Grantpa: The beginning

In May 2015, I received an email from a friend of mine saying I should check Jerome Foundation’s Travel and Study Grant because he thought it was a good fit for me.

Up to that point, I’ve never really thought much about grants; I didn’t have a particular project that I needed a grant for, I rarely took the initiative to search for grants (I didn’t even know where to start), and if I did land on one, I’d feel initmidated by the lengthy complicated requirements.. I’d then sigh out a deep exhale, slowly shake my head in denial, fail to see the return on investment, and think “Forgeet abouuut it! Too much work… Besides, I’ll probably never get the grant, so why even bother applying?”

But I did end up applying. I watched a webinar that explained the details of JF’s grant and came up with a project that was interesting to me; I wrote a draft, proofread it, uploaded my bio and artistic resume, and submitted the application. The overall time spent for coming up with a project, watching the webinar, preparing and completing the grant was about 4–5 hours. After 3 months, Jerome Foundation emailed me that I won the grant, which provided me with $4,950 in cash to cover my project’s expenses and pay myself as an artist.

Now, to be honest, it felt prettty awesome to win a grant. I remember my first reaction to be “Sweet jeez, that was relatively easy. I wonder how many of my artist friends apply for grants”

— So I asked.

I started interviewing my network of artists from students to recent graduates to professional artists asking them if they applied for grants and the challenges they faced. Then I conducted a survey to which 260 artists -most of whom I didn’t know- replied. Here is a summary of the results:

a) 82% of artists were aware or somewhat aware of the existence of grants (47% of survey takers said they are aware of the grants, 35% somewhat aware, and 18% not aware).

b) Yet, only 40% of artists applied for at least one grant. 60% never applied.

c) The 3 main constraints to why artists didn’t apply for a grant were: Confidence/Intimidation, Accessibility, and Time constraints. The artists answered “I didn’t think I will get one” [so they didn’t even apply] (33%); followed by “I wasn’t aware of any grants” (30%); and “I had no time to look for or apply for grants” (18.45%)

d) 96% of artists answered positively to the question: Do you wish you could apply for more grants? (75.57% wished they can apply for more grants; 20.61% said maybe; and 3.82% answered not really).

e) The main services artists wished existed online to help them were: Having a Matching service (25%), Notification/learning about grants (24%), Tips and consultations (22%), and Notification of deadlines (18.9%).

For more results, please check the link here.

It was quickly realized that artists (including myself) need an easy way to find and apply for grants and that this solution does not exist. That’s why Grantpa came to be.

Our small team at Grantpa has been working hard to create a solution that will help artists around the word of all artistic, stylistic and ethnic backgrounds solve the aforementioned constraints. We’re proud to have launched our beta for the US and looking forward to expand very soon.

Our core value is to lower the barrier and increase access to grants in Arts, Culture, and other sectors. This will lead to more opportunities for artists who have the skill and ambition but are daunted by the challenges of keeping track of and applying to the multitude of grants available.

Grantpa launched its beta product at the beginning of this month and acquired more than a 1000 users in less than 3 days. We were astounded by the demand. This positive initial reception and the support that we’ve received from artists around the world solidifies our determination to create the easiest, fastest, and most convenient system for finding and applying for grants.

Join Grantpa’s waiting list if you haven’t yet at www.grantpa.com and let your artist friends know about it too!

Hadi Eldebek