In December 2021, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation announced a gift to support arts and culture in the eight counties of Western New York, plus Monroe County, in recognition of the key role arts and culture organizations play in a thriving economy. Part of that announcement includes $500,000 in annual funding to be awarded primarily to support small to mid-sized arts and cultural 501(c)(3) organizations in the nine counties. The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo is managing and operating the endowment and grants program. For more details, click here to read the full announcement.
The key to this grant process was community input. As such, in early 2022, representatives from over 100 arts and cultural organizations across all nine counties participated in several listening sessions with the Community Foundation team to help shape the inaugural grant process.
In 2024, an Advisory Committee was established to synthesize data from 2022 and 2023 grant years and draw on their own experiences working in grassroots arts nonprofits organizations and as reviewers for grant processes beyond the Community Foundation.
The Committee also considered learnings from 70 grant feedback calls in response to the 2023 application process, conducted by Yuki Numata Resnick, Director of Arts and Culture, Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. Finally, the Committee thought carefully about the similar and distinct needs across the nine WNY counties which include urban and rural communities. Click here to learn about the results of this work.
To sign up for future updates on the community engagement process, please send your name, organization name and county to Yuki Numata Resnick at yukinr@cfgb.org.