The Givers Fund

1. Who is the ideal applicant for a Giver’s Fund grant?

Any 501(c)(3) or similar organization (e.g., municipal organizations, churches, schools, or any entity considered to be there for the public good in some way) with a program related to the speculative fiction genres. Perhaps you work with a library that wants to lead an SFF reading or writing program. Maybe you’d like to supply books to a local school or fund another year of your free seminar series for speculative fiction writers.  Whatever the program or entity, it must have a strong SFF orientation.

2. Must applications be submitted by a SFWA member?

No. SFWA members often show up in grant applications and/or help another organization or entity to apply, but membership is not required as a condition for grant application. Anyone with a favorite group that promotes SFF can encourage or help that organization apply.

3. Do applicants need to be registered as nonprofits or can they be more loosely organized groups?

501(c)(3) and similar organizations have an easier vetting process, but anybody can apply. Givers Fund grants have gone to individuals in the past, though rarely (See: FAQ #5). Most often, grants go to groups that organize reading series, conventions, educational series, and similar events. If you’re in doubt, ask! 

4. Can a for-profit organization apply?

Yes, they can, but they have a very high bar to get over. The grant cannot benefit the organization’s owner(s). In fact, it cannot benefit any individual: the funds must be used to pay for expenses, not to generate profits or income, whether for the applicant, a speaker, or any other individual or business.

5. Can an individual writer apply to support their own work?

They can apply, but unless “their own work” is offering a course, a workshop, or some other public-facing effort, the chances that it would be funded are slim.

Rephrased: This funding pathway won’t support you while you write.

In addition, the grant can’t support the writer in terms of income. It can support expenses, even ones previously paid from the writer’s pocket for the project, but a grant along those lines would have to meet a really high bar to be awarded.

6. What sorts of expenses can Givers Fund grants be used for?

The easiest way to think of it is “We pay for things, not people.”

We’re looking for reimbursable business expenses supported by receipts, including some of the expenses to run a not-for-profit workshop (though not paychecks for the facilitators), event travel and rental fees, advertising expenses, web hosting expenses, software expenses, in-person workshop scholarships, electronic readers, and copies of books for reading groups.

7. What expenses are off-limits?

Payments to writers for articles or fiction, honorariums, stipends, speaker fees, and similar are not eligible for this fund. Givers Fund grants are not intended to create taxable income for the recipient or for any individual involved with the project. By covering other costs, the grant may in practice enable you to free up money to pay individuals, but it cannot be the direct source of that income, and proposing such a workaround will not aid your application.

Also, we don’t pay for an organization’s legal fees to become a 501(c)(3), nor do we pay start-up expenses for a new effort, and we don’t support contests.

8. So an organization could apply for funds to rent event space or pay for Zoom hosting fees, but not to pay a speaker an honorarium?

Yes.

9. How much money is typically awarded to a grant winner?

Our available funding pool varies from year to year (see: Fundraising for more), but there are specific limits to how much we award. Organizations are limited to a maximum of $3000 for the grant year, while individuals are limited to $1500. In the past, grants have ranged from a few hundred dollars up to the limit. We may not give you everything you ask for, and partial awards are common. Please limit your request to what you need, not just ask for the maximum amount allowed! The grant committee awards as many grants as possible in a given year, making it rare that any one grant application will receive all the funds they apply for.

I0. Are there any tips or best practices that make an application more likely to win a grant?

Advocate for a good cause that benefits the field. Include a decent budget breakdown. Apply for an ongoing project or event that has a track record the committee can review in literature provided with the application or on public-access websites. If you’re applying on behalf of a new activity or project, it behooves you to partner with an established 501(c)(3) organization that can sponsor the project and be the actual applicant, as they are more likely to have that track record established.

If the project serves a broad public audience, usually for free, it’s a likely candidate. Workshops for current or new SFF writers, reading series, public library programs, convention activities: these are most heavily favored applications, especially when run by a charity or similar organization. But there are always exceptions! We have funded projects as varied as archival work to protect and promote the speculative fiction genres, to a science fiction musical theater production.