Grants and Plans

I was listening to NPR today (actually the story was local on KUT) and I heard a story about the Texas Art Commission and how Austin had been given the bulk of the available grant money for artistic endeavors. I'm sure most of this would go toward galleries, museums and other larger non-profits, but they said that because of the growing community, 98% of grant applications were accepted.

Now, what this would mean is that the 100 Artists Project would have to officially become a non-profit organization and have to file with the state and probably the federal government. I have no idea how that works, but my guess is in order to receive a grant, you need to be an official non-profit.

This would be a great boon for the project if I can swing it. Even a $5000 grant would cover everything the project would need for years to come. It would mean top shelf binding for the Single Mailer, it would cover fees for listing on eBay, it would cover equipment needed to maintain the gallery, and more importantly it would cover professional on demand publishing with a ISBN listing, a service provided by Amazon.com's BookSurge. What that would mean for the artists is more exposure. What that would mean for the foundations is more money from the sale of the books.

It's an exciting prospect, but it comes with a cavaet; I'm no good with money. My personal finances are worse than a kid in college with credit cards and loans. I'm apparently good at organizing the events, getting people together, making things happen, but if it were to come to filing paperwork, keeping financial and administrative records, I think I'd be lost. I may be selling myself short - I'd have to see what all is entailed - but I'm going to be humble here and ask for help.

I know someone who might have some non-profit info, so I'll ask them about it, but if you have charitable organization experience and would like to help me on this, I'd be glad to meet with you and talk it over. I wish the project were moving faster and we were able to help the funds we've selected quicker, but it's in its infancy and I'll have to make sure to plan carefully.

That's all. Carry on.