provides early-stage climate tech leaders with funding and assistance, will also remain intact, a spokesperson confirmed."

About a month later, Bloomberg reported that Breakthrough Energy has fired dozens of workers across its offices in the US and Europe as climate change policy advocacy work slows

[darkmaga-returns]

If Elon Musk—who has been an advocate for free speech and small government—has an evil twin, that evil twin is George Soros. Soros, as conservatives know, has spent his billions funding organizations dedicated to leftist causes. One of the causes with the greatest impact has been funding “Soros prosecutors”—hard-left lawyers who refuse to prosecute criminals but enthusiastically prosecuted Trump and other conservatives. It now appears that some large amounts of the money the Soros organizations used to get these prosecutors in office came from USAID.

The story begins with the Tides Foundation and the Tides Center, a grant-giving organization. Here’s a short version of what Discover the Networks (“DtN”) says about these two related organizations.

The set-up is that the Tides Foundation and the related (although legally distinct) Tide Center are two sides of a public charity that operates as a clearinghouse between wealthy leftists and hard-left institutions. By donating to Tides, the donors aren’t seen as having a direct connection with radical groups. Leftist non-profits can also get money from Tide and then funnel it to their affiliated for-profit organizations. The whole thing was set up as a scam and a cover.

Per DtN, these are just a few of the leftist causes Tides funds:

Among the crusades to which Tides contributes are: radical environmentalism; the “exclusion of humans from public and private wildlands”; the anti-war movement; anti-free trade campaigns; the banning of firearms ownership; abolition of the death penalty; access to government-funded abortion-on-demand; and radical gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender advocacy. The Foundation is also a member organization of the International Human Rights Funders Group, a network of more than six-dozen grantmakers dedicated to financing leftwing groups and causes.

[mariacallous]

AmeriCorps, the US federal agency that oversees volunteerism and service work, abruptly pulled teams of young people out of a variety of community service projects across the country on Tuesday. The work stoppage was due to cuts attributed to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, volunteers were informed Tuesday afternoon.

WIRED spoke with seven workers with the National Civilian Community Corps, better known as AmeriCorps NCCC, who say that they were told to stop working on projects ranging from rebuilding homes destroyed in storms, to readying a summer camp for kids, to distributing supplies for hurricane recovery, and prepare to immediately travel back to their homes.

Aadharsh Jeyasakthivel, a 23-year-old from Boston, was serving at a county food bank in rural Pennsylvania when he and his fellow volunteers were suddenly pulled from service.

“Non Americorps ppl are still distributing,” he wrote to WIRED in a Signal message, sending a photo of yellow-vested volunteers working on a line in a parking lot.

The AmeriCorps NCCC program was established under the Clinton administration by the National and Community Service Trust Act, signed in 1993. Each year, it recruits 2,200 people between the ages of 18 to 26 to serve in teams working across the country on different projects. Some volunteers also work directly alongside staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Forest Service, as part of smaller programs that are run within the NCCC. Graduates of the program get access to an award to help pay off federal student loans.

“In alignment with the Trump-Vance Administration priorities and Executive Order 14222, ‘Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative,’ AmeriCorps NCCC is working within new operational parameters that impact the program’s ability to sustain program operations,” reads an email sent April 15 to NCCC volunteers seen by WIRED. A separate memo, also seen by WIRED, sent to workers signed by NCCC national director Ken Goodson, releases volunteers from the program and informs them that their benefits will be discontinued April 30. Volunteers’ “early departure,” that memo states, “results from program circumstances beyond your control.” (Workers who had completed at least 15 percent of the program, the first email notes, would be eligible for a prorated education award.)

AmeriCorps did not respond to a request for comment.

In early April, an AmeriCorps representative told Politico Playbook that DOGE staff “are currently working at AmeriCorps headquarters and the agency is supporting their requests.” A day later, The Washington Post reported that the agency was considering a 50 percent cut to its budget. In 2024, the NCCC program made up $37.7 million of the agency’s $1.2 billion budget.

The volunteer cuts, which included young people who told WIRED they were tasked with making forests more resilient to wildfires and helping out FEMA staff at the agency’s headquarters, come just weeks before the official start of hurricane season.

“NCCC and FEMA Corps represent a critical flexible workforce that is able to support disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery efforts across the country,” says Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “The loss of the people who make up these programs will be felt immediately, and especially in the next major disaster.”

AmeriCorps and the NCCC program have come under scrutiny in past years. Last year, the Government Accountability Office found that AmeriCorps needed to take more steps to prevent fraud in its grantmaking, while a 2017 Office of Inspector General report found that the NCCC program, which provides volunteers room and board, clothing, and any specialized training they might need, was four to eight times more expensive than other AmeriCorps programs.

Volunteers who spoke to WIRED said they and their team members had gotten job training in a variety of disciplines during their deployment, from data management to forklift operation to wildland firefighting certification.

“These programs are an important pathway for young people looking to have careers in emergency management and disaster work more broadly, so impacts will be felt in that way too,” Montano says.

AmeriCorps has historically been a target for some right-wing media figures and organizations, including Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, and the Heritage Foundation. The first Trump administration’s 2017 budget proposal attempted to slash funding for the agency altogether.

The long-term fate of the NCCC program is not immediately clear. An informational page on applying to the Fall 2025 cohort is still active on the AmeriCorps website, but a separate application portal lists no positions accepting applications.

For volunteers unexpectedly traveling home on Thursday, the loss cuts deep.

“I understand that the [Trump administration] has been cutting and gutting so many important programs, but I want people to know about what they did to Americorps. For many of us, this was our way to pay for college, to get away from home, to figure out what to do with our lives, it was a big step,” says 19-year-old Coloradan Noe Felix Burns, who was rebuilding houses in Philadelphia damaged by 2021’s Hurricane Ida. “And they just ripped it out from under us without even a two-week’s notice.”

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Reuters reports:

On Thursday, [EPA Administrator Lee] Zeldin also announced the cancellation of a $50 million grant to a group called the Climate Justice Alliance, citing its pro-Palestinian messaging on its website. The CJA said on Wednesday it would sunset its $50 million UNITE_EJ grantmaking program because it had not been able to access the funding that the Biden EPA had obligated to the group but not yet disbursed.

We looked at the $50 million meant to be given to the Climate Justice Alliance last June. They have a webpage saying "Free Palestine is a climate justice issue." 

As we showed then, the CJA funds other groups, some of which are explicitly antisemitic and anti-American.

Not to mention, celebrating October 7.

A lot of the news stories about the programs that DOGE is eliminating are highlighting how these programs are stupid, wasteful, or aligned with a far Left ideology. That's bad enough, but it is remarkable how much federal money went to go to causes that are in direct opposition to US policy. Perhaps not quote as remarkable is how the same people who say that the $3 billion the US invests in Israel on an average year could have been used to feed poor people, but are now silent on the wasteful programs that the Republicans are finding and eliminating that dwarf the amount given to Israel. I don't know if it is accurate, but the US Debt Clock site says DOGE has already saved the US government some $94 billon annually. 

[hauntedfalcon]

seen a real brain rot take getting circulated recently about the rise of GoFundMes or PayPal/Venmo/Cashapp mutual aid, and how it’s ~~more effective~~ to donate to a nonprofit charity that can make that money go farther to help the people who need it

I swear I feel like I’m in the bathroom of the movie theatre after seeing Snowpiercer, when multiple people were having conversations about whether it’s wrong to give cash to the homeless

come here and let me tell you something, as a former employee of a juggernaut nonprofit charity under the umbrella of United Way (which was an example on the list of places you should donate in that post)

if you give five dollars of your money to a charity without specifying how you want it to be used, it’s going to overhead.

which is great! nonprofits need unallocated funds so they can continue to function, so their trained and educated social workers have an organization under which they can continue doing all the good work they can within the bounds of state regulations and program grant stipulations. it is, in the long view, very important to support charities in this way! at every level, local and national!

but in those cases, your $5 isn’t buying someone’s dinner right now, today. it’s not paying someone’s phone bill so they can keep looking for work. it’s not covering their bus fare across the city to the work they do have but will lose if they miss another day.

if you have an organization in your town that functions like OACAC does in my town, that $5 may get added to a fund to offer utility bill assistance or, very rarely, rent assistance. it may buy twelve dinners’ worth of food for the shelf of a food pantry that is open once a week to people who have completed an application and whose eligibility is determined (once again) by a regulatory authority. someone, somewhere, will probably directly benefit from it, if you specify how you want it to be used when you make your donation.

I’m saying this as someone who worked adjacent to programs whose mission was to assist the homeless and divert more people from becoming homeless, and as someone who listened at weekly all-staff meetings to the restrictions placed on the work they could do by the state and by grantmaking organizations, and heard the monumental effort it took to network multiple programs together for an annual event to help people navigate barriers to employment like not having IDs or home addresses. social workers get my admiration and respect forever for working as fast as they can and doing as much as they can. they do legitimately lifechanging work! but that work happens very slowly within the bounds of a nonprofit.

and that’s why giving cash to people on street corners, and donating to GFMs and PayPals and Venmos, is direct action.

[ourwitching]

Written by Erin Crossett and Keir Bradwell Water is a relatively new area of grantmaking for GiveWel...

[rotzaprachim]

I want to clear something up because I’ve already see it be used to defame a bunch of organizations. The New Israel Fund is a group that claims to “support liberal democracy in Israel,” which I think is largely a public ops strategy move, in practice they’re a very progressive and very transparent left fund that provides money to a bunch of extremely worthwhile local causes. You can take a look at the list on the link, but that includes standing together, 972 magazine, breaking the silence, women wage peace, Parents Circle Family Forum, and many others that are explicitly pro ceasefire and anti war and are doing the work right now. They also support a variety of anti-segregation pro economic and cultural equality organizations - you know, the ones actually working to end cultural and legal apartheid. The reason I’m talking about this isn’t necessarily to get you to support the NIF, but because I’m seeing a lot of pro ceasefire activist groups getting smeared as Zionist collaborators for receiving money from the NIF, and I want to make clear that doing so isn’t a sign of secret Israeli government funding or control, it’s because the NIF exists institutionally to support progressive groups who stand against occupation and inequality.