The Arts Alliance Help Desk assists creative workers, organizations, and businesses with applying for public funding opportunities. 

While the help desk is primarily a vehicle for helping the creative community learn about and apply for existing opportunities, we are also available to answer any questions about the Alliance’s work, including advocacy, programs, and research.

As the advocacy organization for Illinois’ creative sector, Arts Alliance created the help desk to bridge the gap between government organizations with funding programs and the creatives applying for funding. If our conversations with the sector lead us to discover anything amiss in an application process, like a form submission error or incorrectly interpreted eligibility criteria, our team will elevate the issue to the government group administering the funds and advocate for a solution. We’ll also take what we hear in the Help Desk and use it to inform our advocacy and programs.

We encourage you to visit the help desk periodically to learn about new public funding opportunities and get help applying for them. Better yet, sign up for updates from Arts Alliance to receive news straight to your inbox and follow us on social media (@ArtsAllianceIL).

We welcome anything from a “hello” to an in-depth question about your tax forms.

When you submit a question to our Help Desk, you will get a response from one or more Arts Alliance staff knowledgeable about the funding opportunities. Alliance Help Desk staff are your advocates! While we know our stuff, please keep in mind that if you are reaching out about a specific funding opportunity, anything shared by the Alliance staff does not constitute a formal decision about grant eligibility. The Arts Alliance help desk staff does not play a role in determining who receives an award for any of the grants we’re here to assist with.

Our Help Desk staff respond to inquiries in approximately 24 to 48 hours, but we’ll do our best to help you as soon as we can.

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information obtained through intake forms, email correspondence, phone calls, and virtual meetings only as necessary to fulfill your request and support the creative sector. The demographic data we collect helps our team provide that assistance and will also be used to further Arts Alliance Illinois’ understanding of the composition of the creative sector. 

We may share your information with parties outside our organization only so far as is necessary to fulfill your request. We may share anonymized demographic data with entities that fund our efforts to support the creative sector.

View our privacy policy here.
For more information, email the Arts Alliance team at [email protected].

The Help Desk is available in English and Spanish.