The Grant Cycle
Local Guidelines & Priorities
Each town and city in Massachusetts are different. Putting into practice locally developed guidelines and priorities can help LCCs to support projects that best meet the needs and priorities of their community. Mass Cultural Council encourages LCCs to develop their own guidelines and priorities in addition to the state criteria that LCCs use for grant evaluation. Identifying local guidelines and priorities is an important step in attracting applications for projects that best suit your community.
- Guidelines clearly communicate any local application instructions or restrictions
- Priorities and local review criteria help LCCs to support projects that best meet the needs of their community
Even when requests far outstrip available funds, it is important to make sure that local guidelines and priorities are not overly restrictive and result in too few quality applications to fund. An LCC’s local guidelines and priorities should clearly communicate any local application instructions or restrictions.
LCCs are required to review and update their local guidelines and priorities on an annual basis.
Considerations for Local Guidelines
- Limit the dollar amount awarded to any one applicant?
- Limit the number of applications that any one applicant can submit?
- Set a ceiling on the percentage of a project that can be funded by your LCC (e.g., a maximum 50 percent of the project’s cost)?
- Limit the number of years any one applicant can come back consecutively for funding for the same project or program?
- What aspects of field trips are eligible for funding? Tickets, travel, chaperones, guide fees?
- Allow capital expenditure requests?
- Encourage applications for operating support to allow organizations more responsive, flexible support?
- Loosen local requirements for a set date and set venue at the time of application, given the uncertainty applicants face in planning these days?
Considerations for Local Priorities
- Prioritize funding for historically under-funded communities, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities, individuals with disabilities, low-income communities, and individual artists? (Review Mass Cultural Council’s equity work for other ideas.)
- Fully fund a few proposals or partially fund many? If partially funded, can the projects be successfully completed?
- Prioritize applicants who offer programs and/or events in your local community?
Cultural Equity and Local Priorities: Examples
The Medford Arts Council has included the following cultural equity statement as their first local priority:
Cultural Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Projects that elevate the voices and experiences of historically-marginalized groups to highlight the current and historical diversity of Medford. Projects should create opportunities for artists and community members who identify as Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQX, refugee, immigrant, or person living with a disability. Projects may include coalition building, research, leadership, and youth development.
Developing local priorities further allows LCC members to think about creating subcommittees or smaller groups to focus on tasks or interests. These groups help actualize ideas and give LCCs more structured roadmaps for action.
Similar to Medford, the Worcester Arts Council is also giving special weight to cultural equity, diversity, and inclusion. Read their priorities.
Creating Local Guidelines & Priorities
- Gather community input.
Community input gives an LCC the information they need to make good grant decisions. Knowing what cultural activities the community values will help an LCC set their local guidelines and priorities. There are many ways to conduct community input. Sample community input invitations, surveys, and agendas are available on the community input page. - Meet, draft, and vote on your LCC’s local guidelines and priorities.
Schedule a meeting prior to the opening of the grant cycle (September) to discuss which local priorities to implement. Discuss the results of the community input and draft local priorities and vote as a group to approve them. - Publicize your LCC’s local guidelines and priorities.
Submit you local priorities by filling out the “Guidelines & Priorities” report in the grants management system no later than August 31, as they will be published automatically on September 1. LCCs may also distribute hard copies at key locations in their community with instructions for accessing the application online. - Review your local guidelines and priorities periodically.
If new issues come up during grant review, it is important to make notes in the minutes to discuss them later when reviewing the elements of the LCC funding philosophy. An LCC should not make updates to local guidelines and priorities during a grant cycle; it is unfair to applicants if additional criteria are introduced after they have applied, and it could trigger a reconsideration request from an applicant who felt the rules were changed without public notice.
