The COVID-19 Arts Relief Grant Program has been established as a partnership between Community Foundation Sonoma County and Creative Sonoma, to provide relief to Sonoma County creative organizations that have sustained economic losses as a result of COVID-19 and the related business and community restrictions. The purpose of these grants is to help sustain Sonoma County’s creative organizations through this challenge in order to continue serving as a source of community cohesion and inspiration as we navigate our new, shared future.
COVID-19 Arts Relief Grants will go to Sonoma County-based nonprofit arts organizations for general operating support. Grant funds are intended to support immediate needs and are to be expended by December 31, 2020.
These grants open to Sonoma County-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organizations (51% or more of organizational mission and programming is dedicated to the arts) that meet the following requirements:
Not eligible:
Grant funding may NOT be used for:
Online Application Opens: May 11, 2020
APPLICATION DEADLINE: May 26, 2020
Awards Announced: Early June 2020
Funding Period: June 2020 – December 2020
The grant amount awarded will be no more than $10,000 and will be determined based on your level of need.
The grants will be reviewed for eligibility by Community Foundation Sonoma County and Creative Sonoma staff. Priority will be given to small and mid-size organizations, those with limited assets, and those serving underserved populations. Additionally, application scoring will be weighted based on organizational need and sustainability. Staff recommendations are not final until approved by Community Foundation Sonoma County and the Creative Sonoma Advisory Board. Applicants will be notified via email of the result of the funding recommendations.
All eligible organizations are invited to apply at this time, but the applications will be funded in phases based on the following priorities:
Phase 1:
NOTE: These relief funds are in addition to grants for arts education programming that Community Foundation Sonoma County intends to award in fall 2020.
Phase 2:
We have designed the application to be as streamlined as possible while still gathering the information necessary to assess need and make awards. We estimate that this application will take less than 2 hours to complete.
In addition to reviewing these Guidelines, make sure to thoroughly review the application questions to be certain your organization is eligible and that your need for funding is a strong fit with this grants program. Once you’ve determined your organization fits the eligibility criteria and that your organizational needs are competitive, please proceed to the online application.
To apply:
In Phase 1, grantees will receive an electronic grant award notification packet which will include a grant agreement (contract) which must be completed, signed and returned within 2 weeks in order to receive payment of the grant award. A Post-Grant survey will be sent to all grantees 90 days after the grant is awarded to assess how grantees are faring. Completion of the survey is required per the conditions of the grant contract.
Community Foundation Sonoma County and Creative Sonoma are committed to providing services and making resources available to every resident of Sonoma county without regard to ethnicity, color, creed, religion, age, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, military status, marital status, political opinion, national origin, familial status, mental and physical disability, or source of income.
The elements of this grant program were inspired, in part, by the Colorado Creative Industries COVID-19 Relief Fund.