Requesting a grant budget or financial report

Keeping ArtsPool in the Loop

Your ArtsPool team meets periodically to review everything that is coming up for your company and coordinate our efforts, so it's very helpful for us to have significant dates around grants on our internal Google calendar for your company well in advance. To learn how to "invite" your ArtsPool Google calendar to events on your company's internal calendar, see the article Share Important Events or Deadlines with ArtsPool's Calendar.

NOTE: We still need you to submit requests for grant financials using the process below even if you have shared a deadline with our calendar.

Grant Applications

In order to ask ArtsPool to prepare materials for an upcoming grant application, fill out the new grant form in the ArtsPool app. This form can be found by logging into the ArtsPool app, selecting the blue New Task button in the upper right part of your screen, and then selecting Apply for a grant.

You can bookmark this form using the link https://app.artspool.co/grants/new.

Form fields

The new grant form will ask you to fill out all the information ArtsPool needs to prepare materials for the grant application.

• Funder name: Enter the name of the foundation or government agency from whom you are requesting funding, e.g. Very Big Foundation of America, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. We work on a LOT of grants, so to help us find things please avoid abbreviations.
• Project name: The name of the project as you will describe it to the funder.
• Request amount: How much are you asking for total? Enter numbers only and don’t include any words such as “per year,” etc. for a multi-year request. You can add this contextual information in the Notes field.
• Final draft deadline: When do you need the requested materials from ArtsPool? We ask that you give us at least two weeks’ lead time to prepare accurate grant financials. We understand that things come up last minute, and we will do our best to accommodate,  but most grants can and should be planned for in advance. As ArtsPool grows, it’s challenging for us to turn grants around on very short notice, so please submit your grant requests as soon as you know that you will be applying.
• Application deadline: When is the application due to the funder?
• Project start fiscal year: In which fiscal year of YOURS will the project start?
• Project end fiscal year: In which fiscal year of YOURS will the project end?
• Program: Select the program that this will be tracked under in your budget. The list of programs is populated from your books in Xero, so if you see an empty list there may be a connection problem with Xero. If that happens, select New Program and let your Financial Maintenance Lead know about the connection problem in the Notes field. If you select New Program for a program that is actually new, please describe the new program briefly in the Notes field.
• Activity: Select the activity that this will be tracked under in your budget. The list of activities is populated from your books in Xero, so if you see an empty list there may be a connection problem with Xero. If that happens, select New Activity and let your Financial Maintenance Lead know about the connection problem in the Notes field. If you select New Activity for an activity that is actually new, please describe the new activity briefly in the Notes field. If you don’t use activity tracking or don’t need this tracked on an activity level, select Not Applicable.
• New funder or existing funder: Have you been funded by this foundation or agency before?
• New project or existing project: Is this something new that your organization is doing? If so, be sure to give us some context on the project in the Notes field or by sharing a draft of your narrative.
• Link to guidelines: Please provide a link to the guidelines if they are available online so we can familiarize ourselves with them or review them for changes from prior cycles. Be sure to include the http:// or https:// portion of the web address. If the guidelines were provided as a document, you can upload them in the Documents section of the form.
• Link to narrative draft: Please provide a link to your draft narrative if it’s available so that we can review it for consistency with the financials. Be sure to include the http:// or https:// portion of the web address. If you don’t have a draft available online you can upload it in the Documents section of the form.
• Materials requested: Common materials requested by funders include: single or multi-year organization budget, project-specific budget, budget or variance notes, funding plan, and/or a list of funders. Please be as specific as possible in your request.
• Notes: Provide any clarifying information related to the above fields or any information, e.g. submission method (PDF vs online), people to add to the task, etc. Please be as specific as possible in your notes. If you don’t have any other information to add, you can leave this blank.

Documents

If there are documents related to your grant, add them in the Documents section. To add a document, drag and drop one or more files from your computer, paste files from your clipboard, or click the browse link to open the file picker. There is also a webcam option, which is handy if you are creating a task from your phone and want to take a picture of a document with your phone's camera while creating a task.

Submitting the form

Once you have filled out the new grant form, submit the form by selecting the blue Submit button. If your submission is successful, you’ll see a blue bar appear at the top of screen letting you know the new grant form was submitted and assigned to your Financial Maintenance Lead.

Submitting the grant application

If the grant is to be submitted online, you are responsible for entering the financial data prepared by ArtsPool into the relevant grant application/reporting portal.

If the grant is not submitted online, your Financial Maintenance Lead will upload the final materials to the task in the ArtsPool app so that you can submit them via mail/email.

Grant Reports

If you need materials prepared for a grant report, submit a work request using the form for general work requests. This form can be found by logging into the ArtsPool app, selecting the blue New Task button in the upper right part of your screen, and then selecting Other work.

• Category: Select General Finance. This will ensure that the request is automatically routed to your Financial Maintenance Lead. They will also receive a notification when you submit the form.
• Short description: Enter the description as  [Funder Name] [Year] Report: [Project Name]. This will help us stay organized and find the task more easily if we need to refer back to it later.
• Details on what needs to be done: Provide a detailed description of what you need prepared and indicate the funder discipline and program area for which you are reporting.
  • If you are reporting for more than one NYSCA program area, please submit a separate task request for each and indicate the program name in your short description.
  • If this funder requires scope of services revisions at the time of reporting, please indicate whether your budget or program activity differed significantly from your original application.  
  • If the grant was made prior to your ArtsPool membership start date, attach the grant letter or contract and the original application budget/narrative in the Documents section. We will schedule a follow up call to discuss the details of the grant activity.
• When does it need to be completed? Indicate a requested final draft date for ArtsPool-prepared financials. As always, please provide us with adequate lead time. For grant reports we ask that you allow us a week to turn around the requested materials.

Documents

If the funder has specific report templates that need to be filled out, add them here. To add a document, select Add document and Choose File, and then select the document to upload from your computer. If you want to add multiple documents, click the Add document link again. To remove a document, click the Remove link under the document you want to remove.

Submitting the grant report

If the grant report is to be submitted online, you are responsible for entering the financial data prepared by ArtsPool into the relevant grant application/reporting portal.

If the grant report is not submitted online, your Financial Maintenance Lead will upload the final materials to the task in the ArtsPool app so that you can submit them via mail/email.