Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for useful tutorials on setting up a grant portal account. 

Your application must be submitted online by 11:59 PM on the day of the deadline date. For example: if the deadline is Feb 1, you are able to submit the application at 11:59 PM on Nov 1 for your application to be eligible. If you are even one minute late, 12:00 PM, your application is ineligible for funding. If you have any questions about this please contact the Grant Program Officer.

Artistic merit is a term used to describe the quality of the art project included in the application. Describing how the art project will expand your or your organization’s artistic capacity and how it will expand your participants or the audience’s artistic experience is one way of making sure your art project has artistic merit. Additional items used to determine the artistic merit of your project include the work resumes of the project director and key project personnel as well as artistic resumes of any artists involved with the project. For individual artists the work samples included with the application will also be used in determining artistic merit.

Unfortunately no, you must upload the document into the online application. If the document is too large, do your best to shrink the file size. There are a number of ways to do this; a google search may help. If you are still having trouble, please contact ECRAC staff for assistance.

Yes; if you would like to see past successful grant applications you may contact ECRAC staff to make an appointment to come to our office in Braham, MN. These past grant applications are only accessible at our office and cannot be copied and/or leave the premises.

How will the success of your project be measured? One way to measure success is to compare the attendance at your performance or exhibit with similar events. Other ideas include questionnaires, surveys, etc., you should be clear on how you will evaluate the success of your project before it happens – don’t let evaluation be an after-thought! You will be required to report it. ECRAC does have outcome evaluation resources for you.

An in-kind donation is a gift of goods or services which are provided at no charge (or a reduced fee) that would normally be considered a program expense. Here are some examples:

• a business photocopying your programs for you
• a costume supply business donating the use of costumes
• a designer who donates his/her services to create a poster
• a volunteer paying the postage to mail a press release

In kind donations are viewed very positively by granting agencies because they show that an applicant is really making a special effort to ensure the success of their project. Remember to always send a letter of thanks (and a free ticket or invitation) to any business or individual that makes a contribution to your project. Also be sure to indicate their support on all printed materials and publicity (wording might include: "This project was supported in part by XYZ Corporation," or, "We would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of XYZ Corporation, who donated paper for the invitations." This small consideration will go a long way to ensure the success of your event, because those that contribute to your effort are also your best promoters! In addition, if funded by ECRAC there is a required statement to use regarding the grant funding. It will be in your notification of grant award and not using the statement jeopardizes future funding.

Grant applications are generally reviewed by ECRAC a month or two after the application deadline. This means the start date of projects, including advertising, cannot be before the earliest project start date as listed in the guidelines. Please review the grant guidelines for further information regarding the project start and end dates.

Please check out the Grant Change Request page found under Manage My Grant.

There are two types of in kind for a project, labor and non-labor. Here is a receipt voucher for grantee in kind contributions for both: