The regional cultural project grants support arts and culture organizations with creation, production, dissemination, audience development, research, project staff and/or administrative capacity building. Project grants are awarded to a maximum of $10,000 each. The 2025 total allocation budget is $300,000.
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Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 12:00 pm: Information session for interested applicants
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Monday, April 28, 2025 at 4:00 pm: Deadline to apply
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May - June: Received applications reviewed by Metro Vancouver staff
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July: Review and adjudication by Metro Vancouver’s Finance Committee; final grant allocations approved by the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board
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August: Communication to all applicants, including dissemination of cheques for successful grants
Information session for interested applicants
Interested in applying for a 2025 regional cultural project grant? Join the online information session on Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 12:00 pm until 1:00 pm.
Staff will provide an overview of the application and adjudication process, offer guidance and tips for submitting a stronger application, review common errors seen in the past, and answer your questions.
Register for the session
Grant application
Applying for a grant involves two steps:
- Fill out and submit the online application form
Apply for the cultural grant
- Upon submission of your application form, instructions and your application ID number will be provided for you to also send us support materials:
- Most recent financial statements signed by the appropriate Board executive
- Letter(s) of support – maximum of five; at least one should be from a project collaborator or funding source
| Eligibility criteria | Eligibility criteria | <div class="ExternalClassF9AA916E2E3E4ABFBCDD3F72FA17DE80"><p>Grants are intended to support regional arts and culture projects, not ongoing operational/general expenses.<br></p><p>To qualify for a 2025 grant, the applicant must:<br></p><ul><li>promote arts and culture as its primary purpose, (as opposed to an organization whose function or purpose extends beyond an arts and culture mandate);</li><li>produce and present arts and culture on a regular basis within the Metro Vancouver region;</li><li>be a non-profit society registered under the
<em>BC Societies Act</em> or a non-profit community service cooperative registered under the<em> Community Service Co-operatives </em>section of the<em> BC Cooperatives Act</em> for at least two fiscal years; </li><li>demonstrate stability and resiliency, operating with an annual budget exceeding $75,000 and paid staff; </li><li>be requesting funding for a project where programming will be touring or attracting audiences from across multiple Metro Vancouver member jurisdictions;</li><li>provide a letter of support for the project; and</li><li>obtain project funding from diverse sources, whereby:
<ul style="list-style-type:disc;"><li>no more than 30% of the total project budget is proposed to come from Metro Vancouver; and</li><li>at least two other sources of project funding have been identified, including one that is confirmed.<br></li></ul></li></ul><p>Organizations may only apply for one grant per year.</p><p>Late and incomplete applications will be disqualified. Applications will only be considered if all required materials are received and time-stamped in Metro Vancouver’s system before the application deadline.</p></div> |
| Selection criteria | Selection criteria | <div class="ExternalClassE4E888B7B69F44F0BED780FFB38AA689"><p>The selection of 2025 projects will be based on the following assessment criteria. The relative weight given to each criterion is indicated in brackets.</p><p>
<b>Regional Impact (20%)</b></p><ul><li>Significance of the project in serving and attracting audiences from across the Metro Vancouver region </li><li>Significance of the project in its unique offering to the region’s arts and culture </li></ul><p></p><p>
<strong>Merit (50%)</strong></p><ul><li>Merit of the project, based on past excellence and proven ability of the applicant</li><li>Clearly communicated project goals and relevance to arts and culture in the region</li><li>Demonstrated support of the project (i.e. partnerships, collaborations, sponsorships or in-kind support, staff and volunteers, etc.)</li><li>Marketing, promotion and/or outreach plan to encourage regional participation, awareness and engagement</li><li>Project delivery with resilience to reasonably adjust as necessary</li></ul><p>
<strong>Budget Plan (30%)</strong></p><ul><li>Clear and concise budget plan for reasonable use of grant funding</li><li>Other sources of realistic funding support identified and/or in place</li><li>Requested funds are specific to the proposed project, and are not intended for ongoing operational/general funding</li></ul></div> |
| Conditions | Conditions | <div class="ExternalClass6FD0AF7FA96540C083F3BA4BB16AB6AB"><p></p><p>Grant recipients must adhere to the following:</p><ul><li>Acknowledge the support of Metro Vancouver on all promotional materials related to the funded project.</li><li>Organizations making significant changes to the information provided in their application must discuss such changes with Metro Vancouver staff prior to implementation. </li><li>Grant recipients are required to complete a follow-up report for Metro Vancouver. Receipt of this report will be a precondition for consideration of the organization’s future grant applications. </li><li>Information provided in this regional cultural project grant application may be subject to disclosure under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. <br></li></ul></div> |
| Guidance and tips | Guidance and tips | <div class="ExternalClass5B86C5FB4A0742299E6081696F9AE894"><p>You can expect to spend upwards of 60 minutes completing your application. We suggest that you review the 2025 regional cultural project grants application in advance, gather the required information, and prepare your responses ahead of time in a saved document before you fill out the online form. A working copy can be downloaded below, however your finalized application form responses must be submitted using the online form.</p><p>
<i class="fa-light fa-file-word"></i>
<a href="/_layouts/download.aspx?SourceUrl=https%3a//metrovancouver.org/cultural-grants/Documents/regional-cultural-project-grant-application-working-copy.docx" title="Cutural Grant Working Copy">2025 Regional Cultural Grant Working Copy</a><br></p><p>Due to high demand, most grant amounts range between $2,500-$5,000. As available funding is limited, grants successfully awarded might be less than originally requested for a proposed project. In 2024, Metro Vancouver received 162 applications from organizations seeking over $1.3 million in funding for proposed projects. Grants were awarded to 57 of these applicants using the full $300,000 approved budget.<br> <br>Late and incomplete applications will be immediately disqualified. Submitting your application well in advance of the deadline – ideally before April 28 – is strongly recommended, to ensure unanticipated delays do not jeopardize the hard work and valuable time invested in your grant proposal.<br> <br>Has your organization received a Metro Vancouver regional cultural project grant in the past? If so, check that all previous project reports are up to date, as this is a precondition for applying for another grant. Remember that 2024 grant projects that are still underway are expected to send Metro Vancouver an interim project report.<br> <br>Metro Vancouver’s grant program is intended to support regional arts and culture projects, not ongoing operational/general funding.<br></p></div><br> |
| Past grant recipients | Past grant recipients | <div class="ExternalClassFD6A6A6343854A2F85769D2B1598392F"><p>Congratulations to all <a href="/media-room/media-release/864">2024 regional cultural project grant recipients </a>as well as organizations that have benefited from this grant program in the past.</p><p>Grant recipients are required to <a href="/cultural-grants/Documents/regional-cultural-project-grants-reporting-evaluation-2024.pdf">complete a follow-up report</a> for Metro Vancouver.
<strong>Past project reports (either interim or final, depending on project timelines) are </strong>
<strong>due Monday, April 14. </strong>Receipt of project reports is a precondition for consideration of an organization's future grant applications.<br><br></p></div> |
Deadline and submission
Complete applications must be received by 4:00 pm on Monday, April 28. Applications will only be considered if all required materials are received and time-stamped in Metro Vancouver’s system before the application deadline.
If you have any questions about the application process or eligibility of your proposed project, email
CulturalGrants@metrovancouver.org or contact Sarah Faucher at 604-456-8828.