2024 Small Arts Grant Fund

The 2024 Small Arts Grant Fund, supported by the Francis Family Foundation, is currently accepting applications. This grant program is designed to support arts and culture within the greater Kansas City area, defined as a 60-mile radius. The foundation's continued investment in this fund, despite a transition from a community to a family board in 2022, demonstrates its ongoing commitment to fostering artistic endeavors and ensuring access to arts and culture opportunities. This aligns with a broader mission to enrich the community through the arts, supporting both established arts organizations and non-arts organizations with community-based arts programs. Target beneficiaries for the Small Arts Grant include tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charities with an EIN, or organizations partnering with a fiscal sponsor. Specifically, arts organizations with annual revenues under $300,000 in their last fiscal year are eligible. Additionally, non-arts organizations, regardless of their budget size or mission, are encouraged to apply if they offer community-based arts programs that provide access to arts and culture in various traditional and non-traditional sites across the greater Kansas City area. The impact goal is to broaden participation in and exposure to arts and culture, ensuring these opportunities are accessible to a wider community. The program's priorities and focuses are clearly on community-based arts initiatives. This means the grant prioritizes organizations that are deeply embedded in their local communities and actively work to bring arts and culture directly to residents. The emphasis on "traditional and non-traditional sites" highlights a flexible and inclusive approach, aiming to reach diverse audiences where they live, work, and gather. The foundation seeks to maintain a consistent investment in these types of programs, suggesting a long-term strategic priority of sustaining a vibrant arts ecosystem in the Kansas City region. Expected outcomes include an increase in the number and variety of accessible arts and culture opportunities available to residents. Measurable results would likely involve the number of people reached by these programs, the diversity of locations where arts activities are offered, and the engagement levels within the community. While the explicit "theory of change" is not detailed, the strategy appears to be rooted in the belief that direct funding to local organizations will empower them to create and sustain impactful arts programs, thereby enhancing the overall cultural landscape and well-being of the greater Kansas City area. The foundation’s consistent support for this fund, despite internal changes, reinforces this strategic priority.