Arts And Belonging Grants- Grassroots Grants

The Arts and Belonging Grants provide crucial funding for grassroots arts organizations in Cambridge, empowering them to foster social cohesion and community engagement. With grants of up to $25,000 per year, these funds support initiatives that cultivate underrepresented talent, build community ownership, and promote collaborative cultural practices. This initiative aims to address the unique challenges faced by local organizations, ensuring diverse voices are included in the arts landscape and that marginalized communities receive necessary support.

Background
The arts are important drivers of social cohesion; they uplift and inspire, help people bridge differences, create new ways of understanding one another, and foster a sense of shared purpose and belonging.
According to research, equitable, place-based arts and culture build a sense of belonging* when they:
share power equitably and build community ownershipconnect and include people identifying in many different wayshelp communities come together to advance common goalscultivate platforms for diverse forms of cultural practice
Our arts and belonging grants are the first step in a multi-phased arts and belonging strategic initiative developed as part of the Cambridge Community Foundation’s (CCF) ongoing commitment to fostering social cohesion and addressing the unique needs of our arts and culture community. Emerging from feedback gathered during a community listening initiative conducted in the fall of 2024, which highlighted the challenges faced by arts and culture organizations in Cambridge, these grants aim to address the need for stable, long-term funding, support for marginalized communities, and the opportunity to grow and sustain impactful programs.
Grants for community impact and grassroots arts organizations.
Up to $25,000 per year, multi-year general operating support grants for Cambridge-serving grassroots organizations doing arts and belonging work.

Eligibility

Nonprofits and fiscally sponsored entities with annual budgets of $250,000 or less.Have been actively operating in Cambridge for at least one year.Cultivate under-supported or emerging artistic and cultural talent. Consistently serve a specific community or group through regular programming .Build agency, self-determination, and power among historically excluded communities in Cambridge .