Deadline: 22-Mar-23
The Ontario Arts Council is currently seeking applications for its grant program for Literary Organizations: Operating to support the ongoing operations of not-for-profit, professional literary organizations in Ontario, except for book and magazine publishers.
Priorities
- The program’s priorities are to support organizations that present Canadian literature to the public, promote Canadian literature, engage literary artists in arts education activity, or assist literary artists to hone their craft, in order to sustain a healthy literary community. Written and oral literary traditions are equally valued in this program.
Funding Information
The type of financial statement they require depends on the amount of your grant, as follows:
- Grants over $50,000: audited financial statements required
- Grants over $25,000: review engagement (or, if available, audited financial statements)
- Grants of $25,000 and under: unaudited financial statements (or, if available, audited financial statements or review engagement)
Eligibility Criteria
- To apply for operating support your organization must:
- be an Ontario not-for-profit corporation or a federal not-for-profit corporation with the head office in Ontario
- be led by professional personnel
- have completed at least two years of sustained, regular, ongoing programming in its community as of the application date
- An organization that does not meet this requirement may instead apply for project funding.
- have a range of revenue sources such as private and government
- be governed by a board of directors or an advisory body solely responsible for the organization
- have community support and involvement demonstrated through one or more of the following: membership, fundraising and volunteer involvement
- have proof of sound financial management
- be registered through the Canadian Arts Database / Données sur les arts au Canada (CADAC)
- submit verification of financial results of the last completed fiscal year.
- If you do not provide the type of financial statement required, OAC will reduce your grant request or awarded grant amount to an eligible level.
- Annual and multi-year funding
- OAC operating grant programs provide annual and multi-year funding. Applicants to both funding types streams are assessed by an advisory panel in year one of a three-year funding cycle. In years 2 and 3, applications for multi-year funding are reviewed by the program officer. Applications for annual operating grants are assessed each year by an advisory panel.
- Organizations in any of the following situations will be invited to apply for annual funding:
- they are new applicants
- they have not received OAC operating funding for the past two consecutive years
- they were assessed in group D during their last peer assessment
- Exception: In 2023, programs in year 1 will allow D-rated organizations to submit a multi-year application if they meet all other requirements.
- they have received serious assessment concerns within the last three years
- Serious concerns are those OAC considers substantial enough to threaten the stability of the organization. They cannot be solely related to pandemic challenges.
- they are in a period of substantial flux
- The OAC considers an organization to be in substantial flux when significant changes or risks in artistic, financial and/or organizational plans threaten the organization’s stability.
- Organizations that do not fall into any of the above situations will be invited to apply for multi-year funding, provided they also:
- have a long-term plan
- have a balanced budget
- If an organization applying for multi-year funding has an accumulated deficit greater than 10 per cent of its last year’s budget, or an unrestricted net asset deficiency greater than 25 per cent, the organization must have a deficit reduction plan that reduces the accumulated deficit over the next three years.
- Program Transfers
- OAC may decide that an organization should be transferred to a different operating program.
- OAC will consider any developments or changes to an organization’s mandate and programming to determine if a transfer is appropriate.
- Organizations may request a transfer to a different operating program. Such transfer requests should be made more than two months before the deadline of both your current and proposed programs.
- Generally, OAC will transfer an organization to a different program when that program is in year 1 of the funding cycle of the new program.
- New applicants
- New applicants may only apply in the first year of a program’s multi-year cycle and are eligible to apply for an annual grant.
- Organizations are considered “new applicants” if they are:
- first-time applicants to an OAC operating program
- returning arts organizations that did not receive an operating grant in the previous year
- New applicants must:
- have at least $75,000 in total revenues for the last completed year, and in projected revenues for the current and request years
- contact the program officer at least one month before the deadline to request approval to apply
- This process will involve one or more discussions between OAC and the potential applicant to determine its eligibility to and fit with the program, what grant amount to request, and other particulars.
Restrictions
- The OAC does not accept operating grant applications from the following organizations:
- municipalities
- universities and colleges
- school boards
- First Nations
- schools administered by a First Nation and Indigenous administered schools
- Arts organizations are eligible to receive only one OAC operating grant. An organization cannot apply to another OAC operating grant program unless they have been notified that their application was not successful.
- Operating grant recipients may receive a maximum of two project grants in a year. The two-grant limit is based on the date of the application deadline, not on the date the grant payment is received.
- OAC operating funds cannot be spent on major capital expenditures, including buying, leasing or renovating buildings and purchase of major equipment.
For more information, visit OAC.