Good afternoon,

Beginning this fall, the Arizona Commission on the Arts will initiate a process to renovate the Community Investment Grant (CIG) program and we wanted you, our grantee partners, to have the most up-to-date information.

Background

For 5+ decades, the Arts Commission has provided funding support to arts organizations and will continue to do so. The data and stories are clear: arts organizations deliver extraordinary value and a significant return on investment in Arizona communities. 

The current organizational support program, CIG, launched 7 years ago and has to date invested over $13 million dollars in nonprofit arts organizations, large and small. On average, the CIG program provides meaningful support to 200+ organizations annually. 

Recent years have seen an increase in applicants to the CIG program—with a nearly 25% increase in applications last year, from mostly smaller organizations, many representing rural and historically underrepresented communities. At the same time, we have seen persistent growth in the size of annual operating budgets for many of Arizona’s largest arts institutions located in major metro areas. 

At the Arts Commission, we take very seriously our mission and mandate, in alignment with our agency plan and robust, ongoing analysis related to our grantmaking. As a result, we have determined that the current CIG framework cannot adequately respond to the growth and realities in the field without commensurate growth in available funds, and offer the equitable distribution of arts-based resources that Arizonans should expect of their state arts agency.

Response

To ensure the Arts Commission’s organizational support programs are responsive to an evolving sector with changing needs, the CIG program itself must evolve. 

Therefore, the Arts Commission staff and Governor-appointed Commission have decided to place all FY2020 CIG recipient organizations in an Alternate Year status for the FY2021 cycle. 

In doing so, the agency will focus on engagement with CIG’s diverse community stakeholders, as part of a comprehensive program-renovation strategy, using the recent data-driven and community-engaged artist grant programs update as a model. (This temporary application process adjustment will only apply to CIG, not to other agency grants or services.) 

What this means for your organization

Funding will still be delivered to CIG recipients who meet relevant application and grantee reporting requirements. 

As a reminder, CIG recipients are already in an On-Year/Alternate Year schedule for application review. In their Alternate Year, organizations submit an abbreviated narrative and a DataArts Funder Report, which are reviewed for completeness and eligibility and are not panel reviewed. 

Organizations submitting complete/eligible Alternate Year applications will maintain the funding priority established during their last On-Year panel review. Actual award amounts for FY2021 will be determined based on available funds. As is always the case, organizations applying in their Alternate Year will not be permitted to change CIG levels.

The FY2021 application and notification timeline will remain the same, with CIG Alternate Year guidelines available in December 2019 and an application due date in March 2020. As a somewhat related note and as per recent notifications, the Arts Commission's organizational programs manager role will likely be vacant until early 2020 following the November 2019 departure of Kristen Piece Kent. 

Conclusion

For most CIG I-III grantees, this Alternate Year action will have no impact as these levels were already scheduled to be in this status for FY2021. Likewise, some CIG IV-VI organizations may be relieved to learn that they will not be required to submit a full application for the upcoming grants cycle. 

We understand that you may have questions or concerns about this change. Please do not hesitate to reach out to discuss, and rest assured, as is our practice, we will offer many different opportunities for you to provide feedback and share your perspectives. 

With you as our partners, we aim to make the Arts Commission’s organizational support programs more responsive to the unique needs of Arizona’s arts and culture sector. Please stay tuned.

Jaime Dempsey

Executive Director

Arizona Commission on the Arts