Thank you for your interest in applying for a grant from Arts for Oakland Kids. In light of the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of Prop 28: Arts and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative, we are moving forward with our Landis Grant application process. The RFP opens January 18, 2023, and proposals are due by March 15, 11:59pm. Grant recipients for the 2023-2024 school year will be notified in early May, 2023.

The following information is being provided to help you apply for funding. If you have questions about the application process that is not provided here, please email us at info@artsforoaklandkids.org.

Arts for Oakland Kids (AOK), is a 501(c)(3) fund with a mission to advance arts justice by ensuring that all students in financially oppressed Oakland public schools receive a comprehensive arts education in order to improve learning and promote achievement. We envision a world in which the power of arts education is fully recognized, and every public school student – regardless of race, background, or wealth – is given equitable access to the advantages of a comprehensive arts education, enabling them to reach their intellectual, social, and emotional potential.

In the 1990s, arts education funding in Oakland was severely cut. This created an unjust, two-tiered education based on access to wealth. Families with access to wealth were able to pour funding into their PTAs/PTOs to fund arts for their students. While White students are only 10% of the OUSD student population, they are 60% of the students who are receiving arts education 3 or more times per week in multiple art forms. These students attend the 20% of the OUSD schools with well-funded PTAs/PTOs. In the other 80% of schools, students are 98% kids of color. Financial oppression has left most of these students with little or no access to wealth. In Oakland, this has resulted in those students also having inequitable access to arts education.

For over 26 years, Arts for Oakland Kids (AOK) has been working to rectify this inequity by funding grants to teaching artists, arts organizations, and classroom teachers to provide hands-on arts education in Oakland’s most financially oppressed public schools. Since 1996, we have reached nearly 31,000 kids in 97 public schools and awarded over one million dollars to artists and organizations providing 299 arts programs.

In honor of AOK’s phenomenal founder, Sally Landis, AOK’s annual grants (previously called Project Mini-Grants) are now called Landis Grants!

This Landis Grant application is for programs taking place in the 2023-2024 school year. TK-12 arts providers will be eligible to receive Landis Grants of up to $5,000 for hands-on arts education.

AOK funds independent teaching artists, arts organizations, and classroom teachers. AOK does not require our applicants to be 501(c)3 nonprofits or to have a fiscal sponsor.

AOK will target Landis Grants to maintain and grow the progress that has been made in the equity of arts education offerings within Oakland public schools.

For the 2023-2024 school year, our Landis Grant application deadline is March 215, 2023.

January 18, 2023: Applications open for AOK Landis Grants

March 15, 2023: All applications must be submitted by 11:59pm PST.

May 2023: Grantees notified in May, 2023

July 2023: Grant funds are sent to grantees beginning in July of 2023. Programs that will begin instruction in the second semester will be funded in December of 2023. All funding paperwork must be complete in order to receive funding.

ELIGIBILITY

  • Eligible applicants must provide hands-on arts education programs in which students directly and actively participate in an art form.
  • All forms of art are eligible. (Example: performing arts, industrial arts, multimedia, visual arts, music, dance, writing, etc.).
  • Preference is given to applicants that will reach students during the school day.
  • Arts for Oakland Kids does NOT require that grant funds be paid to a 501(c)3 non-profit or fiscal sponsor. AOK funds independent teaching artists, arts organizations, and classroom teachers.
    • You may use a 501(c)(3) organization as a fiscal sponsor, so long as the fiscal sponsor does not keep any AOK grant funds as fees, commissions, percentages, administrative costs, or overhead expenses.
  • Eligible expenses:
    • Teaching artist wages and benefits
    • Materials, instruments, or specialized equipment for the express purpose of teaching the class
    • 15% or less for oversight and overhead expenses

PRIORITIES

Funding priorities for 2023-2024, in order of importance:

(1) programs providing weekly, in-school arts education in the following target OUSD elementary schools (in alphabetical order)

  • Allendale
  • Burkhalter
  • Carl B Munck
  • Emerson
  • Esperanza
  • La Escuelita
  • Lockwood STEAM
  • Manzanita Community
  • Manzanita Seed
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.

(2) programs serving TK-12 students who attend eligible Oakland Public schools

REQUIREMENTS FOR PROGRAMS SERVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Higher priority is given to applicants providing programs at the 10 priority schools, but programs qualify for funding if provided at any of the OUSD elementary schools listed as eligible for AOK funding.

  • Instruction delivered to every student at least once per week
    • Example: one class per week for 16 weeks for each student, as opposed to 6 weeks with each student getting classes 2 times per week, or 1 class every other week.
  • Minimum of 16 weeks of classes per semester for every student is strongly preferred
    • Can be delivered to individual classrooms, or to the entire grade level at once
  • In-school/school-day programs strongly preferred
  • Reaching every student in 1 full grade level is strongly preferred
    • Example: all three of the 2nd grade classrooms, not just one 2nd grade classroom
    • Self-contained classrooms (SPED, ESL, other) are an equal priority

REQUIREMENTS FOR PROGRAMS SERVING MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

  • In-School programs are preferred, but AOK also welcomes upper-grade programs that are specialized, off-campus, after school, or provided on the weekend. These are programs that provide programming that wouldn’t be possible during the school day and/or on campus.
    • If your program is delivered at a site other than a public school (example: a community center) please fill out the Offsite Letter instead of the Principal letter. Instructions are in the application instructions.

RESTRICTIONS

  • Ineligible Expenses
    • OUSD teacher or administrator pay
    • Transportation costs
    • Field trips
    • Food
    • Non-program-related supplies
    • Fiscal sponsorship fees of any kind
  • Programs that charge the students a fee are not eligible
  • Programs are only eligible for Landis Grant funding once per school year
  • AOK may fund the same program at the same school for three consecutive years, at the end of which a one-school-year break may be imposed before the program can re-apply for funding.

ONLINE APPLICATION FORM LINK

APPLICATION LINK: Fill out the Application Form to apply for funding for programs taking place during the 2023/2024 academic year.

APPLICATION FORM INSTRUCTIONS

The online application with all supporting documents must be received no later than 11:59 pm March 15, 2023. Incomplete or late applications will not be reviewed. Recipients will be notified in early May, 2023.

The Application form has instructions included for each question.

All supporting documents will attach to the online Application form. You will be unable to submit your application unless all documents are attached and the Application Form is complete.

AOK’s application form will NOT allow you to save your work and come back. Please create your application information offline and paste into the form when you are ready.

To view the Application form offline, you can download the PDF here.

Please read all guidelines and instructions on our website before you begin, then fill out the form completely before you submit it. You won’t be able to go back and change your application once it has been submitted.

Instructional Hours: As part of your application, you will be asked to calculate your Instructional Hours. Please use this guide to determine the data you should include.

ATTACHMENT TEMPLATES AND INSTRUCTIONS

Upload your attachments at the end of the Application form.

  • Program Narrative
    • Two to three page narrative (in 12-pt font) that includes a program description, goals, and learning objectives
    • Must be attached to the Application Form as a PDF
    • You may use the Narrative Template as a guide
    • Name the document as follows:
      • Organizations: [name of your organization]Narrative2023.pdf
      • If you are an independent teaching artist or unaffiliated with an organization, please use [name of your program]Narrative2023.pdf
  • Resume of Lead Artist(s)/Instructor(s) for the program
    • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
    • Name the document as follows:
      • Organizations: [name of your organization]Resume2023.pdf
      • If you are an independent teaching artist or unaffiliated with an organization, please use [name of your program]Resume2023.pdf
  • Principal Letter of Support or Offsite Letter

If your program will be provided at a school site, or in direct partnership with a school, you will need a Principal Letter of Support from the school principal and it must conform to AOK’s Principal Letter of Support Template (linked below). If you are working with multiple schools under this grant you will need to submit one Principal Letter of Support from each school; they need to be submitted as a single PDF.

If your program will not be at a school site, is not offered in direct partnership with a school, or is a program that pulls from multiple schools sites (example: a weekend orchestra with students from across Oakland), you will need to complete the Offsite Letter using the AOK template provided below.

(i) Principal Letter of Support

  • Must be on the school’s letterhead
  • Must include a signature
  • The letter must answer all questions included in the template
  • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
  • Name the document as follows:
    • Organizations: [name of your organization]SchoolName2023.pdf
    • If you are an independent teaching artist or unaffiliated with an organization, please use [name of your program]SchoolName2023.pdf
  • Must include a Letter of Support from every school where you will teach as part of this funding.

(ii)Offsite Letter

  • Must be on your program’s/personal letterhead
  • Must include a signature
  • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
  • Name the document as follows:
    • Organizations: [name of your organization]Offsite2023.pdf
    • If you are an independent teaching artist or unaffiliated with an organization, please use [name of your program]Offsite2023.pdf
  • Project Budget
    • All applicants, regardless of 501(c)3 status, must submit a completed project budget
    • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
    • Name the document as follows:
      • Organizations: [name of your organization]ProjectBudget2023.pdf
      • If you are an independent teaching artist or unaffiliated with an organization, please use [name of your program]ProjectBudget2023.pdf
    • Here are sample project budgets you may use as templates, depending on the size of your program.
  • Organizational Budget, if applicable
    • If your program is part of a larger organization, please provide your most recent annual budget and include your prior year’s actuals in a side-by-side format on one document
    • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
    • Name the document as follows: [name of your organization]OrgBudget2023.pdf
  • Tax-Exempt letter, if applicable
    • If your program is part of a 501(c)3 nonprofit, please submit a copy of your IRS tax exemption letter
    • Must be attached as a PDF to the Application Form
    • Name the document as follows: [name of your organization]C3Letter2023.pdf
  • Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement and C3 Letter

AOK does NOT require our applicants to have 501(c)3 status. However, if you use a 501(c)3 organization as a fiscal sponsor for this grant, that organization cannot keep any AOK grant funds as fees, commissions, percentages, administrative costs, or overhead expenses. If you are applying under a fiscal sponsor, please submit:

  • A copy of the fiscal sponsor’s IRS tax exemption letter
  • A copy of your fiscal sponsorship agreement
  • Must be attached as PDFs to the Application Form
  • Name the documents as follows:
    • [name of your program]SponsorC3Letter2023.pdf
    • [name of your program]SponsorAgreement2023.pdf

After you complete the online application, you will receive a confirmation email that includes a copy of your entire application.

Once your application and supporting documents are submitted, we may contact you at some point with a request for additional information.

All applicants will be notified one way or the other in May.

Once grantees have been chosen, grantees will need to quickly provide their logo and imagery for AOK to announce their grant to the community. Grantees will then be sent a Grant Agreement and Media Opt-Out form. Grantees must return both forms.

  • Funding will not be released without receipt of the signed Grant Agreement. 
  • The Media Opt-Out form will be required prior to the required program site visit and the grantee must gather the information from the school office for the class that will be visited.

Good luck and we look forward to hearing from you!

AOK requires grantees to submit their completed Final Report Form within 30 days of the conclusion of the program period. Download a PDF of the form here.

Final Reports should include a detailed summary of the program and 3-5 images, recordings, or other media that show participants involved in the program.

The final report and all accompanying images, recordings, or other materials should be submitted electronically. The Grantee and its agents grant non-exclusive copyright ownership to Arts for Oakland Kids and its partners to reproduce such report photographs and other program materials for marketing purposes as agreed to in the Funding Agreement.