Phoenix Arts Job Preservation Program

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The deadline to apply was Friday, September 18, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.

The City of Phoenix was awarded $250,000 in regranting CARES Act funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Office of Arts and Culture will make grants to Phoenix-based arts and culture nonprofit organizations to fill, rehire, or maintain a part-time or full-time position from being cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ​

The Office of Arts and Culture will make 10 to 15 awards of between $10,000 and $25,000 to Phoenix-based arts and culture nonprofit organizations, with budgets under $1 million to fill, rehire, or maintain a part-time or full-time position from being cut due to the Coronavirus crisis. ​

Grant awards are between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on the applicant’s proposed position’s salary (with benefits), full-time or part-time status, and the organization’s annual operating budget. These grant awards will not require a match from the recipient organization.

However, because the Office of Arts and Culture will likely be unable to provide any one organization with enough funding to support the full salary of a full-time or part-time position for one year, the application will focus heavily on an organization’s plan to sustain the position for which support is requested. With this opportunity, the Office of Arts and Culture seeks to promote sustainable, secure employment in the arts and culture sector and to demonstrate the impact of this national investment beyond the grant funding.

• Applicants must be a Phoenix-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Organizations without 501(c)(3) status that typically use a fiscal sponsor are not eligible to apply.
• Applicants must present, produce, or develop arts and culture programs, or serve the cultural sector as their primary mission.
• Applicants must be in good standing related to Office of Arts and Culture grants, including submitting final reports for grants awarded over the past five years, not including FY21 Community Arts Grants or Arts and Culture Coronavirus Relief Funds.
• Applicants must have an annual operating budget of under $1 million.
• Applicants must employ (not contract) at least one full-time or part-time position annually.
• The position for which funding is requested must be integral to the organization's mission and future.
• The position must have been created prior to January 1, 2020.
• The position must have been vacated after March 1, 2020 or is in danger of being cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Applicants may not request funding to create or hire new positions or short-term contract positions.

The Phoenix Job Arts Preservation Program guidelines and application will be open though MARGO, the Office of Arts and Culture's online grants portal, from Monday, August 31, 2020, through Friday, September 18, 2020, at 11:59p.m.

The following criteria will be considered during the review of applications:

• Significance of the position to the mission and core work of the applicant organization.
• Quality of the organization to sustain the position for which salary support is requested.
• Appropriateness of the budget.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture has an equity strategy that aims to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented marginalized groups' full participation from the agency’s programs and to strengthen equity, diversity, and inclusion in the arts and culture sector for all Phoenix residents.

The program is committed to a just and equitable distribution of the Coronavirus Relief Funding. To that commitment, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture considers equity and geographic equality of our vast city as part of our outreach strategies and work in expanding the reach of grant opportunities to a broad, diverse community of nonprofit arts and culture organizations.

The grant program presupposes organizational value and need as fundamental conditions and will not rank applications according to the devastating effects of the crisis on individual organizations. Applications will be reviewed for completeness, eligibility, and program alignment. Following that review and consideration, applications may be entered into a process of randomized selection if the volume of applications is greater than expected.  Final recommendations will be reviewed and approved by the Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission.