Favorite OOB Funding Resources

We are all, always trying to raise funds. Whether it is through personal appeals, crowdfunding, grants, sponsorship or fundraisers, it may even seem as though the majority of our time is spent trying to get enough money in the bank to pay for a down payment on our next performance space. We can't make it any easier, but we can share some of our favorite funding resources.


Crowdfunding
Off-Off-Broadway is a perfect platform for these crowd sourcing sites which focus on short-term, project-based collaborative goals, such as an OOB production. It is an easy way to leverage your social circles and social media presence. The idea is that everyone gives a little and soon the project is fully funded. The two biggest and most used sites are Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Kickstarter 
www.kickstarter.com
Kickstarter was one of the first to pioneer the crowdfunding model and is one of most successful.  It focuses on the arts and creative endeavors (and gaming and technology). It has the largest user base, which means that your project may pick up additional supporters or attention even beyond your distribution circles. It is also a popular and highly trusted site and many potential donors already have accounts set up. However, as Sally Outlaw of Entrepreneur notes, "Kickstarter 'curates' its projects, meaning it has a rigorous submission process, and if you aren't approved to post, it can be quite disappointing." One other point of interest, which may be a perk or a pain depending on how you look at it; if you don't reach your funding goal, you don't receive your pledged funds. On one hand a funder knows that they are only giving money to projects that are capable of reaching their goals, which may encourage tentative donors. On the other hand..... "ARGGGGG! fundraising is hard and we need every cent we can get our hands on. Please don't take it away from us when we've worked so hard......."

Indiegogo
www.indiegogo.com
Indiegogo is "available to anyone, anywhere, to raise money for anything." Which means that it is available to help fund OOB productions as well as personal projects. While it does not boast the same reach as Kickstarter, it is still a very popular and well known site. Because it is smaller, it is actually easier for OOB projects to be featured and garner more attention. Indiegogo also offers options on how you set your funding goals; flexible or fixed. With the flexible model, you get all of your pledged funds, but Indiegogo takes a higher percentage of those donations. With the fixed model, again, you only get your pledged funds if you reach your goal and Indiegogo takes a much lower percentage.

Other Crowdfunding Sites:
GoFundMe - www.gofundme.com
GoGetFunding - gogetfunding.com
MoolaHoop - www.moola-hoop.com

Having trouble deciding which crowdfunding site would work best for you?  Here is an article  that looks at 22 such sites and thorough a pretty great diagram helps you decide which one is right for you.


Grant Search Sites
If you are searching for grants there are a number of sites that help you filter and find grants that are appropriate for your project.

Foundation Center
foundationcenter.org
The Foundation Center offers information about 550 foundations and has the most comprehensive grants database in the U.S. They also offer research and training programs designed to help the applicants create more effective applications and better identify those grants that are applicable to them.

Grants.gov 
www.grants.gov
This is a centralized list of over 1,000 national government grant programs. You can filter and search grants, complete and submit uniformed grant applications online and follow up on the process.

GrantVine
www.grantvine.net
GrantVine is a searchable grant database that was designed by development professionals. In addition to having access to their database, there is also an option for customized research where one of GrantVine's trained experts "wades through numerous databases, books and resources, as well as the current federal, state and local competition announcements, in order to provide you with the most up-to-date opportunities."


Funding Agencies

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
arts.gov
The NEA is an independent agency of the federal government that awards grants to artists and arts organizations. The NEA is "dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education."

New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
www.nysca.org
NYSCA is New York state's arts funding council. They award over 2,700 grants each year and are "dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of new York's citizens."

Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA)
www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/home/home.shtml
"The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. Among our primary missions is to ensure adequate public funding for non-profit cultural organizations, both large and small, throughout the five boroughs."


And of course, you could always apply for the Caffe Cino Fellowship Award, which includes a grant.   : )


Do you have a favorite funding resource that we missed?  PLEASE let us know.

Theater Subdistrict Council Grant Program

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Contributed by Guest Bloggers of the week, Katie Rosin & Antonio Miniño of Kampfire Films PR


Here is something Kampfire received last week that we think you all will be interested in:

The Theater Subdistrict Council is pleased to announce the second round of a grant program designed to recognize the vital role that theater plays in the overall economic and social well-being of New York City. Projects receiving support will seek to celebrate the live art form of theater and create and expand the audience base attending live theater, as well as enhance the body and quality of performance options. Funding for the grant program is provided through contributions to the Theater Subdistrict Fund made in connection with the transfer of development rights from Broadway theaters.

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  Eligibility in this second phase of the grant program is open to organizations and/or consortia that:
  
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• offer theater-related cultural programs based in and operating in the five boroughs
• are incorporated in New York State
• have been in existence and providing cultural services for two years
• had an operating income of $200,000 or more in FY09

Further background information on the grant program as well as an Intent to Apply form and instructions will be available on the NYC Department of City Planning and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs websites as of the close of business Friday, February 12th, 2010. Completed Intent to Apply forms must be postmarked by April 9, 2010. The Intent to Apply is the first step in the application process. Respondents to the Intent to Apply will be notified in June if they will be invited to submit a full application; a decision regarding which projects will be funded in the pilot phase of the grant program will be announced in September, after a review of the full applications.

Those considering submitting an Intent to Apply are strongly urged to attend one of three information sessions to learn more about the application process. All three sessions will cover the same information, and reservations are essential to assure we can accommodate you. Locations and times are as follows:

Friday, Feb 19, 2010 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (enter at Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street)

Monday, Feb 22, 2010 2:00 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.
Marriott Marquis Hotel - Astor Room, 7th floor - 1535 Broadway (between 45th and 46th Streets)

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Spector Hall, NYC Dept. of City Planning, 22 Reade Street

You must register for the information sessions by emailing theatersubdistrictcouncil@gmail.com. Be sure to indicate which session, the number and names of people attending, and the organization/s they represent. Also be sure to bring downloaded application materials to the information sessions; these will not be available at the sites.

To review grant program materials and download the Intent to Apply form go to
www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html or www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/home/home.shtml.

Best,
Barbara Janowitz
Theater Subdistrict Council Program Administrator

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Working Period.

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Heather Cunningham

It’s in the details. Whether your production is on Broadway or in a 40-seat theater on a side street in an industrial neighborhood, it’s in the details. The angle of the heel on the shoe, the buttons on the coat, the frame of the chair, the packaging of the cigarettes. And when your audience practically sits in your actors’ laps it is even more important that those details be as right as possible.

It’s hard work. It’s my own fault Retro Productions does nothing but period pieces. But the truth is, I love those details. I love doing the research and playing hide and seek with the items that will make those details right. And nothing drives me crazier than going to see a show set in 1960 and seeing a modern package of Ronzoni on the stage.

I know there is an argument, especially in Off-Off Broadway where money is ridiculously tight, for simplifying the experience. Why do you need a set, costumes and props to tell the story? Why not just focus on the acting, and save a ton of money in the process? And that’s right for certain plays (and hell, focus on the acting no matter what). But if you are doing a play that belongs in another world, say, the New York City of the mid-1950s (as Retro will be doing again this May with THE DESK SET), you really can’t get away with that.

The world has changed and so has the way people interact with each other and the material things in their lives. We dial and hold the telephone differently. We pack and carry our suitcases differently. We even type differently (tell the truth, would you even know how to change a typewriter ribbon now if you had to?). As the things around us change, so do our interactions with them, which is why I object to modern props and costumes in a play set in the past.

So how do you get the details right when your combined costume, prop and scenery budget are just a couple of hundred dollars?

1) RESEARCH! (The good news is if you have a library card and an Internet connection, you can do this step for free!) Know what it should look like and you will start to see the things around you that may not be vintage, but come so close that they won’t stick out like a sore thumb. (Check back for some of my favorite 20th Century research resources.)

2) “Beg, borrow and steal” (I’m not condoning the latter.) Obviously we all do this anyway, but it still applies! In addition to treasure hunting at estate and yard sales, junktique stores, salvage dealers, freecycle, ebay, craigslist, dollar stores and thrift shops I also fully admit to dumpster diving. I’m always checking out what people have tossed… one mans trash is another mans treasure!

3) Time is on my side, yes it is! And it can be on your side too. I occasionally take up to 6 months in advance of a show in order to get what I need within my budget. Time to spare can be your greatest ally when working on a budget.

4) Learn Photoshop. Need a mid-40s dust jacket for War and Peace? A ‘60s box of Wheaties with a ball player on the front? A can of tomato juice out of the ‘50s? At Retro we’ve done them all… with Photoshop.

5) No matter how gorgeous the costume, the look is not period complete without the right hair and make up. As a producer it makes me crazy (and I’m willing to bet costume designers hate it too) when actors don’t understand that the wrong hairstyle or shade of lips can throw the entire balance of the design off.

6) Don’t focus on what something is; see what it can be. I’ve had more than one designer for Retro who took apart something they bought at Goodwill and made it into something else. I’ve seen an early 90s cotton wrap dress transformed into a 30s day dress with a few cuts and stitches and a set of vintage buttons. And that modern sofa looked a lot less “Jennifer Convertibles” once the throw pillows of 50s fabric were put on top of it.

7) She’s crafty and she’s just my type… learn how to make stuff. Because when you can’t find it, you’ll have no choice but to make it. Giant wheel of cheese? Check. Bad modern art? Check. Wood burning cook stove? Check. Room sized “electronic brain”… check back with me in May.

And the diner jukebox that everyone loved… a combination of plywood, colorful plastic rods, kitchen lamps, and, yes, photoshopped images… if I had a buck for everyone who asked me where we got an old jukebox I’d have more money than it cost to make it.

And that’s one definition of being innovative, don’t you think?

Confesssions of an Inpedendent Artist/Producer part 2 - Follow the Money

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Contributed by guest blogger of the week, Paul Bargetto.

One of the major pillars of the crisis that faces Independent/Off-Off theater is the misdirection of funding dollars. This problem is universal and includes the City, State, grant makers, and private individuals. Throughout the city, it is presenters, and primarily their buildings and administrations that are consuming the lions share of available funding. A quick glance around town and one can see millions of dollars being spent on upgrading and renovating buildings (PS 122, DTW, 3LD, the Kitchen, and HERE to name a few), all of which maintain staffs of full time curators and administrators. A significant percentage of this funding was borrowed and this has placed very expensive burdens on the institutions that threaten their sustainability. While I do not complain about having new spaces and beautiful lobbies and cafes, I wonder very much where the artists who produce the work enter into the funding equation.

The reality is that all of the spaces I have mentioned are presenting plays by small local companies and ensembles that are incapable of paying themselves even a minimum wage. The mostly all volunteer army of Independent Theater – (the Artists) work at rates that would be criminal in any other industry, and must work outside jobs to survive. So while the buildings have improved, the quality of the art inside has not. Theater takes time to develop and when the artists toil in part time dedication the result is to be expected. When will an equal gesture of funding be made toward the artists who make the work?

The system as it stands today means that there is rarely any reward out there for the successful production or ensemble. Beyond the temporary glory of a great review, where is the great production left at the final curtain? With touring options incredibly limited, with festivals offering no cash prizes, with Off Broadway transfers a myth, with funded residencies non-existent, where do the artists find the resources to keep producing? The clever and well connected ones are going to Europe, or are making solo pieces. For the rest, the best advice going is "get a millionaire on your Board!"

Since that dream is out of reach for most of us, (but not all!), I believe that what is needed are year long fully funded residencies that provide not only space, but salaries for the artists! Why are buildings continually created or renovated without equal endowments to properly program them?

The last question is whether or not the City’s existing spaces are being properly utilized. New York is a University Town and almost all of them have a theater, and many have more than one. Since these theaters already exist and are often under utilized (See the Skirball Center), why are more not given to deserving small companies as funded residencies? How interesting it would be for the current drama students to share their space with a real working company!

I have been working in New York long enough to see many small companies go under or completely transform their core artists. It is heartbreaking to see so many promising artists get ground down by the nearly impossible demands of simply keeping body and soul together and a roof over their head. Independent Theater is consistently making the work that the rest of the theater establishment has abandoned. It is serious and challenging in both form and content and is pressing the boundaries of the art form.

The Artists making this new work have out of necessity dedicated themselves to a monastic poverty sustained only by the measure of their belief. Does it really have to be this way? The time is ripe for a reconsideration of our funding priorities and time for the artists to claim their fair share of the pie.

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Get Yours!

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This post was contributed by guest blogger of the week, Jeffrey Keenan.

True story: My great grandmother on my father’s side was a dime-a-dance girl in Akron, Ohio in the first blooming seasons of the industrial 20^th Century. The family spoke of it in hushed tones years and years later with discern because Grammy, as she was then called, was not going gently into that dark night and seemed to be getting more and more out of hand as each successive year was ripped from the calendar.

Grammy, from my five-year-old perspective, possessed an indomitable spirit and an irrepressible personality. She could make all the family adults blush with embarrassment and concern announcing to the assembled grand kids that it was time for Penny Grab! Penny Grab was a game where Grammy would produce a HUGE mason jar of pennies which she would dump into her lap and we grandkids would nearly kill each other trying to claim as much coinage as we individually could. We would all hover on our knees like salivating hyenas mere feet away from Grammy as she would eye each of us with a knowing, anticipating grin. Finally, she yelled “Go!”

We lunged at her lap and grabbed and scooped and hoarded as many of the coins as our little pointy, diggy hands could get. I don’t really remember Grammy’s specific reaction to this game—thankfully, I was too busy grabbing at the bounty of her booty to recall any raised-chin, closed-eye, languid smiles—but I remember my parents and grandparents suddenly drawn to other pressing pursuits whenever Grammy pulled out one of her jingling jars.

Both of those pieces of information about my long-dead paternal Great Grandmother I share to illustrate a pretty simple point: Get yours. Grammy did her part for the war effort in 1919, and she made good money as an uneducated, second generation Irish immigrant with lots of hungry mouths to feed. Sure the neighbors talked: It was unseemly! How unladylike to sell one’s favors and personal attentions to strangers! In the night, no less?! And how close they stood!

It taught both Grammy and me (though my epiphany happened much later) to not give two hoots about what those neighbors and the church ladies thought about how one conducts one’s personal affairs, be they actual affairs or something else entirely. Grammy eventually married a man who drank too much and occasionally beat her, but they had three strong boys, all of whom got good jobs in Akron’s flourishing early-century rubber industry. One of those boys, George, married a plain and sturdy strong-willed Catholic girl called Lillian (my grandmother) who he also would occasionally beat, but they managed three boys (and a girl) of their own, one of whom was called Richard, my father, who never told me any of this but luckily told my Aunt (the aforementioned girl) who had great fun filling me in at Dad’s funeral. He’s been dead for nearly 30 years now—the Keenan men are not known for their longevity—but I’m glad to have this little snippet of family history to keep in my sentimental back pocket.

None of this, I know, has anything to do with End of Year funding issues. To that topic I resoundingly announce I have nearly no earthly idea how to help anyone. Why are you so broke at the end of the year? Did you not plan well enough? Did you overspend? Did you financially over commit? Were your revenues substantially smaller than anticipated? Did your entire Board resign, empty your checking account and treat themselves to brunch at Five Points in the Village?

Take a tip from my irrepressible Great Grandmother who didn’t have problem-one inviting her grandchildren to feel her up even as she was entering her 100^th decade of life: Be ashamed of nothing. Once you truly come to understand and embody that mantra, there’s not a single thing you can’t do or dollar you can’t earn. And please don’t automatically assume I’m suggesting every red-blooded Off-Off-Broadway artistic director in New York start posting Craigslist ads for discrete, affordable hummers in various bar bathrooms around the city (though that’s not necessarily a bad idea), I am suggesting that you re-examine your ideals and your goals and your commitment to the same. How badly do you want this? Your answer to that question will determine your next steps.

Question of the Blog: How badly do you want this?

Coming Soon: Ideas to Raise Money Not Involving Oral Sex

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Weekly Guest Bloggers in 2010

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We are so excited to introduce a new program. Each week we will invite a member of our community to be a guest blogger. They will post at least one blog (but they can post as many as they like) and respond to your comments and questions.

Our very first guest blogger will be Jeffrey Keenan. A prolific theatre artist and good friend, Jeffrey has seen it all and done it all.


In the seven years between 1997 and 2004, Jeffrey Keenan wrote, directed, produced and/or acted in over 30 professional theatrical productions in and around Washington D.C., including The Shakespeare Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Olney Theater Center, and the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in addition to refounding and leading in 1997 The Actors’ Theater of Washington (currently Ganymede Arts), to explore and investigate the American GLBT experience. In those seven years, Mr. Keenan’s productions, actors and designers were nominated for numerous Helen Hayes Awards and national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Awards. His productions grossed more than $1,000,000 dollars in theaters never larger than 125 seats. The Washington Post once called him “perfection.” In the summer of 2004, he tired of consistent poverty so he sold out. He now works for a Manhattan law firm making more money than he’s ever made before in his entire life. He had the great good fortune to move to Manhattan three years ago and was honored to be asked to write the 2006-2008 New York Innovative Theater Awards shows. Mr. Keenan is thankful every day that he lives in a city with so many incredibly diverse and creative theater artists and he wants some of them to hire him to direct again for those moments when he's not rolling around in his piles and piles of cash.

Jeffrey will be blogging about year-end funding concerns, a topic that affects us all.

Please check back January 4 - 9 to read Jeffrey's blog(s), join the conversation, share your thoughts and maybe discover something new.

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Artists need to be counted!

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The United States Department of Commerce will be conducting the 2010 Census, which will find out how many people live in New York City, how many elected representatives we will have in Congress, determine who will represent you in the City Council and in the New York State Legislature, determine how much funding we will receive from the federal government for education, healthcare, job training, transportation, senior services, and other critical services important to all New Yorkers.

It is important for NYC artists to be counted.

New York City artists need to participate to ensure that we get our fair share of funding from the federal government to improve schools and healthcare, fight crime, repair roads, and support other critical City services for all New Yorkers.

Take a moment now to complete the Census form.

Do you think it is important for artists to take the census? Why?


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