Grants & Programs

Program Grant: Review Process

The electronic portion of the application is received by Illinois Arts Council from the Illinois eGrant system and is assigned an application number. The IAC Grants Office will send acknowledgment of receipt of the application by email within eight weeks of the application deadline. Acknowledgment will include an application number to be used in future inquiries regarding that application. Applications which have been ruled ineligible or incomplete will not be reviewed.

  1. The IAC staff reviews the application in depth. The applicant may be asked to answer questions or submit further written information.
  2. Applicants whose Fiscal Year 2011 cash expenses for public arts programming were greater than $50,000, as verified by Attachment B: Illinois Cultural Data Project IAC Funder Report, are reviewed by an advisory panel.
  3. Advisory panels meet in the spring to review and evaluate applications. Meetings are open to the public and applicants may attend. Applicants may not address the panel. Each application is reviewed based on the review criteria. Following discussion, the panel scores each application.
  4. Applicants whose Fiscal Year 2011 cash expenses for public arts programming were $50,000 or less, as verified by Attachment B: Illinois Cultural Data Project IAC Funder Report, will be reviewed internally by staff and panel chairs with advisory panelist expertise when necessary.
  5. A record of the review process is maintained for all reviewed applications.
  6. A number of applications are randomly selected for a site visit. The purpose of the site visit is to enable the panel to review the organization, its community, and audience; to assess the quality of the organization’s activities; and to allow the organization to communicate additional pertinent information. This review is presented along with the application at the grants review meeting.
  7. Dollar recommendations are determined based on the directions developed by the Council.
  8. The Council convenes in late August to review funding recommendations. The applicant is notified of the decision by mail following the Council meeting.
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