Community Investment Grant (CIG)

Community Investment Grants (CIG) provide funding support for arts organizations that demonstrate exceptional alignment with the criteria of the CIG program. CIG awards are available to nonprofit arts organizations of all sizes, local arts agencies and tribal cultural organizations whose primary mission is to produce, present, teach or serve the arts.

Organizations may use CIG funds for general operating expenses (frequently the most difficult type of grant to obtain) as well as leverage for other public and private funding. CIG eligibility levels are based on organizational adjusted annual income. CIG awards must be matched with cash (at least 1:1) by the organization.

Alternate Year Applications

Organizations that received a Community Investment Grant (CIG) in the last funding cycle will apply as follows for Fiscal Year 2018:

• CIG Levels I, II and III will submit a full application and undergo panel review.
• CIG Levels IV, V and VI will submit an alternate year application.

On their alternate year, CIG grantees will submit an abbreviated application and updated Cultural Data Project (CDP) Funder Report, will not undergo panel review and will maintain the same funding priority determined during the previous year’s panel review. Though funding priority will remain the same, actual grant awards may fluctuate from one year to the next depending on the availability of Arts Commission funds. A list of organizations that have been determined to be in their alternate year can be found here.

Arts Commission staff has the authority to request that an organization submit a full or alternate year application, regardless of alternate year status, in a year where an organization is undergoing dramatic financial, programmatic or management changes.

If your organization will submit an alternate year application, please review the Community Investment Grants Alternate Year Application Guidelines for detailed instructions and information.

An applicant must be incorporated as an Arizona nonprofit organization with tax-exempt status or be a unit of government. Eligible organizations include Arizona arts organizations, local arts agencies and tribal cultural organizations.

Multidisciplinary or multipurpose organizations are eligible for Community Investment Grants if they are able to demonstrate that the arts comprise at least 50% of the organization’s public programming. These organizations are required to contact the Arts Commission to discuss eligibility and the manner in which they can best demonstrate their percentage of arts programming relative to their comprehensive public offerings.

Unincorporated organizations that are otherwise eligible for the Community Investment Grants Level I program may apply through a registered nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

Organizations applying for Festival Grants may not apply for Community Investment Grants within the same funding period.

If your organization has not received Arts Commission funding for the past two fiscal years (FY2016 & FY2017), you are required to submit a Notification of Intent to Apply by 11:59pm, Thursday, March 2, 2017. See Community Investment Grant Application Guidelines for more information.

Submittable Is the New GO

The Arizona Commission on the Arts is now accepting grant applications through an online submission platform called Submittable instead of GrantsOnline (GO).

Funder Report Requirements

All applicants to the FY2018 CIG program (full and alternate year) are required to attach a Data Arts Funder Report along with their CIG application. Previously applicants were required to include three years of complete data, including the most recently completed fiscal year. In order to streamline this component of the application process and make it easier to complete, applicants will now submit a Data Arts Funder Report utilizing historical data; for the FY2018 application this will be complete data from FY2013, FY2014 and FY2015,. Applications which do not contain complete data for FY2013 through FY2015 will be considered incomplete and ineligible.

Applicants who are awarded funding will be required to submit a Funder Report including Fiscal Year 2016 data by October 2017. Additional instructions will be included in the award packet.

Fewer Questions for Smaller Organizations

Organizations with an adjusted annual operating budget under $250,000 (CIG Levels I-III) will answer fewer narrative questions on their application. We’ve also simplified the language for all narrative questions based on applicant and panelist feedback.

Note on Fiscal Year 2017 Final Reports

Due to the unforeseen changes to Grants Online (GO), we will not be accepting final reports for Fiscal Year 2017 grants in GO. Organizations that received grant funding for Fiscal Year 2017 will receive email instructions no later than February 1, 2017 regarding the completion of your final report.

Fiscal Year 2018 Online Information Session

A recording of the online information session and the presentation slides are available below:

Presentation Slides

Fiscal Year 2018 In-Person Information Sessions

In-person information sessions were held in Mesa, Surprise, Tucson, Phoenix, and Flagstaff in January 2017. In addition to the in-person information sessions, online information sessions were offered covering the same content.

Additional sessions may be added. Check back to this section for dates and times.

Eligible applications are evaluated through a panel review process. These panels include community leaders, local business-people, artists, arts administrators and educators from diverse geographic, artistic and cultural/ethnic communities of Arizona. Arts Commission staff members do not participate as review panelists. Panelists evaluate applications based solely on the published criteria and provide recommendations for funding to the Arts Commission. Individual Governor-appointed Commissioners chair the panel meetings and as a body, carefully consider the recommendations of the panelists in order to authorize the final grant awards.

Panel meetings are open to the public and applicants are encouraged to attend. In addition, a live audio stream of each meeting will be available for remote listening online. Additional information, including which applicants will be reviewed on which days, can be found at http://azarts.gov/news/fy18-panel-review-dates-community-investment-grants/

Level I, group A: May 16, 2017

Level I, group B: May 17, 2017

Level I, group C: May 18, 2017

Level II: May 19, 2017

Level III, group A: May 23, 2017

Level III, group B: May 24, 2017

Level IV-VI: May 25, 2017