Photo courtesy of Musicians at Play.

There are various pieces to prepare before beginning your online application for the OGP program. Please read the Guidelines thoroughly to ensure compliance with deadlines and requirements.

Applications for the 2025-26 OGP will be open: August 27 - October 1, 2024

Step 1: SMU Data Arts—Cultural Data Profile (CDP)

Potential applicants must complete their Data Arts CDP for the past three years of programming in order to apply to OGP.

Step 2: Calculate Your Request

Your maximum allowable grant request is a proportion of your annual budget size. In order to determine your maximum grant request, you must know what your annual budget size is according to the DataArts Cultural Data Profile (CDP).

The Funding Request Calculator

The Department of Arts and Culture, in collaboration with a statistician has created the OGP Funding Request Calculator. Using the calculator eliminates the possibility of an error in the request amount, and also eliminates penalties for growth while still allowing smaller organizations to request and receive a greater portion of their overall budget than larger organizations. The calculation is based on a sliding scale, and depends on budget size.

How to use the Calculator:

1. The maximum grant request is determined by budget size, which is located on the upper left corner of page one of the LA County Department of Arts and Culture OGP Funder Report.
2. input the budget size number without commas, dollar signs, and periods in the budget box and click calculate.
3. The calculator will generate your organization's maximum grant request.
4. Use the generated number to answer Total Amount Requested in the Budget and Project section of the grant application.

This calculation represents the maximum amount the applicant organization may request. Awards are calculated by multiplying this request by the application panel score, and then reducing all awards to fit within the total pool of available grant funds. The Department of Arts and Culture recommends that organizations request the maximum amount allowable based on budget size as no organization will receive their full request amount. As an example, in 2019/20 OGP awardees were awarded approximately 50% of their maximum allowable request multiplied by their score based on the available funding allocation.

Minimum and Maximum Requests

• The Minimum request for all budgets under $7,500 will equal the budget size.
• The Maximum request for organizations over $40 million is $250,000.
• All applicants will see their request amount increase as their budgets increase up to the maximum request of $250,000.

Step 3: CEII Statement, Policy, or Plan

As of Fall 2018, all applicants to the Organizational Grants Program are required to submit board-adopted statements, policies or plans that outline their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and access as part of their applications.

Statements, policies and plans should reflect organizational thinking about board, management, staff, volunteer and artist composition, as well as programming and audiences/participants.

New requirements are as follows:

Statement, Policy, Or Plan—What's The Difference?

Statement:

Brief explanation of why the organization is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and access, and the alignment of that commitment to the overall mission of the organization.

Policy:

Outlines the organization’s broad vision for and commitment to diversity, equity inclusion and access, and the alignment of that commitment to the overall mission of the organization as defined in their statement, and further details what the organization does to realize that statement.

Plan:

Outlines how the organization will work toward complying fully with policy and evaluating progress on an annual basis. It is highly recommended that the plan includes actionable strategies and methods for measuring progress around all five key areas of the initiative including board, staff, programs/operations, artists and audiences.

OGP Applicants Are Required To:

1. Upload a board adopted cultural equity and inclusion statement, policy and/or plan with the FY 2021-22 application.
2. In addition, a board resolution detailing the date when adopted must also be included.
3. Applicants who submitted a statement, policy or plan with their last application who want to reapply using that same document and proof of adoption from the board, must indicate that they would like to use the statement, policy or plan submitted with their last application.

NOTE: For this requirement, panelists reviewing and scoring applications will not review the applicant’s statements, policies, or plans. Department of Arts and Culture grants staff will review to ensure that the documents have been submitted for compliance purposes as part of the staff audit of the application.

Cultural Equity And Inclusion (CEI) Workshops and Resources

The Department of Arts and Culture began offering free workshops for current OGP grantees to help prepare for this requirement in March of 2018. To see the schedule of workshops and review available online resources, explore our OGP Workshop page. While applicants are highly encouraged to attend a CEII workshop, they are not required.

• CEII Workshop FAQ
• Building Your Plan—A CEI Toolkit

Step 4: Online Grant Application

Applicants are required to submit applications, program documentation, and support materials via the Department of Arts and Culture’s online grant system. We strongly recommend submitting your application at least 5 days prior to the deadline in order to give yourself ample time to troubleshoot and resolve any problems that you might encounter.

Resources

Want More Info?

Please contact Grants staff at grants@arts.lacounty.gov or (213) 202-5858.