Minnesota State Arts Board

Operating Support is a pilot grant program that takes the place of the Arts Board’s previous Institutional Support and Institutional Presenter Support grant programs. It provides general operating support to high quality, established arts organizations that produce, present, or exhibit works of art; to organizations that provide a broad range of services to artists; and to community arts schools and conservatories that make arts learning available to Minnesotans of all ages and abilities.

This program recognizes that organizations with an established record of programmatic service and administrative stability should have access to funds to support their organizational goals and objectives, rather than specific projects.

Operating Support funding enables qualifying organizations to maintain their ongoing programs, services, and facilities without special emphasis on new initiatives as justification for funding.

Applicants who are new to the Operating Support program may want to view an online presentation that gives a more detailed overview of the program. The presentation is available in two formats: PowerPoint or PDF.

To view the PowerPoint: open the file; select “slide show” from menu; select “From Beginning.” Click anywhere on the screen to advance to the next slide. Make sure the speaker volume is on. If you do not have PowerPoint on your computer, you can download a free PowerPoint viewer from Microsoft.

To view the PDF: open the file; scroll down to advance slides. To view the speaker notes as text, hold the cursor over the speech bubble icon. Note that this text transcript of audible speaker notes is only visible in the Adobe Acrobat not inside of a browser or Apple Preview. The PDF has no audio component.

Grant amount

Operating Support grants include two components: formula funds award and merit funds award. The amount of the formula funds award will vary, depending on the overall number of grantees and the total dollars available for this program. The amount of the formula funds award will be based on the applicant’s qualifying expenses, averaged over fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011, as verified by the applicant’s certified audits or board-approved financial statements.

The merit funds award will be determined by the advisory review panel. Applicants whose performance in one or more of the five criteria areas exceeds program expectations will be eligible to receive a merit funds award. The merit funds award will not be greater than 10 percent of the applicant’s qualifying expenses, averaged over fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011.

Multiyear funding

The Operating Support grant program uses a four-year grant cycle. In FY 2014, some applicants will be required to submit full applications; some applicants will be required to submit interim applications. The application requirements for full and interim applications are different; current grantees should refer to the list of FY 2013 grantees to ensure they submit the correct application information.

New applicants, or applicants that were not funded in the previous fiscal year, are welcome to submit a full application during any fiscal year grant round.

Application deadline

Application method

The Arts Board will begin using WebGrants, a new online grants management system during the FY 2014 grant round. Applicants need to register in advance, to create an account and set up a user ID and password.

Program information

Fiscal year 2015 materials and links will be available six to eight weeks before the application deadline. Previous materials are shown below for reference only.

If you have questions or need assistance

If you have questions about the content of the application form or narrative, please contact:
Bonnie Schock, program officer
Bonnie.Schock@arts.state.mn.us
(651) 215-1612

If you have questions about financial forms or required financial documents, please contact:
Dave White, director, finance and grants administration
david.white@arts.state.mn.us
(651) 215-1622

If you have questions about the technical aspects of the application forms, or questions about electronic submission, please e-mail the Arts Board at:
apply@arts.state.mn.us

You may also call the following staff, but e-mail is preferred.
Tom Miller, project manager
(651) 215-1611

Sean Kelly, Webmaster
(651) 215-1606