2024 Organizational Support Grants (OSG)

Eligibility

To be eligible for MKFA’s 2024 Orga­ni­za­tion­al Support Grants, your organization must meet all of the following requirements:

  • 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 OSG 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, have obtained 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 for 2024 as the application will ask for an upcoming artist(s) project description.
  • 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.
  • 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 2024 OSG.
  • 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.

Timeline

  • September 22, 2023 application made available through our online grant portal
  • October 5, 2023 at 11:00 AM, MKFA webinar and Q&A on 2024 Orga­ni­za­tion­al Support Grants. Join the webinar here
  • October 31, 2023 application due through our online grant portal
  • Spring 2024 awards announced

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 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 itemized budget detailing what operating costs the requested grant amount will cover for your organization; these are costs associated with your organization’s capacity to carry out programming, such as staff salaries, rent, utilities, artist project or exhibition expenses and other overhead costs. At minimum, an organization must budget 15% of the requested amount towards artist fees. A template for this budget is embedded in the application. All applicants should use this embedded template.

Grants will generally range from $10,000 to $30,000, based on the size of the host organization and the grant applicant pool. Please consider your request amount in proportion to your organization’s overall operating budget.

Review Process and Criteria

  • MKFA audits each application to verify organizations meet all eligibility criteria. Ineligible applications will not be reviewed for grant consideration. 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 eligible applications on the basis of: 1) programming strength; and 2) how funds will continue operations for the organization.
  • Determination of whether or not an organization has the capacity to manage and utilize funds is also taken into consideration.
  • 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 before February 2025.

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

Application

Access the application here. The application will ask you for the following information:

  1. Eligibility Form: a list of questions to verify an orga­ni­za­tion’s eligibility.

  2. Basic Contact Information

  3. Information about your organization and IRS Letter of Determination

  4. Mission, artist collaboration, and audience statement (350 words)

  5. Why funding is needed and how it will be spent statement (600 words)

  6. Operating Budget for current fiscal year

  7. Budget for requested grant amount and budget details on funds that will goes toward the following: artist fees, exhibition and program costs, contractor fees

  8. Upcoming Project Description (350 words)

  9. Past project Description (350 words)

  10. Eight (8) Work Samples

  11. Anything Else (200 words)

Notification

Receipt of your application will be acknowledged via an automated email sent by Submittable​.com. Please check your Spam folder for these notifications as they may be unin­ten­tion­al­ly sent there.

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 2024.