2026 CANVAS Amplify Grant Application

Thank you for applying for a 2026 CANVAS Amplify Grant.

All materials must be submitted by April 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

Below, you will have the opportunity to submit the following:

1. Basic Information about your Organization, Contact Information, and Regions/Audiences/Artists Served; CANVAS Funding Amount Requested.
2. Documentation of your organization’s 501c3 or non-profit U.S, Mexican, or Canadian qualifying donee status (including an agreement letter, as applicable, for fiscal sponsors of programs/projects). (PDF) Note: CANVAS will be unable to accept proposals submitted from any entities other than 501c3 or non-profit organizations (and/or fiscal sponsors within that category).
3. A brief project summary. 
4. List of potential partners and their roles in the proposed project. 
5. A 2-3 page Statement of Interest (recommended no more than 500-750 words total).
6. A project budget (PDF).
7. Your organization's operating budget for the current fiscal year, and actuals from the previous fiscal year (Excel or PDF).
8. 1-2 work samples related to your proposed project (PDF).

More information on CANVAS Amplify Grants can be found on our website.

Please note that CANVAS can only provide grants to 501c3 / non-profit U.S, Mexican, or Canadian qualifying donee or CSO organizations. If your organization does not have tax-exempt status, you can submit an application through a 501(c)(3) or non-profit organization serving as your fiscal sponsor.

Please upload documentation of your organization's 501c3 or non-profit status (including an agreement letter, as applicable, for fiscal sponsors of programs/projects). (PDF)

CANVAS will be unable to accept proposals submitted from any entities other than non-profit U.S., Mexican, or Canadian qualifying donee or CSO organizations, or a fiscally sponsored initiative of a non-profit organization.

File Naming:
Your file upload should be named with the following naming convention:
[Your Organization Name]_Nonprofit Status

Please use the organization name you included above, followed by an underscore and the words “Nonprofit Status”. Thank you.

In the field below, please indicate the amount of funding that your organization requests from CANVAS.

Award Requirements:

Applicants may request between $25,000 and $75,000, based on a proposal’s scope, impact, and alignment with CANVAS Review Criteria.

Please refer to the following guidelines for request amounts: 

• For organizations with budgets up to $500,000, request up to $25,000 
• For organizations with budgets up to $1 million, request up to $50,000
• For organizations with budgets above $1 million, up to $75,000
• The CANVAS grant cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the project. (For example, for a project requesting $50,000 of CANVAS support, the total project budget must be at least $100,000.)
• The amount of funding requested from CANVAS must not exceed 20% of the organization’s total operating budget.

While the Review committee will take funding requests into careful consideration, CANVAS may make awards to organizations at a lesser amount than requested. Please share what a realistic budget looks like for your project, alongside other types of funding and support that your organization is seeking for the project. Please consider the project’s feasibility if awarded a lesser amount from CANVAS than requested.

Grant funds are available for all phases of proposal activities, including:

• Support for sustained, ongoing programs and initiatives.
• Scaling and expanding existing initiatives to accelerate growth.
• Prototyping/piloting of new initiatives. (Note: this type of activity will be most competitive within the Review Criteria if there are clearly established partnerships to reach audiences.)

The period of performance for the grant may be for up to 18 months from the date of the awarded agreement. 

CANVAS Amplify Grant support for projects will begin January 1, 2027.

Please write a Statement of Interest (recommended no more than 500-750 words total) that outlines the following, in order:

1. A description of the proposed project. Invite the Review Committee into what the project is and what a person might experience if they were to participate. Include: 
   
   • The project’s goals
   • What audiences/participants will experience
   • Potential or confirmed artists involved
   • Target audiences and/or artists served
   • How you intend to reach those audiences
   • Which partnerships are confirmed/proposed and which are most likely to take place? (You can describe this more in the attached “Partnerships” list; please see the Partnerships section below.) 
   • How the project aligns with CANVAS Amplify Grant goals and objectives.
2. A brief description of your organization's mission, relevant programs, and history. Please do not include an extensive description of all of your organization’s programs, but a general overview that helps the panel understand the scope of your organization’s work. 
3. A brief project timeline.

Applicants can review all information about Amplify Grants, including the Review Criteria, here. Competitive proposals will demonstrate at least one of the following:

1. Bring contemporary Jewish artists or artworks to mainstream/secular arts spaces or audiences (i.e., those that are not explicitly focused on serving the Jewish community, or the Jewish arts field).
2. Foster cross-cultural connection and dialogue, including between Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, artists, curators, or organizations.
3. Create sustained, ongoing initiatives that engage historically underrepresented artists.

Additionally, competitive proposals will:

1. Prioritize the quality, sophistication, and variety of work presented, including opportunities to celebrate the diversity, complexity, and intersectionality of Jewish identity, themes, rituals, traditions, history, culture, or experience.
2. Demonstrate reach, influence, and/or meaningful engagement with audiences on regional or national levels, including any plans for sustained, ongoing programming or partnerships.
3. Demonstrate the ability to effectively document programs and initiatives, market to audiences, generate engagement, and to measure this over time.
4. Demonstrate good financial health and a clear plan for stability and/or growth.
5. Provide evidence of direct, fair compensation to artists or creatives.

Use the space below to list any project partners, their websites, their proposed role, and the likelihood of the partnership in this project (“status”). If you don’t have confirmed partners, please detail which partners have indicated that should funding come through, they will collaborate on the program. (i.e. will they co-present? Cross promote? co-produce/fund? How will the partnership elevate the project?) 

Explain status, such as: partnership secured contingent on funding; prior partner we have yet to reach out to; new partnership possibility we have not yet reached out to. 

Competitive projects will clearly demonstrate how they will engage partners to align with the goals of the CANVAS Amplify Grant program. Proposals that advance to the second round will be asked to submit letters of intent from partners between end of June - end of July. 

Please upload a project budget (PDF). In your budget, be sure to specify:

• The projected costs for the duration of the project. (This should align with the timeline stated in your submitted narrative materials.)
  • Be sure to include evidence of direct, fair compensation to the artists/creatives in your project budget. 
• The projected income supporting the project. A CANVAS grant cannot support more than 50% of the total project costs. (For example, if you are requesting $50,000 from CANVAS, the total income in support of the project must total at least $100,000 and the organization must have at least a $500,000 annual operating budget. Please refer to the funding request criteria for more information.)
  • Projected income can include additional funding sources, your own organization’s staff time, or other cash or in-kind resources to support the project. 
  • Include notes that specify any secured/committed income, and/or the likelihood of receiving any proposed income.

Please make sure your uploaded budget document is fully legible (if converted to PDF, are all fields on the page? Is anything cut off?) before proceeding to the next section. 

File Naming:
Your file upload should be named with the following naming convention:
[Your Organization Name]_Project Budget

Please use the organization name you included above, followed by an underscore and the words “Project Budget”. Thank you.

Please upload a PDF of your current FY budget and prior FY actuals. 

File Naming:
Your file upload should be named with the following naming convention:
[Your Organization Name]_Operating Budget

Please use the organization name you included above, followed by an underscore and the words “Operating Budget”. Thank you.

Make sure your uploaded budget document is fully legible (if converted to PDF, are all fields on the page? Is anything cut off?) with the right naming convention before proceeding to the next section. 

Attach 1–2 work samples related to the proposed project. These can be in any format you choose (written, visual, video, audio, etc.). This should be no more than 3 pages if a PDF document, or 3 min. or less if in another media format.

If you do not have a work sample that represents the project (for example, if the project is a new commission), please instead submit samples that best represent your organization's artistic work. Please note for the committee if the sample is related to the project or to the larger organization (for example, if it’s an art installation, please send links to some of the proposed artist’s work. If it’s a recording of a piece of music that hasn’t been recorded yet, include other examples of the ensemble’s or composer’s work.)

File Naming:
Your file upload should be named with the following naming convention:
[Your Organization Name]_Work Sample_[Work Sample Number]

Please use the organization name you included above, followed by an underscore and the words “Work Sample”, followed by a second underscore and the number of the work sample.

For example, CANVAS_Work Sample_1

Thank you.