Annual Artist Grant Cycle FAQs & How to Apply

We’re interested in art that educates the public on topical issues. For example, projects that seek to enrich and inform the public on important subjects such as our worsening climate catastrophe, health care, social justice, civil rights, and other contemporary issues facing the country (and the planet) that some organizations might hesitate to fund. The Foundation also gives special consideration to communities that are under-served by the arts. While The Foundation loves to hear from new and emerging artists, established artists are not less likely to be considered if they can demonstrate fiscal need. We prioritize projects that take place in the US. Our archive of grantees will give you an idea about many of the projects we have funded.

Please note that The Puffin Foundation does not fund: projects, individuals, or entities who advocate violence; partisan activities; individuals or entities who engage in or support terrorist activity as defined by US law. More details on these policies can be found in our award agreement, which must be signed prior to the issuance of any funding by The Puffin Foundation.

We use many criteria to evaluate proposals including but not limited to:

• • budgetary need and the amount of the request
• • how established the applicant is in their field
• • the potential audience for and impact of the project
• • the topic(s) addressed in the proposal
• • the feasibility of the project
• • the qualifications of the applicant to carry out the project
• • pertinence to our mission

All are important in our decision making.

Puffin funds projects in the following artistic genres:

Descriptions of each genre can be found below.

Our genres rotate in 2 year cycles, meaning that each genre is open for project proposals every other year. The only exception is environmental artistic activism, which is open every year. Please note that the primary focus of your proposal must be one of the genres being funded in any particular grant cycle. For example, please do not apply for a video/film grant if you are the musician composing the score for a film, or for a theater grant if you are the visual artist creating the set for a play.

If you are unsure about the genre or eligibility of your project, you may email us: .

This category is for projects focusing on environmental issues and the climate crisis in any artistic genre or discipline that Puffin funds. Projects that are solution-focused (not simply raising awareness) are prioritized. Please note that the project methodology and materials should also take into account environmental concerns. If your project involves, for example, plane travel, or utilizes a lot of raw material, or in other ways seems to be contributing to rather than addressing the existential issues of human-caused climate change, our reviewers will take this into account.

Film and video includes traditional media meant for a movie theater or television broadcast as well as radio shows, podcasts, on demand and streaming productions. Script development is not supported.

This is a broad category and may include any form of visual art (excluding those we fund in distinct genres, such as photography) including painting, drawing, printing, sculpture, and multi-media pieces. We also accept proposals for art typically designated as "craft" such as pottery/ceramics, woodworking, fiber arts/textiles, and mosaic.

Puffin funds projects in all genres of music, and for all aspects of its production, including composition, recording, and performance. Note: In rare instances, opera and musical theater might be eligible for funding under the genre of music, especially if the project primarily involves the composition of the musical components, or if the performance of the music is without staging. In general, however, these projects will be considered theater.

The photography genre includes multiple formats including camera-less, alongside digital and film. Any subject matter will be considered, including documentary, the natural world, and portraiture.

Theater includes any type of live dramatic performance, including plays, performance art, storytelling, poetry slams, staged readings, musical theater, and opera. Playwriting is not supported.

For those applying as individuals:
Our tax status only allows us to grant money to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and its territories with a social security number (SSN). We will also accept proposals from current DACA recipients with SSNs. While we do, on rare occasions, fund citizens/permanent residents for projects taking place outside of the United States, we recommend that you include some information regarding the accessibility of the project to people residing in the United States. As per the FAQ in section 3, we do not not fund travel expenses, so that should not be a part of your proposal budget.

For those applying as organizations:
We are unable to make awards to organizations not based in the US. However, you may be eligible to receive an award if you have an American fiscal sponsor or financial conduit. If you are applying as foreign organization, please include information in your project proposal as to the accessibility of the project to people in the United States.

No! The Foundation enjoys a tax status which allows us to fund individual artists directly, if they are not part of a tax exempt organization or tax exempt themselves. Be aware that grants made to individuals count as gifted income that should be declared for tax purposes and we issue 1099 forms at the end of the year.

More information about applying as an individual can be found in section 3.

If the project for which you are seeking support is being produced, created, or conducted by an organization, you must apply for that project on behalf of that organization. Individuals associated with projects that have organizations behind them with them may not apply as individuals for that project, nor may multiple individuals apply on behalf of the same project or organization in any given grant cycle.

Both organizations and individuals can use fiscal sponsors to receive a Puffin grant. Such sponsors can offer tax advantages and fiscal services to those who utilize them, but will almost always charge an administrative fee in exchange. For more information you can refer to this material on fiscal sponsorship from the National Council of Non Profits. Please note that the Puffin Foundation does not itself provide fiscal sponsorship services.

If you choose to use a fiscal sponsor when applying for a Puffin grant, the award will be mailed directly to the fiscal sponsor, in support of your specific project. More information on where checks will be sent can be found in this FAQ in Section 5.

• • Education-related expenses
  The Foundation does not have the resources to offer financial assistance for scholarships or for any projects or expenses related to education or professional development. If the project as a whole or in part counts toward any of your coursework or your degree, no part of it is eligible for funding. Likewise, if you are a professor, projects related to the coursework you offer are not eligible for funding.
• • Travel, conference fees, food and lodging
  Puffin does not fund any of the following, even when they are an integral or unavoidable part of a project: food, lodging, transportation/travel expenses, conference fees.  If these expenses are a part of your project, they should be reflected in your budget, but excluded from your funding request.
• • Projects that involve the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
  We do not fund any projects with AI components. Projects which consist of or utilize, in whole or in part, content generated by artificial intelligence are ineligible for funding by The Puffin Foundation. This includes works that comment upon or critique actual AI-generated material (regardless of origin). This policy applies to works in all genres of art that we support.
• • Literary and written word projects, dance projects (formerly supported by The Puffin Foundation)
  The Foundation has limited resources, and has made the painful but necessary choice to discontinue funding for projects in certain genres. Literary and other written word projects, including developmental writing for theater, video, film, and radio projects, are no longer eligible for Puffin funding. Foundation no longer funds dance-related proposals.

The Foundation does not offer grants in the Annual Artist Grant Program to organizations whose annual budget is $250,000 or more, nor do we fund projects whose overall (total) budget is greater than this amount. We also give an extra close look to projects with budgets over $100,000. In general, the larger the budget, the less critical our funding is likely to be to the realization of the project. By focusing on organizations and individuals with smaller budgets, we can prioritize applicants with fewer financial resources and maximize the impact of our support.

One of Puffin’s funding goals is to reach as many grantees as possible. Therefore, each applicant is limited to one proposal in any given year.

If your project is funded, we ask that you “skip” the next year, and wait until the following year before applying again.

If your project is not selected for funding, you are welcome to apply again the following year, but because our genres rotate in 2 year cycles, you may need to wait until the genre in which you work is open for applications again.

Regardless of whether or not you have applied for a Puffin grant in the past, each grant cycle requires that a new application be submitted in order to create a new grant proposal (project funding request). 

Once you are a registered user, you can access the portal at apply.puffinfoundation.org. If you are working on a grant proposal, you will be able to log in and return to your work as needed until submission is complete. After submission of your grant proposal, you will be able to log in to access other features of the portal, such as acceptance of award terms or submission of reports. You will not be able to alter your submitted grant proposal, nor can users create a new grant proposal until or unless they are granted access in a future grant cycle.

If the project for which you are seeking support is being produced, created, or conducted by an organization, you must apply for that project on behalf of that organization. Individuals associated with projects that have organizations behind them may not apply as individuals for that project, nor may multiple individuals apply on behalf of the same project or organization in any given grant cycle.

We do not provide specific examples of budgets for applicants. Puffin grant applicants range from nonprofits with staff members responsible for entire organizational budgets to individual artists who may only be responsible for their personal tax filings. In order to make our application as accessible as possible for all applicants, we accept a very wide range of formats for budget documents. We don't require that grantees adhere to any specific one.

The most important thing is that you give us an accurate representation of both anticipated expenses as well as income, and identify which items in the budget you would like Puffin funds to cover, bearing in mind the specific things that we do not cover (see our Eligibility FAQs).

You may submit a multiyear budget (last year, this year, with or without the coming year) or a single year budget for this year or last. If there are significant changes from year to year, you should explain that, either in the budget document or in the application narrative.

Remember to address the question in our application of how the project will be funded if anticipated income is not received, or if a Puffin grant is for less than the requested amount.

The portal will allow you to upload and link to work samples and supplementary materials to assist us in understanding your project. There are sections for:

• • visual samples of your work
• • links to short selections of video or music (5 minutes maximum for primary example)
• • supplemental materials

Examples of supplemental materials are: media write-ups; letters from partner organizations or colleagues; educational resources or curricula you’ve created to accompany your work; sections of scripts or screenplays; look books, flyers or programs for upcoming or prior performances. If appropriate, please attach or link to a sample of work up to 5 minutes in length that best represents or encapsulates your work or the proposed project. You may attach or link to additional samples, but this work sample should speak for itself. Do not upload books, complete scripts or screenplays, or full length films. You may include links to full texts or films, but it is unlikely that we will be able to review them.

Letters of reference are not required. You may include up to two if you would like to. Do not have letters or any material pertaining to your project sent separately from your application; include them in your application or they will not be considered.

If you are applying in a year in which music is a genre, a variety of audio files can be uploaded in the “Work Samples” field. They include: mp3, wav, m4a, wma, aif, aiff, and mpa.

Videos cannot be uploaded directly; you must provide a link.

For all other uploads (documents and images), we only accept PDF files. You can find a variety of free conversion tools online or use the provided links below.

• • Word to PDF
• • JPG to PDF
• • PNG to PDF
• • Excel to PDF
• • Additional files to PDF
• • Merge PDFs into single file

Our max upload size is 10mb per file. Please do not upload any documents longer than 10 pages. Do not upload complete manuscripts.

Yes, if you’re applying as an individual. The Foundation has a special tax status that allows us to grant money to individuals (not just nonprofits), and anyone applying for a grant as an individual is asked to provide an SSN. If an award is given, we generate a 1099 because the money is considered as “gift income” for tax purposes and we require an SSN for our records.

With the large number of grants that we award, it would be burdensome for us to retroactively request and receive SSNs from grantees that we can then provide to the IRS if audited. For that reason we request the information of individual applicants up front. Social security numbers are encrypted upon entry and we delete all record of SSNs after the date of any possible use by our own auditors or the IRS.

These tax identification or Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) are only requested of applicants who are applying as a nonprofit organization or using a fiscal sponsor to receive and administer any grant received. These applicants do not have to supply their personal social security number. Nonprofits are required to include a digital copy of their IRS Determination letter.

Yes. As long as you spell out your anticipated timeline in your proposal, multi-year projects are fine. Please note, however, that the project will only be eligible for funding once, so consider which year makes the most sense for your request.

The maximum grant size is $3,500. While some projects will receive full funding, a typical grant is about half that amount.

Please read over your proposal carefully before submission to make sure that it is exactly how you want it. Due to the volume of grant proposals that we receive, we are unable to make changes to proposals after submission or allow applicants to do so themselves. The only exception would be if your project plans significantly change before you have received a decision from us. See FAQ in section 4 for more on this.

We’ll start notifying applicants shortly after the application deadline passes, and will continue to review on a rolling basis until all the proposals have received their decisions. The Puffin Foundation receives hundreds of proposals every year and strives to give each one serious consideration. Therefore, the review process typically lasts about 3-4 months. We appreciate your patience as you await a decision. Please also note that we judge each project on the merits; being reviewed earlier in the process does not increase or decrease your chances of being awarded a grant unless the performance/exhibition date for your project has already passed. (See next FAQ.)

The proposal allows you to indicate if your project has a particular start date. While we attempt to prioritize the review of projects with impending deadlines, there is no guarantee as to when specific proposals will be reviewed, and if your project takes place soon after the submission of your proposal, the deadline may be missed. We encourage you to take this into consideration when applying for a Puffin grant.

Puffin grants will not be awarded retroactively for projects that have already taken place.
You may use Puffin funding for budget items purchased after the submission of your project proposal, but you may not request retroactive funding for budget items already purchased at the time of submission.

We understand that project plans can change, and because our review timeline is several months long, it’s possible that substantive changes to your plans may take place before you receive a decision. If there is a major change to your project plans, we ask that you please contact us at  and describe the changes. If the budget has been affected, please include an updated budget document. Examples of major changes would include but are not limited to:

• • a subject matter change
• • a timeline shift of more than a few weeks
• • a change in the medium or platform being used
• • a change in collaborators that will significantly impact the project
• • a venue change

If in doubt about whether or not the changes to your project are signficant, we encourage you err on the side of caution and email us. Most changes will not affect the chances of your project being awarded a grant, but we do need to have an accurate description of your project plans as well as a budget that accurately reflects those plans.

All applicants will receive an email informing them of our decision.

If your project has been awarded a grant from The Puffin Foundation, you will receive an email directing you to the online portal where you submitted your project proposal. After logging in, you will be prompted to agree to the terms of the award. Once the terms have been agreed to, a check will be issued and mailed.

Where the check will be sent depends on what type of grantee you are:

• • Individual applicants without fiscal sponsors will have their checks mailed to them at the address provided in the portal.
• • Individuals and organizations with fiscal sponsors will have their checks mailed to the office of the fiscal sponsor, at the address provided in the portal.
• • Organizations without fiscal sponsors will have their checks mailed to the organizational address provided in the portal.

Please note: if your address, or that of your organization or fiscal sponsor, changes after you apply for a Puffin grant, make sure to update this address in the portal so that your award will not be sent to the wrong address! You may also send this information to us via email: .

The Foundation asks for acknowledgment of our grant in all relevant on-line & printed material. We also greatly appreciate when you include a representation of our logo. We believe that recognition of the Foundation’s work will further strengthen the importance of the mission to which we are jointly committed. You can find Puffin logos under the “Community” tab on our website or by clicking here.

Sample wording acknowledging Puffin support:

• • If Puffin funding accounts for more than 50% of your project’s budget: “Funding has been made possible by The Puffin Foundation.”
• • If Puffin funding accounts for less than 50% of your project’s budget: “We’d like to thank The Puffin Foundation for their support of this project.”
• • If Puffin funding accounts for less than 10% of your project’s budget or if you have many funders, we ask that you include our name and/or logo when listing supporters.

We realize that the Foundation’s rolling awards schedule does not always match an applicant’s timeline and that many projects may not be finished by the end of the calendar year, regardless of when funding was awarded. If your project is not completed by the end of the year in which it was awarded, we simply ask that you file your Annual Report (see next FAQs) and continue working on your project in the following year(s) until it is completed.

At the end of the calendar year in which the Puffin grant was awarded, all grantees are required to send a report.

• • If the funds from Puffin have not yet been fully spent, you will file an ANNUAL REPORT.
• • If funds from Puffin have been fully spent or the project has been completed (whichever comes first), you will file a FINAL REPORT.
• • If you file an Annual Report, you are required to file another report at the end of the following year. Use the same criteria as above to determine whether an Annual Report (ongoing use of funds) or a Final Report (completed use of funds or project) is called for.

The following FAQs contain more information about how to write and file your reports.

The reporting section is the portal is being overhauled and will reopen in early December.

We require reports as part of our responsibilities as a foundation. And we love getting reports because we get to see the wonderful work that our grantees are doing! That said, we want the reporting process to be simple for you.

On the portal where you submitted your grant proposal, you will find a reporting form to fill out. The form asks for short descriptions of your project and how Puffin funds were used, and for your thoughts as to the goals that were achieved and the impact of the project. If the project is ongoing and you are filing an Annual Report, you can discuss where you are in the timeline and what expenditures, if any, have been covered by Puffin funds thus far.

We also allow you to upload images that we may use in our social media or annual reports. These can be images from the event, advertising, media coverage, or similar relevant materials. Please provide appropriate credits for these images where needed.

In the year following the awarding of your grant, we will send you, via email, an invitation to create your own web page for your grant on our site, in the Archive of Grantees. Given the large number of grants awarded each year and the need to review each of these web submissions, groups of invitations are sent out on a monthly basis. Each project will remain on the site for a few years, after which the content will be archived and replaced by newer projects.

Puffin's review team is quite small and receives a large number of grant applications every year which we do our best to review carefully and in a timely manner. Unfortunately, this means that we do not have the capacity to reply to questions regarding other sources of funding, networking, etc.

The Foundation is privately funded. We do not solicit donations.

The Puffin Foundation has a dedicated exhibition and performance space in Teaneck, NJ. Please see this page of the Puffin Cultural Forum’s website for information on how to submit a proposal.

Puffin has an office in Brooklyn, NYC which periodically hosts exhibits, performances, and community meetings. For more information, please see this page of our website.

Puffin West, which is now closed, is an independent foundation. There is no legal affiliation.