BackA superb and highly useable site emphasizing BC grants for BC artists and artistic organizations. Exhaustive & user-friendly. Worth every made-in-Canada dollar. Highly recommended!
This site is best experienced on desktop.
This site is best experienced on desktop.
A superb and highly useable site emphasizing BC grants for BC artists and artistic organizations. Exhaustive & user-friendly. Worth every made-in-Canada dollar. Highly recommended!
As a newcomer to Canada, I arrived with over 15 years of experience working in the arts and culture industry in my home country. However, I quickly discovered that Canada has a completely different grant system. Navigating this new landscape and figuring out which funding opportunities I was eligible for felt overwhelming. Even tools like ChatGPT couldn’t fully guide me to the right resources.
That’s why I was so grateful to discover Smart Grant. With the help of Mary Ann and her dedicated team, I learned how to identify suitable funding and stay updated with constantly changing information. I deeply appreciate the incredible amount of effort they put into maintaining and refining the system. For me, Smart Grant has been a true gateway to new opportunities, connecting me to the resources I need to continue building my artistic/community art journey in Canada.
For years, I was asked if purchasing the Guide to Foundations was “worth it” and I always said “no”… not only is Smartgrant.ca cheaper than that olde directory, but it’s functional and directs the user to opportunities which can be filtered/specified for any given organization or individual. It’s brilliant and has been needed for so long. I’ve known MaryAnn since we were both nascent arts administrators and she’s been through it all (!) and brings practical understandings of the granting milieu and processes to each user and their own situation/s. Thank you SmartGrant.ca and thank you MaryAnn!
I think of Mary Ann Anderson as a ‘Grant Goddess’ because she is the go-to person when I need support writing or vetting a grant. Whether you’re an individual artist or arts organization, if you need help envisioning your project, advice about your budget, or how to develop your multi-year proposal, her breadth of experience, insight and generosity is unmatched. Her track record is impressive, although she never talks about it, and her ability to zero in on what will make your grant application a lot more competitive, is a wonderful gift.
Now that she has launched her savvy new SmartGrant platform, the BC arts community has access to the first affordable, comprehensive, arts funding database. There’s never been anything like it! Check it out and make your grant management a whole lot easier.
I first came to know Mary Ann through her grant writing services offered to our organization. As a disabled artist and arts administrator, working with her was a dream – she was well organized, always prepared, and came with a breadth and depth of specialized knowledge (both of grants as well as of our organizational history) – simply put, Mary Ann’s expertise in grant writing and grant systems is unparalleled.
Smart Grant is a tool that brings all of this (and maybe more?!): it offers a platform that is accessible, it is intuitive to use, aids in some of the most difficult things in grant writing and creates ease in all areas of the process. This system has thought through various elements of grant writing (searching and systems of organization) in a way that considers the disabled experience and points of access in unique and exciting ways. We’re thrilled to be able to have access to a tool like Smart Grant!
As an individual artist and a grant writer, I am so excited to join the SmartGrant platform. Mary Ann Anderson’s knowledge and understanding of BC’s granting landscape is unparalleled, so I have confidence that it’s grounded in our funding realities. SmartGrant is an essential tool for making my pitches to funders strategically, so I can focus on my work rather than searching for funders.
Smart Grant is an intuitive system that takes the stress out of grant searching and allows you to use filters to maximize your search. We even found a new grant!
I have worked and have known MaryAnn for over 20 years in my capacity as a Funder heading up the Grants and Awards programs of Cultural Services at the City of Vancouver. During that time, MaryAnn worked with hundreds of cultural organizations who the City funded through Cultural grants. I have learned first hand that her knowledge of the provincial cultural funding sector in BC, as well as the federal level, is vast and current. Over the years, she has nurtured strong relationships with public arts funding agencies in order to understand the specific nuances of grant programs. Her success rate in securing grants for organizations is high – based on her specialized knowledge and years of experience. She is the top arts grant writer in the province and the go-to for many arts organizations. There is no one else as knowledgeable as her. This project comes at a critical time when the demand for support is ever growing – Smartgrant ensures the body of knowledge in MaryAnn’s head will be permanently captured in an easy to use searchable living database and website.
In my role at the City, I was part of many regional, provincial and national arts funders tables in order to exchange information and keep apprised of all the latest in programs and policies. At these tables, we at times discussed trying to create a common grants database so we could track the ever-changing and huge amount of information, but it was never realized as we knew the ongoing maintenance would be unsustainable for funding staff. With the creation and launch of SmartGrant, MaryAnn and her team has provided arts funders and the arts and cultural community with what the sector has needed for a very long time – a one stop compilation of arts and culture grants available to artists and arts organizations in BC. This is a timely invaluable legacy and resource. Thank you!
I’m thrilled to see this resource come to life! MaryAnn’s expertise is invaluable and this platform demonstrates her deep commitment to generously support artists, arts organizations and communities.
The grants landscape can be confusing, obtuse, and daunting for even seasoned arts administrators and grant writers – particularly now. Each year, the landscape seems to shift: which funding opportunities support standalone projects? Which ones sustain ongoing operations? When do applications open and close? Who, exactly, can apply – and when, and how? Even before the work of crafting a narrative and building a supporting budget can begin, you need to decide what opportunities are worth your time – and why.
Enter SmartGrant: a welcoming, intuitive, and easy-to-use platform that takes away much of this guesswork, and maximizes the time you can spend on the best-possible matches for your funding needs. The platform can customize searches and results to target specific kinds of funding, right down to artistic discipline, geographic region, eligible applicant, and due date. You can capture and diarize notes for later, and build out your own personalized grant calendar that automatically updates as new information becomes available.
SmartGrant was conceived and designed by someone with deep working knowledge of the Canadian grants landscape and its pain points, and it shows. No one knows the grants landscape like Mary Ann. In my own 15+ years of Canadian professional performing arts grants experience as an applicant, assessor, and program-focused staffer, this platform stands out as truly unique.
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