Grantmakers in the Arts Request for Proposals – Consultant

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) seeks a consulting partner. This consultant would work with GIA’s leaders and Capitalization consultant to help ensure that our Conversations on Capitalization and Community workshop explicitly identifies ways to support organizations that are by, for and about BIPOC communities, as well as organizations that reflect other oppressed groups such as people with disabilities. This advice could include our highlighting current racially equitable grantmaking strategies, making explicit the equity or inequity implications of common grantmaking strategies and identifying new possible grantmaking strategies.

About GIA’s Capitalization workshops:

Defining capitalization as “the resources an organization needs to fulfill its mission over time,” GIA embarked on the National Capitalization Project (NCP) to seek answers to the under-capitalized tendency of the nonprofit arts field. Conversations on Capitalization and Community have been held in many cities engaging cultural funders in a dialogue about the financial health of nonprofit art groups in their community and how funders might better support capitalization principles for their grantees. GIA has added a three-hour companion session for grantees looking at what it means to be a well-capitalized organization achieving financial health and vibrancy within their marketplace.

The goals for Conversations on Capitalization and Community are to:

  1. elevate knowledge of capitalization for nonprofits and their funders
  2. provide shared vocabulary that granters and grantees use to inform and transform grantmaking and nonprofit financial practices
  3. provide insights into having effective dialogues between funders and grantees
  4. facilitate discussion with funders and nonprofits about their community’s capital drivers, their institutional values and practices, and the ways that each entity fits into the arts eco-system
  5. create a greater sense of complementary practice and camaraderie for a stronger, healthier arts and culture ecosystem.

About GIA’s Racial Equity work

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) is committed to addressing structural inequities and increasing philanthropic and government support for BIPOC artists and arts organizations. Racial equity is a lens through which GIA aims to conduct all of its work, as well as a specific area of its programming.

Since 2008, GIA has been elevating racial equity as a critical issue affecting the field. To actualize this work within the sector, GIA published its Racial Equity in Arts Funding Statement of Purpose in 2015. Through webinars, articles, convenings, and conference sessions, GIA provides training and information to support arts funders in addressing historic and structural inequity.

The Consultancy

Grantmakers in the Arts projects an approximate timeline of 1 month for this project with a budget of approximately $5,000 - $10,000 to pay the consultant for their hours and expenses.

Please fill in this Request for Proposals (RFP) and email it to GIA President & CEO Eddie Torres at eddie@giarts.org by September 21, 2020 with the subject line GIA Capitalization and Racial Equity:

  • Your name
  • Name of Consultancy/Consultant
  • Name of Primary Investigator
  • Contact information
  • Please provide information on your professional background including experience such as running an organization by, for and about BIPOC communities; working in or with the funding community; consulting with organizations and/or grantmakers to change practices toward greater racial equity.
  • Please provide examples of past projects that may be relevant to this project (hyperlinks or attachments). Please articulate how the projects reflect on your ability to add value to this project. Please articulate how the projects reflect on your working methods and on the values through which you approach your work.
  • References from past projects (3)

ABOUT GIA

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) provides leadership and service that advances the use of philanthropic and governmental resources to support the growth of arts and culture. GIA is the only national association of both public and private arts and culture funders in the US, including independent and family foundations, public agencies, community foundations, corporate philanthropies, nonprofit regrantors, and national service organizations across the US and into Canada.

GIA provides valuable professional development for arts grantmakers through conferences, workshops, and webinars; publications including the GIA Reader; research and policy work across the field of philanthropy; and communication tools on our website.

GIA has identified four core focus areas for our work: Arts Education, Capitalization and Nonprofit Financial Health, Racial Equity in Arts Funding, and Support for Individual Artists. GIA also strives to incorporate into our programs other interest areas of concern to our members.