Table of Contents

• Why We Give

• The Leads

  • State & Regional Grants

  • Private Funding

• Anatomy of a Grant Application (Part 2)

• This Week’s Challenge

Warren Buffet is giving all his money away. What an idiot! If I had that kind of cash, I’d lay it out on the floor, cover myself in honey, and roll around in it. What could he be thinking?

Why We Give

Okay, first, my apologies to Warren Buffett. I shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t nice. (And to think I was actually considering subtitling this “The Idiot of Omaha.” I have to say, I feel pretty good that I caught myself before I did that.)

Er . . . right. Let’s try this again.

Does Warren Buffett have any idea exactly whose lives he will impact by giving away his massive fortune? Of course not. And yet he insists on leaving it not to his children and extended family, but to a long list of charitable organizations. Why would he do this? Why do people give to others? I’d argue that it’s because sharing is a fundamental part of being human.

In tribal communities, when a hunter bags an antelope, do they go off to some secret hiding place and eat the whole carcass by themselves? No, they bring it back to the tribe and share it. Now, rest assured, the successful hunter likely earns a seat of honor at the table and the opportunity to tell all who would listen the story of their brave conquest. So, it isn’t like they are giving it all away for nothing. They get bragging rights.

Sharing wealth is part of the human experience. It is part of what makes us social beings, not lone wolves. Sharing builds trust and goodwill. It also makes us feel good. It’s not just Warren Buffett, either. According to the just-released Giving USA report, individual donors gave nearly $400 billion to charity last year—more than two-thirds of all the money giving in the U.S. That’s a lot of metaphorical antelope. Despite all the press about billionaires and foundations, it’s everyday people, digging into their wallets at year’s end or setting up recurring donations, who form the backbone of American generosity. Giving is baked into who we are—whether we’re flush with stock gains or just feeling grateful.

Some donors like to do it publicly, while others are more discreet. Even when we give anonymously, there is nothing preventing us from making boastful claims at the annual gala. In this light, the big donor cocktail party story is not so far removed—anthropologically speaking—from the celebratory post-hunt feast.

I mention this not to make light of philanthropy, but to remind grant recipients that they needn’t feel guilty or shamed about being on the asking end of the equation. It’s a two-way street. By accepting a grant, fellowship, or charitable gift—or any assistance, for that matter—you are likely making someone much happier than if you refused it out of principle. Need proof? The next time someone holds a door open for you, sneer at them until they close the door and then open it for yourself. How do you think that will go over?

The point is, no one should feel shame for enjoying the benefits of others’ generosity. Charitable support is part of the human social contract: we give when we have; we receive when we need. And the only way to get in on that contract is to ask. So, start thinking about what you need to make your artistic vision come to life, and put a numerical value on it. Understanding the value of your creative efforts is the first step to finding funding for them. It will demonstrate the seriousness of your commitment to your work, making you more likely to receive the support you need.

On to the leads!

The Leads

AFS Grants | Support for Texas Filmmakers

The Austin Film Society (AFS) Grant is the top funding program for independent filmmakers in Texas—and they're back at it for 2025 with some notable updates.

Who it’s for:
Texas-based filmmakers working on narrative, documentary, experimental, or hybrid projects. Short or feature-length. Weird or wonderful.

What you can get:

• Cold, hard cash

• In-kind support (equipment, post services, and other goodies)

• Special grant funds for BIPOC and female-identifying filmmakers

• Opportunities to develop your film and your career

What’s new in 2025:

• Short Film Grants open July 24–Sept 4, 2025

• Feature Film Grants are already closed (sorry, feature friends—see you next year)

• Applications now submitted via Submittable (go make that account)

• Smaller Essay Modules! No more 2-page essays—just a series of bite-size prompts. Same content, less stress.

• New! You can now include pitch decks and lookbooks as optional supporting materials

• Questions? Email [email protected]

Eligibility:

• Must be a Texas resident

• Must not be a full-time student

• Must not be annoying

Link to apply: austinfilm.org/afs-grants

Our take:
If you’ve got Texas roots, a camera, and something real to say, this grant can help you make it happen. Just don’t wait—AFS doesn’t play around with deadlines.

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Vermont Studio Center Residencies
Peace, peers, and maple syrup

Nestled in the charming village of Johnson, VT, the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) offers year-round residencies to artists and writers looking for time, space, and maybe a little snow. Or fog. Or foliage. Nature will provide something poetic.

Who it’s for:
Writers and visual artists (including painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, and mixed-media folks) from anywhere in the world.

What you get:

• 2–4 week residencies (you choose)

• Private studio and room

• Meals you don’t have to cook

• A diverse creative community of peers

• Focused time to make and think, plus optional interaction and critiques

Funding available:

• Full fellowships that cover everything

• Financial aid packages if you’re well-reviewed but not fully funded

• Some fellowships include stipends for travel or lost income

Deadlines:
March 31 and September 30, 2025
(Additional deadlines may be added—check back often.)
Apply here: vermontstudiocenter.org

Our take:
If you’re looking for a residency with strong coffee, soft light, and no one asking “What’s your real job?”—this is it.

Private Funding

Graham Foundation | Grants to Individuals

The Graham Foundation supports visionary work at the crossroads of architecture, design, art, and culture. Their Grants to Individuals program backs experimental projects—from film and writing to exhibitions and installations—that push architectural thinking into bold new territory.

Eligible Applicants:

• Architects, artists, writers, curators, scholars, filmmakers (solo practitioners or small teams with one lead applicant)

• U.S.-based individuals (a small number of international grants are available)

• Students need not apply

Project Types:

• Production & Presentation Grants (up to $20,000): For finalized, public-facing projects like exhibitions, publications, films, installations

• Research & Development Grants (up to $10,000): For early-stage exploratory work like travel, archival research, prototyping

• Projects must begin after April 15, 2026

Application Timeline (2025–26):

• Application portal opens: July 15, 2025 

• Inquiry Form deadline: September 15, 2025

• Two-stage process: submit brief Inquiry → if invited, submit full proposal

Why apply?
Graham’s funding doesn’t just bankroll projects—it validates risk-taking, fuels critical design discourse, and connects you with thinkers organizing around the future of built environments.

Link to watch for updates: grahamfoundation.org/grant_programs

Our take:
If your work treats architecture as social invention, artistic medium, or cultural lever—and you’re cool with a research phase or a full production rollout—this one’s worth plotting on your calendar now.

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The American Academy in Rome | Rome Prize

The Rome Prize is back for another stroll on the piazza (I know because I called and asked them. See how easy that is?) Applications for the 2025–26 cycle will open in August, with a deadline of November 1, 2025. Now’s the time to start dreaming of marble courtyards and unlimited €1 espressos.

Offered annually by the American Academy in Rome, the fellowship typically provides 6–11 months of support for artists and scholars working at the intersection of the ancient and the urgent.

Historically available to: Visual artists, writers, composers, architects, preservationists, and humanities scholars.

What it’s known for:

• A $16K–$30K stipend

• A private live/work space in Rome

• Shared meals (cooked by actual chefs, not you)

• A cohort of curious, rigorous, probably linen-wearing colleagues

• Time to think, write, make, and wander

Application opens: August 2025
Deadline: November 1, 2025
Bookmark it: aarome.org/apply/rome-prize

Our take: If your creative process involves wandering into random churches for the acoustics or sketching next to 2,000-year-old fountains, this might be your moment.

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Andy Warhol Foundation
Artist-centered support for bold, visual work

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts supports artist-centered organizations that are expanding and enhancing the field of contemporary art. Their focus? Visual work that’s original, experimental, and not afraid to challenge the status quo.

Who it’s for:
501(c)(3) nonprofits—museums, artist-run spaces, and other cultural orgs.
Individual artists: you're eligible only through Warhol’s Regional Regranting partners.

What they fund:

• Exhibitions and catalogues that commission or contextualize new work

• Multiyear program grants for residencies, publishing, convenings, and public programs

• Curatorial Research Fellowships for long-lead scholarly research that may (but doesn't have to) lead to an exhibition

• The Freedom of Artistic Expression Award, supporting orgs protecting artists’ First Amendment rights

• Regional Regranting Program (by invitation) for artist-led projects outside traditional structures

• Plus support for special initiatives like Creative Capital and the Arts Writers Grant

What they’re looking for:
Projects anchored in the visual that push contemporary art in new directions. They prioritize proposals that highlight women, artists of color, queer and underrepresented practitioners—and welcome a broad spectrum of formats, concepts, and approaches.

Deadlines: March 1 and September 1 (annually)
Apply here: warholfoundation.org

Our take:
If your org is making space for serious experimentation in the visual arts—and doing so with integrity and intention—this is a funder that’s ready to meet you where the edge is.

Anatomy of a Grant Application (Part 2)

In our last issue, we talked about writing an abstract, a.k.a. your “elevator pitch.” This week, we’re digging a little deeper: the Statement of Purpose. This may also be referred to (depending on the funder’s mood) as the Project Description, Narrative, or Artist Statement. It’s where you tell the grant readers what you’re up to and why they should care. Let’s dive in.

Statement of Purpose/Project Description

This is the heart of your application. You’ll be asked to describe:

• What you plan to do
  Are you developing a new work? Reviving a forgotten tradition? Showcasing your dance opera at Rust Belt bowling alleys? Be specific.

• Why it matters
  What’s the artistic, cultural, or social value? Does your work address a timely issue, preserve a vanishing practice, or create space for underrepresented voices?

• How it contributes to the field
  Are you pushing boundaries, bridging disciplines, modeling a new approach, or just doing something better than anyone else?

• Who it affects—and how
  Think audiences, communities, collaborators. Will your project entertain, provoke, heal, mobilize, inspire?

You can plan to write about 500 words, but each application will specify a recommended length. Quality over quantity, of course. And aim to write something passionate, clear, grounded in practice—and maybe just a little poetic.

You don’t have to write your entire artistic philosophy here (unless they ask for it), but this is a great place to articulate how your current project fits within your broader vision as an artist.

Here are some examples:

Example 1:

My work, Holding Patterns, is a series of site-specific sculptures installed in vacant lots across East Cleveland. Constructed from salvaged wood, repurposed fencing, and hand-cast concrete forms, the sculptures are built in collaboration with neighborhood residents and serve as temporary gathering spaces and conversation sites.

This project stems from my belief that public art should be both physically accessible and emotionally resonant. In communities where disinvestment has led to erasure, I’m interested in how sculpture can mark presence, invite memory, and reclaim overlooked space.

My work in general contributes to the growing field of socially engaged practice by blurring the line between object and event. I’m not just building structures—I’m creating rituals of presence through the process of making and maintaining them together.

The project centers local voices, employs local labor, and invites neighbors to help determine where and how the installations live. It’s art that listens first, and builds second.

Example 2:

Ritual vs. Routine is a multimedia performance exploring the fragile boundary between the sacred and the mundane—specifically, the spiritual resonance of folding a fitted sheet while a toddler screams into an empty cereal box. The piece uses dance, live percussion, and projected video to investigate how everyday repetition (microwaving the same three foods, resetting a Wi-Fi router, ceremonial pet-feeding) becomes its own form of liturgy.

Rooted in my experience as a first-generation immigrant raised by relatives who believed in both ancestral spirits and bulk Costco shopping, this work draws from Yoruba practice, Pentecostal rhythms, and the liminal weirdness of Midwestern strip malls.

This work matters because, as a society, we have lost touch with what’s truly sacred—like organizing your junk drawer or finally remembering to return that library book from 2014. Ritual/Routine reframes these overlooked gestures as choreography. Because sometimes survival looks less like a triumphant dance solo and more like performing the same four steps in your kitchen at 11:43 p.m.

It will premiere in an abandoned auto body shop just outside Des Moines (weather permitting), followed by covert workshops held in various IHOP restaurant parking lots across Iowa.

I want audiences to leave wondering not just what they just saw, but also whether maybe—just maybe—eating string cheese while crying can be a spiritual practice.

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Note: These examples are merely to illustrate—if absurdly—tone and content. They do not represent successful submissions. So, as great as they are, don’t waste your time plagiarizing them.

There you have it: the essential components of a Statement of Purpose. In the next installment of our Anatomy of a Grant Proposal series, we’ll tackle the Background/Context section. This is where you prove you're not just phoning it in—you’ve done the homework, know the terrain, and are bringing something fresh to the conversation. We'll show you how to flex your credibility without sounding like an insufferable bore.

This Week’s Challenge

Write a Statement of Purpose for your project.

Don’t overthink it—yet. Just try to answer the basics:

• What are you making?

• Why now?

• Why you?

• Who will it reach?

• Why should anyone care?

Set a timer for 30 minutes and draft something imperfect but real. Think of it as the first-date version of your project: honest, intriguing, and not trying too hard. You can revise it later, but first you have to get it down. Don’t worry about writing more than you need. You can always save any excess to inform other areas of your application. This is the time to cultivate ideas.

Just remember: vague is boring, and jargon is exhausting. Speak plainly, passionately, and like a human being who gives a damn. And if you are too busy making your art to make time for this exercise, let that come through in your writing. Grantmakers want to fund people who are actively pursuing their art, not just dreaming about it.