Demystifying the Grant Application Process: Updates from Québec Relations
Salon du livre de Montréal in its last year at Place Bonaventure, November 2019. Photo courtesy of Salon du livre.
Funded for three years by the new Secretariat for Relations with English-Speaking Quebeckers, ELAN’s Québec Relations project has three main objectives: to identify all available funding sources within the provincial government, to help English-speaking arts organizations apply for new funding, and to set up a permanent working group with all provincial departments and agencies working in culture.
A second focus group met on November 8 and the third group on December 11 . These sessions yielded a number of practical suggestions for how we can help demystify the grant application process at the provincial level, and we will be working to incorporate these ideas into our project design.
Our efforts in documenting available funding sources is ongoing, and we are in the process of revising our repository of funding documentation based on early focus group feedback. While these documents already include English translations of important eligibility requirements and program criteria, expanded versions will add other practical information, such as examples of previous grant recipients, to allow applicants to better identify the kinds of grants that are applicable to their needs. Please note that these documents will be made public in the future. We are designing a format that will allow for maximum usefulness and accessibility.
Furthermore, we have been in contact with several organizations across a variety of sectors to develop partnerships and to share knowledge of non-traditional sources of funding for the arts. This will allow us to share expertise and offer practical guidance to potential applicants. We will announce the first of these efforts in early 2020.
Finally, we are continuing to reach out to English-language arts organizations across Quebec to participate in our survey. Interested organizations are encouraged to contact research@quebec-elan.org to receive the questionnaire or to request more information.