Grant Deadlines – How Marcato Can Help

GRANTS! Free money to help support a recording, a marketing initiative, a tour or maybe a showcase. In this blog post I am going to give some clear tips on how to get government funds and how we use Marcato Musician to facilitate this process. Here is a breakdown of how we maximize our artist funding:

1. Funding Strategy: This is a short document that illustrates all of the funding programs where the artist and project is or will be eligible. If you are not in the know of all of the funding out there, talk to someone at your Music Industry Association — they should be able to help you.

2. Tasks and Deadlines: Once you have a list of all of the funding programs and deadlines that are applicable for your project, create a task for each one in Marcato, with reminders 2 weeks and 72 hours in advance of the deadline.

3. The First Reminder: On the first reminder, go in and review the application process, and write down any questions or concerns. Develop a project synopsis for the funding application, as well as a list of support documents (eg. bios, pictures, etc.) that will be required for the application.

4. Discussing the Project: Call the funding officer or coordinator to discuss the project to get their feedback before commencing the application. This step is critical since it will provide you with some insight as to how your project meets the guidelines and what parts of your project need to be highlighted to increase likeliness of success.

5. The Second Reminder: By this time, you have talked the project out with the program officer, you have had all of your questions answered, you have started putting together the list of support material and should then be getting ready to move on to filling out the application and any required project proposals. Don’t leave things to the last minute! You should leave time to revisit what you have written the next day for another read and tweak, and then get someone else to go over it, to be sure it is clear with proper spelling and grammar.

This procedure ensures that you plan ahead, get as much information as possible and deliver everything complete and on time. You still need to know how to write a great proposal. This will come with practice. When possible, you should always get feedback on your applications, particularly the ones that are not successful.

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