Grants

Eligibility

  • Nonprofit arts institutions and organizations whose programming portfolio aligns with MKFA’s core values of critical thinking, risk taking, and provocation in the arts. Please look at past Artist Project Grants and Orga­ni­za­tion­al Support Grants awardees to see programs that exemplify these values.
  • Nonprofit arts institutions and organizations with an operating budget of $5 million or less, located in Los Angeles County, with an IRS Determination Letter reflecting their Los Angeles address. Organizations must have an updated Guidestar profile that verifies their current nonprofit status.
  • Organizations must have nonprofit status for at least two years by June of the application year.
  • Organizations must have at least two years of documented public programs by June of the application year. Additionally, organizations must be planning programming through 2026 as the application will ask for an upcoming artist(s) project that must culminate by December 2026. 
  • Organizations without nonprofit status can propose to use a fiscal sponsor, and these requests will be evaluated for eligibility on a case-by-case basis at the Foundation’s discretion. Both the organization and the fiscal sponsor need to have been in operation for at least two years, be based in Los Angeles County as described above, and the application must come from the fiscal sponsor. See FAQ for details and contact the Foundation early to discuss fiscal sponsor plans.
  • Each nonprofit is limited to one submission when applying for their organization. Fiscal Sponsors can apply multiple times as sponsors as long as the organizations they are sponsoring meet the eligibility criteria mentioned above. 
  • If you are awarded an Infinite Expansion Grant in 2025, your organization will not be eligible to apply again for one to two grant cycles depending on when your project is presented. If your project is presented in 2025, you are eligible to apply for the 2027 grant cycle. If your project takes place in 2026, you will be eligible to apply for the 2028 grant cycle. 
  • Projects may include col­lab­o­ra­tions with additional groups or organizations, including those without nonprofit status, as long as the lead applicant organization is a nonprofit in good standing..
  • There is no restriction on past APG or OSG awardees. Organizations that meet the eligibility criteria and have been awarded an Artist Project Grants or Orga­ni­za­tion­al Support Grant in the past are eligible to apply to the 2025 IEG.
  • Generally, MKFA grants are designed to support visual arts organizations that present contemporary art, and art historically important exhibitions. The Foundation recognizes, however, that disciplinary boundaries are often fluid. Other types of presenting organizations with a history of inter­dis­ci­pli­nary work, will be considered on a case-by-case basis, at the Foundation’s discretion. Examples of organizations that might be of interest to the Foundation are organizations that present experimental music, movement-based practices that have a relationship to performance art, or experimental theater. Please email the Foundation with any questions at grants@​mikekelleyfoundation.​org.

Ineligible to apply

  • Arts organizations with an operating budget of more than $5 million.
  • Arts organizations whose main focus is arts education or youth programs.
  • Arts organizations that curate through open calls.
  • Arts organizations that primarily fundraise through programming.
  • Arts organizations that focus on an annual film festival program. 

Grant Cycle Timeline for 2025 Award Year

  • June 18, 2024 letter of inquiry made available through our online grant portal Submittable
  • June 26, 2024, 11:00 AM PST webinar to go over the Infinite Expansion Grants. Use this link to join the Zoom.
  • August 16, 2024 letter of inquiry due through our online grant portal 
  • September 6, 2024 eligible letter of inquiry submissions will receive a link to fill out the full application 
  • October 31, 2024 deadline to submit the 2025 Infinite Expansion Grant application 

Budget Documents

You will be asked to provide two budget documents: 1. an operating budget for your orga­ni­za­tion’s current fiscal year, and 2. an itemized budget detailing project expenses and what the requested grant amount will cover. 

  1. Your operating budget for your organization’s current fiscal year should clearly itemize income and expenses for the entirety of your organization (not just for a project). MKFA has provided a template that you can download here. However, if you have a budget document that provides this information already, you can use your own format in an effort to streamline the application preparation time. Our template is meant to be a guide so that organizations can provide the same amount of detail in their operating budgets. All uploaded documents should be formatted as PDFs.
  2. Your project budget details what projects costs the requested grant amount will cover for the artist project your organization applies with. 70% of your requested grant amount must go towards project expenses including artist fees, while 30% of the requested grant amount can go towards operating expenses. A template for this budget is embedded in the application. All applicants should use this embedded template.

Projects should take place between June 2025 and December 2026 Please note that if a grant is awarded, any project related expenses incurred prior to the grant award date cannot be covered by MKFA funds. We therefore ask that you plan accordingly.

Grants will generally range from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the nature of the project, number of participants, size of the host organization, and the grant applicant pool. Please consider your request amount in proportion to your organization’s overall annual operating budget.

Review Process and Criteria

  • MKFA audits each letter of inquiry to verify organizations meet all eligibility criteria and to verify the artist project aligns with MKFA’s core values. Ineligible letters of inquiry will not receive a link to submit an application. For this reason, we encourage any organizations that are unsure if they meet eligibility criteria to email the Foundation at grants@​mikekelleyfoundation.​org to see if they should apply.
  • MKFA grants are awarded on a competitive basis and evaluated by an independent review panel. Panels are comprised of artists, curators, art writers, and other arts professionals that are familiar with the Los Angeles arts community and various modes of artistic practices. Panelists change year-to-year and are announced when the awardees are made public.
  • Panelists evaluate applications on the basis of: 1) significance of the projects 2) past work of the artist(s) 3) past work of the host organization and its capacity to carry out the project 4) appro­pri­ate­ness of the budget.
  • The programming portfolio should give the panel an idea of the strength of an organization’s past programming and one upcoming project that will take place by December 2026.

The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts reserves the right to deny any submission at its discretion.

Notification

Receipt of your letter of inquiry will be acknowledged via an automated email sent by Submittable​.com. Please check your Spam folder for these notifications as they may unin­ten­tion­al­ly be sent there. All letter of inquiry submissions will receive eligibility deter­mi­na­tions by early September 2024.

MKFA appreciates your patience during the application review process, as our grants team is small. Please do not contact MKFA about the status of your application. All applicants will receive notification of the panel’s decision in Spring of 2025.