Get Help
We’re here to help creatives navigate the world of public funding for arts & culture.
View Current Funding Opportunities
Our team regularly gathers funding opportunities for the creative community in Illinois.
Get Help
Our Help Desk offers free 1:1 support navigating various public funding opportunities. We’ll accept anything from a hello to an in-depth question about tax forms!
Upcoming Events
Three days of webinars focused on setting up your creative nonprofit for stage as it expands: building your board, setting up insurance, and more.
Tuesday, July 23: Financial Planning & Your Board 2.0
Wednesday, July 24: Operational Excellence & Insurance
Thursday, July 25: Managing Finances & Scenario Planning
Webinars will take place from 10-11am each day. Learn more and register.
Our financial plans and strategies embody and reflect what we value as arts and culture organizations. And in day-to-day operations, it’s not just about the financial systems, staff, and processes we have in place — but also about the who: who is invited to participate in planning, who has access to data, and who is involved in making decisions that impact everything from on-the-ground program delivery to long-term organizational sustainability.
Join the Arts Alliance Illinois Help Desk and BDO on Wednesday, July 31 at 11am. Learn more and register.
Funding Opportunities
Deadline: Ongoing
Is a loan right for your creative business or nonprofit? Check out a recording of our April webinar with lenders and creatives talking you through the process of thinking through and applying for a loan. Plus, join us on June 18 for a free panel on microloans for creatives!
Deadline: July 30
Small businesses in the following areas can apply for grants for up to 90% of building improvements costs, with a maximum grant of $150,000 for commercial properties and $250,000 for industrial properties.
- 24th/Michigan
- 71st/Stony Island
- Austin Commercial
- Roosevelt/Cicero Industrial Corridor
- Woodlawn
More information here.
Deadline: August 30
The Art-in-Architecture Program of the Capital Development Board is pleased to announce a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to Illinois professional artists to create permanent original public art for the Nursing and CTE Building at Spoon River College in Macomb, Illinois. More details here.
Deadline: August 15
Through project-based funding, the program supports activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities over the long term. Our Town projects engage a wide range of local stakeholders in efforts to advance local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes in communities. Competitive projects are responsive to unique local conditions, develop meaningful and substantive engagement in communities, center equity, advance artful lives, and lay the groundwork for long-term systems change. More details and how to apply here.
Deadline: September 16
$10,000 grants for organizations with annual budgets of $250,000 or less. More details and how to apply are here.
Deadline: September 23
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is calling on organizations to scale efforts to expand digital opportunities. Arts and culture organizations focused on bridging the digital divide are encouraged to apply. More information here.
Deadline: January 16, 2025
Through fellowships to published translators, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supports projects for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English. Translation projects should be of interest for their literary excellence and merit. The NEA encourages projects that feature languages, perspectives, and writers that are not well represented in English, as well as work that has not previously been translated into English. More details here.
About the Help Desk
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 the 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 info@artsalliance.org.
The help desk is available in English and Spanish.
Support this work
If you’re a funder interested in helping the Alliance provide funding navigation services to the creative sector, we’d love to talk! Reach out to our Deputy Director of Development, Kaitlin Donnelly, at donnelly@artsalliance.org.
