How Are Grants Decided?
The Grant Selection Process
The consideration of grant proposals is competitive. Funding decisions are made by a separate panel of experts for each grant category. Panels are comprised of representatives drawn from the disciplines eligible for funding. Panelists are professional artists, scholars, arts administrators, teachers of the arts and humanities, civic and business leaders, and community representatives. The COAHSI Board of Directors approves a field of potential panelists (20-25 per panel) that the Grants Administrator draws upon to create a grant panel of 5-7 people (depending upon the grant). The field is necessary because if an invited panelist cannot participate or cancels with short notice, the Grant Administrator needs an approved field to draw upon.
Grant Panel
Before the grant panel meets, each grant panelist is provided a Panelist Handbook that includes the grant guidelines and application form, a Code of Ethics, a Conflict-of-Interest Statements, a Confidentiality Agreement, Whisteblower Policy, and Antidiscrimination policy, the Appeals Process, and a list of applicants and panelists.
The Panel is also given a evaluation sheet that gives clear evaluation criteria for each grant delineating how much weight is given to narrative, budget, work sample, benefit to public, funding priorities (based on prior year grants in order to bring diversity to grantees), etc. The evaluation sheet is the same one that is part of the grant application guidelines available to all potential grantees.
Each panelist carefully reviews all proposals before the panel meets. Each panelist is designated a certain number of applications to read especially closely. During the panel, the panelist will be the designated presenter of these grants for the panel
Before the grant panel meeting, staff and panelists fill out the conflict-of- interest paperwork for each potential grantee. One panelist is designated as the Chair for the panel. An audio record of the grant panels is undertaken to give an objective record of panels. This is done in combination with a two-person note-taker system. The note takers carefully note all panel comments as well as when someone leaves the room for a conflict-of-interest recusal. The audio record is not a public document, and can only be reviewed by a special committee panel. The audio record is destroyed 6 months after the panel if no appeals have been received by COAHSI.
The panel reviews each proposal one-by-one. Only organizations and artists in good standing (those who have completed previous grants that have passed deadline and submitted final reports on those completed grants) and that qualify for the grant under that grant's eligibility requirements are reviewed by the panel.The designated presenter introduces and summarizes each grant. Panelists discuss each proposal in detail, reviewing the narrative, budget, work sample and/or supporting materials, then the Chair calls for a “yes” or “no” vote for the proposal. Once a proposal is recommended for funding, the panelists determine funding amounts based on the grant criteria and available funding.
COAHSI Board Approval
The COAHSI board of directors is notified of the panel’s recommendations and must approve all awards. Conflict-of-interest rules are applicable at this meeting.
Grant Caps
Grant amounts for each fiscal year (July 1-June 30) will be capped at $7,500 for any individual or $10,000 for any organization begining July 1, 2010.
COAHSI Staff
The duties of the COAHSI staff will be segregated so that the person(s) offering direct technical assistance (i.e. grant writing, budget help, etc.) to individuals and organizations applying for grants is a separate person from the one administering the grant panels. This insures that the person who is offering technical assistance in grant writing and who is administering the grant giving are not the same individual, which could be seen as a potential conflict of interest.
Grants for Arts-in-Education >
Grant FAQ >
Dancer
and choreographer Tanya DeSilva (above), who performs with her Sri Lankan
Dance Group, is a former COAHSI grantee.