Strengthening Maryland's Arts Infrastructure: Grants for Organizations

From large, internationally renowned institutions to local gems of the community, Maryland invests in organizations and programs that uplift, inspire and enrich our citizens through the boundless power of the arts. 

IN FISCAL YEAR 2019, THE MARYLAND STATE ARTS COUNCIL AWARDED GFO GRANTS TO 290 ARTS ORGANIZATIONS AND PROGRAMS ACROSS THE STATE TOTALING $14,644,298.

The Grants for Organizations (GFO) granting program provides unrestricted general operating support to nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, as well as units of government, that produce or present ongoing arts programming that is open to the public.  GFO awardees educate children, uplift communities, stimulate business activity and support jobs. 

See past and current awardees lists here.

GFO Grant Guidelines

For information on the GFO Grant Program as well as a detailed walk through of the application, please refer to the FY20 GFO Grant Guidelines.

Other referenced documents can be found here:

• On Year and Off Year Artistic Categories 
• Artistic Category Definitions
• Financial Information: Definitions
• Scoring Rubric
• FY2020 GFO Full Application GOG (General Operating) Narrative Template
• FY2020 GFO Full Application PRG (Arts Program) Narrative Template
• FY2020 GFO RFF (Request for Funding) Application Narrative Template (PRG or GOG)
• FY2020 GFO Financial Template

Creative Conversations - Regional Fall Arts Institutes - Please consider joining us for an evening in your region to learn more about the GFO application and other partnerships. More information can be found here.

Application Deadlines:

Full Application - November 15, 2018

Request for Funding (RFF) Application - December 15, 2018

Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered for funding.

New Applicants  

If your organization is a NEW Applicant or if your organization DID NOT receive a Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 MSAC GFO Grant, your organization was required to complete the Intent to Apply form in order be eligible to apply for an MSAC FY2020 GFO Grant.

If your organization was deemed eligible, you will complete a Full Application for FY20.

To confirm eligibility and complete the "Intent to Apply" form, you must be able to answer "YES!" to all five sections in the chart below.

If you were not able to confirm all five, but are still interested in learning more about the growth of your arts organization, please let us know how we can help by connecting with GFO Program Staff.

The Intent to Apply form is available to complete in eGrant. The deadline is September 15, 2018.

Forms submitted after the deadline will not be considered.

Returning Applicants

The Maryland State Arts Council's BASIC ARTS OPERATING GRANTS and BASIC ARTS PROGRAM GRANTS have been restructured into a new CREATIVITY GRANT program. The CREATIVITY GRANT application will include answers to three questions, have a maximum request amount of $3,500, require minimal economic data reporting, and have no deadline (applications will be reviewed monthly starting July 1). If you are a past BASIC GRANTS recipient, there is no action to be taken until the announcement of the CREATIVITY GRANT program on April 1.

If your organization has consistently been applying for and receiving GFO grant awards, with no recent lapses in application submissions, you are asked to submit one of the following two applications: 

1. FY20 Full Application - due November 15th
2. FY20 Request for Funding (RFF) - due December 15th

 Guidelines for these applications can be found here.