Little Dog Creative Consulting

MaryAnn Anderson has been an arts administrator and consultant in the BC arts and cultural community since 1989. She has considerable experience in public fundraising and administered a municipal granting program for over a decade.

As founder of Little Dog Creative Consulting (2005), MaryAnn has assisted hundreds of clients with grant writing and building their fundraising capacity. With an extensive knowledge and understanding of cross-Canada funding programs, she has built a comprehensive database of arts and cultural grant resources.

Her work evolved into the founding of SmartGrant.ca (2025), a one-stop source for BC arts grants and funding information, and the only dedicated resource of its kind in Canada. This comprehensive and easy-to-use online interface, designed for artists and arts organizations, connects users to hundreds of potential funding sources to match their unique eligibility, creative projects and plans.

MaryAnn spent over 33 years based in Vancouver, BC, and now calls Gibsons, BC her home. She is enjoying coastal life (and her garden) with her husband Steve and two little dogs, Winny & Tricky.

“Resourceful solutions for artists and non-profit organizations.”

Little Dog Creative Consulting provides consulting services for a variety of clients in the areas of grant writing, research & planning, arts management, capacity building and public fundraising.

Based in British Columbia, we provide services to artists and arts organizations across Canada.

Grant Writing & Research

Targeted grant writing services for clients across a variety of disciplines, with a 95% success rate.
A detailed and extensive database of funding resources, that can be tailored to the unique activities of your organization.

What sets us apart:

An ability to understand the core of your vision, and translate it into a strong and articulate narrative.
Extensive knowledge of, and experience with writing for hundreds of different funding programs – federal, provincial, municipal, foundations and private.

Organization & Systems:

Assessing your group’s administrative systems, strengths and weaknesses and helping you to develop new models to increase efficiency and maximize resources.
Providing useful tools to plan and effectively manage multiple programs and projects.

What sets us apart:

A broad cross section of administration skills and experience, gained from over 25 years of working with arts organizations and governments.
An ability to apply past experience & acquired knowledge for the benefit of each successive client.

Public Funding Strategic Visioning:

Helping you articulate your vision, and construct strategies to grow your organization.
Providing a roadmap to build your group’s capacity, ensuring future success.

What sets us apart:

An ability to quickly “size-up” a situation or organization, define the gaps and recommend remedies.
Extensive experience with capacity building – both in a knowledge of available funding programs, as well as the management of projects.

Testimonials:

Cherryl Masters, Cultural Planner, City of Vancouver Cultural Services

“Having read hundreds of grants and proposals over years, Mary Ann’s work stands out. Her grants are concise and present the unique voice of the organization and of the individuals she is working with. She is thorough and takes the time to align an organization’s goals and mission with appropriate funding agencies and their objectives. I have seen her build capacity within organizations by researching and securing opportunities they were not aware of. Mary Ann is a credible voice in the field and is extremely well-organized, efficient, and realistic. She is always a pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend her.”

Glenn Alteen,
Cultural Program Director, grunt gallery

“Little Dog Creative Consulting is our secret weapon! After fifteen years working with Mary Ann, grunt is a much stronger and much more sustainable organization because of her invaluable input. Her knowledge base and skill set really has helped us reach new levels — not just in grant writing but also in strategic planning, creative solutions to problems and keeping us abreast of current developments in the sector. Its hard to recommend her highly enough. We would never have gotten here without Little Dog.”

Norman Armour, Artistic & Executive Director, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

“She’s good, I mean really good! And it’s near to impossible to truly gauge the impact she’s had and continues to have on the professionalism and wellbeing of our sector.”

Heidi Taylor, AED, Playwrights Theatre Centre

“Working with Mary Ann brings a level of knowledge and acumen to our grants that’s essential for success. She is able to match the priorities of the grantor, and our internal planning documents, to create clear, inspiring prose. She really looks out for us in terms of forwarding opportunities. Little Dog, big service.”

Michael Clague, President, Community Arts Council of Vancouver

“Mary Ann’s services and expertise have been of great help to the Community Arts Council of Vancouver. We are a very small organization with modest resource and big expectations. “Little Dog” has proven to be a timely, efficient and reliable way for us to keep posted on the every changing arts world, particularly with respect to funding opportunities.”

Andrew Laurenson, Artistic Producer, Radix Theatre

“I like working with people who are easy-going and have a sense of humour, and Mary Ann has those two qualities for sure. She has tons of experience in arts admin and management, so when it comes to writing a grant with her there’s often an element of guidance that precedes the actual process of grant creation. Once a draft is in place Mary Ann brings a keen awareness to crafting the text for clarity and interest, and she also has a great skill in designing the look of the final product to match the funder’s format. I have no hesitation in recommending her services, she’s a winner!”

Lucky, Andrew’s dog

“And she likes dogs.”

Jay Dodge, Artistic Producer, Boca del Lupo.

“Mary Ann’s attention to detail and rigourous approach are offset by extraordinary patience and good humour – the combination is perfect for a small company with a 100 balls in the air such as ours.”

Emma Kivisild, Artistic Director, Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture

“Little Dog is a help every step of the way, from running our rough ideas by them, to preparing the final application.My favorite thing is putting together an application, and having Mary Ann look it over to make sure it’s all there, and then she comes by to pick it up to make sure it goes to the right place on time. Helping the arts get a good nights sleep. Thank you!”

Marilyn Norry, Creative Producer, Mothership Story Society

“Mary Ann knows the grants and the people who read the grant applications. She has a wealth of experience and her advice and care are invaluable for many arts fields.”

Kira Schaffer, Artistic Director, Firebelly Performance

“Working with Mary Ann is awesome. Her wealth of knowledge about various grant programs and funding sources is invaluable. She knows her stuff. She has a knack for taking my ideas and words and making them sound so much more presentable than they were to start with. She is very flexible in terms of how collaborative or hands-off I want to be with the actual writing. I can give her a wealth of text from which to start or a brief conversation on the phone outlining my project. She gets what I’m talking about.”

Bruce Passmore, Executive Director, LOVE (Leave Out Violence) BC

“Mary Ann is great to work with and has consistently helped LOVE get positive results on grants and funding requests. She is professional, fast, and honest. We will continue to seek her support.”

Margaret Reynolds Executive Director, Assn of Book Publishers of BC

“Mary Ann at Little Dog Creative Consulting took what we thought was a pretty strong grant application and made it so much better. Her attention to detail and personable manner make even grant writing a pleasure.”

Kenneth Yuen, On Main Galler

“WOOF. Mary Ann at Little Dog Creative Consulting is great – quick to respond, knowledgeable, and highly experienced working with organizations in the arts, she plays a crucial role in our grant-writing process. We have worked with her on many different applications in the past, and she has been an excellent resource, helping us to develop clear and efficient narratives which lead to successful applications.”

Ruthie Sumiko Tabata, Producer, Theatre Replacement

“Mary Ann, you’ve always helped me out so much over the years with your savvy knowledge of fundraising in BC and this country!”

Sabrina Evertt, Artistic Producer, Twenty Something Theatre

“Since we began working with Mary Ann and Little Dog Creative Consulting, Twenty Something Theatre has received funding from multiple levels of government which has enabled our small company to develop and grow exponentially. This is, without a doubt, a result of her expertise in understanding the not-for-profit sector and the granting bodies that we work with. The knowledge that Mary Ann brings to the job is invaluable and as we continue to grow and expand working with Mary Ann ensures that we continue down a path of success. I would recommend Mary Ann and Little Dog to anyone.”

Deblekha Guin, Executive Director, Access to Media Society (AMES)

“Mary Ann really helped take some of our recent grant applications ‘to the next level’. A clear thinking wordsmith, Mary Ann used her uncanny ability to pluck out and illuminate the diamonds in the ‘rough-draft’, and help us more effectively communicate the importance of the work we do in ways that resonated with funders. Mary Ann also introduced us to a new way of seeing, and demonstrating the essential value of in-kind contributions to our organization. This positively impacted the way we create budgets, but much more importantly, it enabled us to more deeply appreciate the ‘assets’ currently in our midst – a morale-boosting exercise in an age where a sense of scarcity often prevails.”

Kaare Long, Dancers Dancing & a Cue Creative Consulting

“Writing grants has got to be the most intense ‘labour of love’ process for any arts organization as well as one of the most essential. I write grants for my clients as well, so I know the process intimately. I have utilized Mary Ann on a number of occasions for grant writing support, and have referred other clients to her when I am unable to take on the work. An effective grant requires much more than just following the guidelines. Although that is imperative, what wins a grant is the ability to hone into an artists authentic and true message -their creative process, and then be able to re-iterate it in a concise and clear manner so that funders are able to get into the world of the artist and visualize the project and it’s feasibility. Mary Ann is brilliant at this process. Connecting genuinely with artists (clients) and approaching the work with humour, dedication, professionalism and skill. Without hesitation I recommend Mary Ann to guide you and your organization through an effective, and rewarding grant writing experience. Grants CAN be enjoyable, you just need the right person to write them with you.”

Client List:

Our clients include both individual artists and performers, as well as a wide range of governmental and cultural organizations from many disciplines. Our clientele is primarily from Vancouver/Lower Mainland & BC creative communities, with some from other major Canadian communities, and have included over 260 organizations:

THEATRE: