Cultural Investment Portfolio (CIP) - Project Grant

Grants of $1,000 and grants of $2,500 to Massachusetts nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies for public arts and culture programming and capacity building activities. Funding is intended to support virtual or in-person projects, programs, performances, and events in the humanities, arts, and interpretive sciences. Grants will also be awarded for staff training, supplies, planning, and other activities that contribute to organizational development.

Project grants provide support for cultural projects that benefit the public.Grantees will receive a grant to support a specific project. Projects may be in-person, virtual, broadcast/streaming, or a combination of these.

- Public Programming projects: Programs and events, whether in-person or virtual. Examples include projects in the arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences, such as performances, education programs, or events. 

Eligible Public Programming projects must meet these guidelines:

• The Project must have the goal of providing access, excellence, diversity, or education in the arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences.
• The Project is the work of an organization, not an individual.
• If the Project is for in-person programming, the applicant must have a plan for it to be delivered virtually if state guidelines do not permit in-person events.
• Projects grants support a specific, connected set of activities. These activities have a beginning and an end, explicit objectives, and a set cost. This might be an aspect of the organization’s cultural activities, such as a one-time event; a single production; an exhibition; a workshop; or series of related arts activities, such as art classes or training sessions. A Project may be a one-time activity. or it can be a program that is repeated for multiple years.

- Organization Investment projects: Applicants with a primary mission in the arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences can choose to apply for in internally focused project instead to enhance their ability to provide public benefit. These are Organization Investment projects that build capacity for organizations. Examples include in staff training and supplies so that the organization can produce virtual/online programs; developing health protocols for welcoming employees and the public back into your physical spaces, investment in staff capacity to help an organization be effective in changed settings, such as DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access) training, strategic planning, other work that enables the applicant to improve its ability to serve its mission. 

Eligible Organization Investment Projects must meet these guidelines:

• The Project is for organization development, not for professional development for individual employees.
• The goal of the Project is to improve the organization’s ability to deliver future programming.

These grants provide a point of entry for smaller organizations, many of whom provide unique opportunities for Massachusetts residents to participate with cultural events in their own communities.