Arts Service Organizations

Program for: Organizations

Purpose: To provide operating support to not-for-profit organizations and collectives dedicated to services for artists and arts organizations in Ontario to assist them to sustain a healthy arts community.

Operating grants commit funding to the operating expenses of arts service organizations that meet the assessment criteria for ongoing support.

Eligibility: To be eligible for this program, arts service organizations must:

• be an Ontario not-for-profit corporation;

OR

• be a federal not-for-profit corporation (with the exception of book and magazine publishers) with the head office in Ontario;
• be led by professional personnel;
• have completed at least two years of sustained, regular, ongoing programming in its community as of the application date (an organization that does not meet this requirement may instead apply for project funding);
• have a range of revenue sources such as private and government;
• be governed by a board of directors or an advisory body solely responsible for the organization;
• have community support and involvement demonstrated through one or more of the following: membership, fundraising and volunteer involvement.
• have proof of sound financial management;
• submit verification of financial results of the last completed fiscal year with their applications. The type of financial statement we require depends on the amount of your grant request and the size of your annual budget, as follows:
• over $30,000, for all revenue levels: audited financial statement
• $10,000 and under, for organizations with revenues under $100,000: unaudited financial statement (or, if available, review engagement or audited financial statement). Unaudited financial statements must be prepared using the format of the CADAC accounting template, which is to be found at www.thecadac.ca/cms/en/guides.html, along with a guide to its use.
• all other requests and revenue levels: review engagement (or, if available, audited financial statement)

If you do not provide the type of financial statement required, we will reduce your grant request to an eligible level.

In addition to the above, in order to apply to the Arts Service Organizations program you must:

• have a primary mandate to provide services to artists and/or arts organizations;
• have a majority of the Ontario artists and arts organizations you serve eligible for funding in OAC’s disciplinary and multidisciplinary granting programs;
• provide a range of services;
• have a head office incorporated/registered in Ontario;
• show a range of earned, public and private revenue sources.

Community Arts Councils are not eligible in this program. Please see programs in the Community and Multi-disciplinary Arts office and contact that office for more information.

NOTE: Potential new applicants must contact the officer well in advance of the deadline to discuss eligibility and to request an application package.

New Deadline: February 1, 2012
Grant notification letters will be mailed out four months after the application deadline. 

Program Guidelines and Application Form

For all applicants:

• Operating Grant Guidelines  (print version)

Click here to read detailed qualifiers of the criteria that assessors will use while reading your application.

For Requests of $30,000 and under:

• Annual Operating Application  (Word)
• Multi-year Operating Application  (Word)

For Requests over $30,000:

• Annual Operating Application  (Word)
• Multi-year Operating Application  (Word)

For more information, please contact Michael Murray, ASO Program Officer, 416-969-7439, toll free 1-800-387-0058 extension 7439, mmurray@arts.on.ca.  

For Results Announcements for this program, please click here.