On Sticking With the Grant Cycle
and tips for submitting with less stress
Two weeks ago I hit send on another grant application.
This fall marks my third round of grant submissions since I left my full-time job to return to writing. Of my past 4 submissions, I’ve had three come back ‘recommended,’ but none have ranked high enough to receive funding.
It seems obvious to say that I’ve found the process discouraging. I understand that making the cut-off to ‘recommended’ means that a project meets, if not exceeds, basic criteria, but it’s very frustrating. Seeing the quality of writers who are regularly rejected, I’ve asked myself how much effort I should be putting into applying to programs that are so competitive. A certain level of competition for grants is expected, of course, but at what point does highly competitive tip into woefully underfunded? And wouldn’t it be more satisfying to put energy into advocating for a program that would support us all, like a Basic Income for Artists? I know that it isn’t one or the other, but you can see how quickly I can move toward opting out.
For now, I am still applying. Paid opportunities for poets are too scarce not to try. But coming to terms with the high rate of failure, I refuse to let the process get me down. The way that I approached the last two rounds—avoiding stress through procrastination and then writing them in the week before the deadline— left me feeling demoralized and estranged from work that had been going well. For this round, my goal was simply to submit the applications (to the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia) with as little anxiety as possible.
In the hope that it will be useful to you, I’ve put together a list of the steps I took. These are specific to the Arts NS Grants to Individuals application (Creation category).
1. Midway between the spring and fall deadlines, I contacted a grant writer, Kathleen Buckley, and asked her to review my most recent application. The timing was good for me because I could take in her feedback and let it settle before approaching a new round of applications. Among other things, Kathleen highlighted where my register was too academic. This is something I struggle with—my academic training kicks in when I talk about my work. Her feedback was encouraging and professional and I felt I gained a sense of what applications need to state clearly. I can see myself doing this again if/when I can afford it. The review cost $125 plus tax.
2. When I received the response to my spring application, I requested feedback from Arts NS. They sent me three bullet points taken from the meeting of the Peer Assessment Committee. Most of the feedback was good—obviously I was on the right track and didn’t need to start fresh—but there was a significant aspect of my project description that needed clarification.
3. About two months before the deadline, I made a binder with all the information that’s provided on the grant. I did this because a) if it’s not in a binder it doesn’t stick in my brain, and b) I recognize that when I am stressed out, I can lose sight of the basic guidance that’s provided. For this grant, that included the checklist, the tips page, the guidelines, and the sample application. Because I was reworking my previous proposal, I printed that, as well as the feedback I’d received from Kathleen and Arts NS.
4. In the run-up to the deadline, I re-read my binder, and picked off pieces of the application one at a time. My resume needed to be updated, so I spent an evening on that. I was thinking about hiring an editor as part of my project, so about a month out I asked her if she would provide a letter outlining her services. I also opened a document for supporting work and began to select what I felt were strong pieces from my work-in-progress. I continued in this way until I had all the pieces in draft form.
5. A month ahead of time, I emailed the program officer and we set up a phone meeting for two weeks before the deadline. This is a standard offering for this program and I highly recommend it. The officer asked me to send a draft of the application an hour before so that they could give me spontaneous feedback based, I imagine, on the amount of time a peer assessor would have. I found the meeting helpful. Obviously, the program officer can’t anticipate exactly how a particular Peer Assessment Committee will respond (they change every round), but they have a good idea of what can trip them up. Crucially, the meeting forced me to complete a full draft with two weeks to spare. After our meeting I took notes and spent some time attending to the details they had highlighted.
6. The week of the deadline, I felt my application was in pretty good shape. On the day it was due, I was unexpectedly away from home. Normally this would cause stress, but I had time to proofread my documents, catch a few mistakes, and smooth out some of my sentences. No major changes at the last minute—what a concept!
When I submitted the application at noon, it felt like a regular workday. Normally, I would need two or three days to come down from the anxiety caused by the deadline. But this time, I felt none of that. Even though the steps I took might sound a bit involved, I don’t think that I spent more time on this application than on others—it was just spread out.
If I don’t get the grant, I will be disappointed, for sure, and I will have to find more paid work to see me through the spring and summer while also writing a book. That is the situation for most writers. But, knowing that I have figured out how to manage grant stress makes facing the next round of applications less daunting. For now, I count that as a win.
Here are links to resources I’ve used:
Grant Writing
Kathleen Buckley Not in Nova Scotia, but knowledgeable about Canada Council and Arts NS programs; also follow her on IG—lots of opportunities to join workshops.
Strategic Arts Management In Nova Scotia; you can book a one-on-one consultation for grants.
Beth Pickens I follow her on IG and listen to her podcast; funny and encouraging content about how to approach grant-writing—look for the “bozo theory”!
Sydney Hegele has a blogpost outlining the application process for the Canada Council all the way from the opening the portal to filing your taxes.
On a Basic Income for Artists
Basic Income Nova Scotia Society
Let me know if you found any of this helpful. I’d also love to know what strategies you’ve developed to make the grant application process more bearable! Please comment below or DM.
Talk soon,
Alison
As someone who has never received a grant (and barely managed to submit 2 out of many, many attempts), this is a great list of tips! I will come back to this document if I ever step back into the art world ❤️