OVERVIEW

Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) offers recurring and one-time grant opportunities for individual artists and arts workers across the nation, with open application cycles occurring throughout the year that center a range of disciplines and focus areas. For this reason, we’re actively seeking individuals interested in joining peer grant review panels and engaging in shared decision-making processes. 

Learn more about CCI's grant opportunities here.

Prospective panelists should be interested in the grantmaking process and in supporting individuals in the arts. They should also have a deep understanding of a particular discipline or area of experience. We also encourage folks who are coming up in the field to consider serving on a grant panel as a professional development experience. All panelists will receive an honorarium for their valuable time and expertise. 

Panelists will be selected based on the needs of the particular grant panel and contacted by CCI staff to discuss panel participation and commitment (including, but not limited to, online training, independent review and scoring, and grant panel discussion).

We will keep the information you submit below on file for two years (2025 to 2026). We will only contact you if you are being considered for an upcoming panel. 

Thank you for your commitment to supporting individuals in the arts!

Note: Your responses are CONFIDENTIAL and will be used for internal purposes only.

SUPPORT

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact CCI at grants@cciarts.org.

New updates effective July 16: Please review the updated Quick Grant guidelines before applying to ensure your request is eligible.

Notifications for this cycle will be shared via Submittable on October 15, 2025, by 5:00 pm PT. We encourage you to add Submittable to your Safe Senders list so that you don't miss any communications from CCI—see instructions here.

--

The Quick Grant program provides up to $600 in professional development funds to staff members of nonprofit arts organizations based in San Francisco or San José, as well as to California-based artists, creatives, cultural practitioners, and cultural producers. This program supports artists and arts workers with funding to enroll in workshops, attend conferences, and work with consultants, coaches, and mentors in order to build their administrative capacity, hone business skills, and strengthen the financial resilience of an organization, artistic practice, or area of cultural production.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Effective July 16, 2025, the Quick Grant program is expanding its eligibility to include advocacy education and caregiving expenses. CCI understands that artists face growing pressure to self-advocate in the absence of traditional worker protections. We believe that this change supports the essential skill-building in policy engagement and systems change, critical to enhancing the capacity for artists to practice their work. This update reflects our commitment to strengthening the financial resilience and long-term sustainability of individual artists and arts workers. 

WHO CAN APPLY

Individual Artists, Creatives, Cultural Practitioners, & Cultural Producers

• Must currently reside full-time within the State of California

Nonprofit Arts Organization Staff Members

• Staff of a nonprofit, tax-exempt arts organization located in the City and County of San Francisco or the City of San José
• Staff of a fiscally sponsored arts organization with the majority (i.e., 75%) of the organization's public programming occurring within the City and County of San Francisco or the City of San José (see HOW TO APPLY section for additional eligibility requirements)

ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

To be eligible for Quick Grant funding, activities must:

• Build administrative capacity, hone business skills, and/or strengthen the financial resilience of the grantee’s practice, area of cultural production, or arts organization.               
  • This includes activities with a focus on advocacy education, technology skill-building, and training in areas like copyright registration or other intellectual property protections.
• Begin after the application notification date. For example, for the August 15, 2025, deadline, the proposed activity must start on or after the notification date of September 16, 2025.

INELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

At this time, Quick Grant funding cannot support the following:

• Activities focused primarily on creative or artistic skill development, art teaching/teaching artist methods and techniques, or artistic presentation/production 
• Activities that support an applicant’s adjacent enterprise
• Funding to offset applicant’s regular salary or wages or fees for temporary/contract employees
• Funding to support overhead expenses
• Funding to purchase art supplies, materials, or advanced inventory 
• Activities proposed by artists, creatives, cultural practitioners, or cultural producers to support the operations of a nonprofit organization or a role in arts administration, and vice versa, activities proposed by organizational staff to support an individual art or cultural practice 
• Activities that begin less than one month after the nearest application deadline (applications are due on the 15th of each month); for example, if you apply by the August 15 deadline—between July 16 and August 15—the activity cannot begin until on or after September 16
• Funding to offset fees associated with college tuition or college credit activities

To view an Application Preview (.doc and .pdf versions), Grant Guidelines, and Frequently Asked Questions, please visit the Quick Grant webpage here.

For technical assistance (e.g., upload issues), request support at: https://www.submittable.com/help/submitter/. Submittable’s business hours are 9 am – 5 pm MT. They aim to respond within 24 business hours.