Rozsa Foundation’s Audience Development Funding Program in Canada

Deadline: 29-Nov-2024

The Rozsa Foundation’s Audience Development Funding Program is intended to support arts organizations in their efforts to engage arts audiences, both by learning more about their existing audiences and by designing and testing new engagement strategies aimed at increasing attendance.

This work can assist arts organizations in attracting new audiences in the short-term, while developing stronger connections with them long-term.

This new funding program is intended to allow organizations to build upon the findings and strategies emerging from the Spotlight on Arts Audiences research project being led by the Rozsa Foundation and Stone Olafson.

Funding Information

• Organizations may request up to $15,000.

Funding Streams

• There are two streams of support available through this program:
  • Understanding Your Audience 
    • This program stream supports arts organizations who have not undertaken recent audience analysis and segmentation processes. It provides funding to hire experts to complete audience research to understand who is currently interested in their events, how to reach them, and how to promote to aligned demographics. The project should include a clear plan for the transfer of knowledge from the consultant that enables the organization to refresh this research themselves in the future.
    • Funding can be used to:
      • Complete audience analysis and segmentation with support from an external consultant.
      • Access other tools or expertise required to deepen your understanding of your audience.
      • Support staff to undertake professional development learning to strengthen the organizations understanding of these processes.
      • Deepen connection with current audiences.
  • Acquiring Your Audience 
    • This program stream supports arts organizations in creating and testing strategies to attract audiences. The focus is on testing approaches that are new to the organization – something they have not attempted before. The goal is to experiment with strategies that are designed to effectively target, attract, and engage new audiences to increase immediate and future attendance, access, and participation.
    • Funding can be used to:
      • Design targeted approaches to reach identified audience segments in new ways.
      • Identify and reduce barriers to attendance.
      • Design and test new pricing strategies, such as ticket scaling or dynamic pricing.
      • Explore new ways to monetize online attendance or programs.
      • Design new outreach efforts to reach new audiences.
      • Support efforts to recapture lost audiences.

Eligibility Criteria

• Organizations must be a charity with a valid CRA charitable business number (9 digits, 2 letters, 4 digits), however:
  • Equity-deserving organizations that are not charities may be able to apply for funding in partnership with a registered charity through an agency agreement.
• You must be an arts-focused organization that presents arts-based work for a public audience.
• The focus of the investment is in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta, encompassing Calgary and the surrounding area, as well as Banff, Canmore, Drumheller, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Red Deer, and others.
  • They also grant to provincial organizations in Alberta whose initiatives will directly benefit the Calgary arts community.
  • Organizations located outside of these areas may still be eligible but should contact them prior to beginning the application.

Ineligibility Criteria

• The Foundation does not fund:
  • ongoing administrative salaries
  • ongoing administrative costs
  • deficit financing
  • debt repayment
  • capital campaigns
  • ongoing programming activities

For more information, visit Rozsa Foundation.