Testimonials

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!

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.