Grantmakers in the Arts Request for Proposals–Consultant

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) seeks a consulting partner with whom to strategize how to integrate the arts into policy and funding portfolios (such as health, education, safety, and the environment) that do not traditionally think about the arts as having a role. GIA holds the value of racial equity toward racial justice. Therefore, in addition to incorporating arts strategies and allies into these portfolios, GIA is also interested in how arts and culture can help change these existing systems to make them more racially and culturally just.

This consultant would work with GIA’s leaders to develop a theory about why and how the public sector and private philanthropy changes their practices in order to help us identify and develop strategies (such as communications, cultural organizing, and movement-building strategy(ies)) and outputs (such as communications pieces) needed to advocate to private grantmakers and public agencies for the recommended embrace of the arts into public policies and practices and to advise on what further infrastructure is needed to maintain this advocacy. The consultant would also work with GIA to identify other contractors to produce outputs (such as communications pieces).

GIA projects a 6 -12-month timeline for this project with a budget of approximately $74,000 to pay the consultant for their hours and expenses. Please fill in this Request for Proposals (RFP) and email it to GIA President & CEO Eddie Torres at eddie@giarts.org no later than 5pm EDT, September 3, 2019.

Name of Consultancy/Consultant:
Name of Primary Investigator:
Contact information:

Please provide examples of past research/influence projects that may be relevant to this project (hyperlinks or attachments). Please articulate how the projects reflect on your ability to add value to this project. Please articulate how the projects reflect on your working methods and on the values through which you approach your work.

What do you project you would do to:

  • Identify extant projections of future trends in philanthropic giving?
  • To identify extant documentation of effective examples of arts support in non-arts portfolios/efforts?
  • To identify the methods, networks, efforts necessary to facilitate ongoing promotion and advocacy by the cultural community to private grantmakers and public agencies for the recommended embrace of the arts into public policies and practices (such as health, education, safety, and the environment) as well as into non-arts philanthropic portfolios, foregrounding racial justice as a core value of this strategy?
    • To identify strategies to influence non-arts grantmakers and public agencies to use the arts as part of their strategies?
    • To identify/strategize communications outputs to influence non-arts grantmakers and public agencies to use the arts as part of their strategies?
    • This includes helping to determine and produce the communications methods and outputs through which we could share past examples of effective practices.
  • What other information and insight would you seek as part of this project?
  • How would you seek that information and those insights?
  • If you anticipate working on a discrete element of this project, please tell us which element of the project.
    • Please articulate what other elements of the project you anticipate requiring other consultants.
    • Please tell us if you have any recommendation as to whom to engage for those elements.
  • As we’ve mentioned, we believe the long-term goal of our work should be justice for all with racial equity in resource-allocation toward racial justice essential to this end. Please speak about the values you bring to your work and how they have manifest in past work and could manifest in future work.

References from past projects (3)

Grantmakers in the Arts Project Context

Grantmakers in the Arts seeks a consultant to develop our work to include the arts into public policies and practices (such as health, education, safety, and the environment) as well as into non-arts philanthropic portfolios, foregrounding racial equity as a core value of this strategy.

This work would include:

  • Engagement of a consultant or group of consultants and a national cross-section of thought-leaders and practitioners (including foundation program officer, other affinity groups, public agency staff and leaders and legislators) to advise and inform the work; documentation of practices that are both effective and innovative.
  • Identification and engagement of another consultant to develop communications outputs advocating for the integration of the arts into public policies and practices and non-arts philanthropic portfolios.
  • Recommendations for the establishment/supporting of long-term influence and advocacy infrastructure toward the end of greater inclusion of the arts into non-arts philanthropic portfolios and public budgets and services.

The consultant’s work would inform Grantmakers in the Arts’ subsequent development and leverage of other efforts to influence philanthropic and public policy and practice to include the arts into other forms of public support.

The consultant’s work would inform Grantmakers in the Arts’ long-term plans, subsequent development of trainings using a variety of platforms (in-person, print, digital); direct and grassroots public-sector advocacy.

Process:

GIA would identify one or more consultants to partner with us to identify and document cases of the integration of arts and culture into non-arts public sector and private institutional support and gather stakeholders to strategize expanded efforts toward this integration and to propose how best to develop and support advocacy infrastructure for arts integration into non-arts budgets. This research will not be original research but meta-analyses of extant research as well as the compiling of extant research for ease of reference.

GIA will work with our members to identify the appropriate consultants. GIA will also collaborate with our advocacy consultants, Penn Hill Group, who worked with Representative Bonamicci on the inclusion of the arts as an allowable expense in the Every Student Succeeds Act, to identify public sector points of influence and examples of arts integration. GIA will do the same with such colleagues as Americans for the Arts, National Assembly of State Art Agencies, ArtPlace and Government Alliance for Racial Equity. GIA will partner with other philanthropy-serving organizations (like Grantmakers in Education, Grantmakers in Health, Environmental Grantmakers Association, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Change Philanthropy, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, among others), to reach out to non-arts funders for distribution of materials and engagement in direct dialogue and strategizing.

The goal of this effort is to find out how best to influence our grantmakers to become investors in culture – broadening the means and tools of support (from just grants to private investments, etc.) and who/what entities receive support (from organizations to artists, businesses, unincorporated entities, groups of community stakeholders, etc.)

A goal of this effort is to identify future trends in philanthropy in general to help inform how Grantmakers in the Arts’ positions arts giving in relation to broader grantmaking grants.

A goal of this effort is to find out how best to influence grantmakers and public agencies to strategize, advocate for and execute upon the inclusion of the arts in non-arts public budgets, policies and practices as well as in the portfolios of private grantmakers.

A goal of this effort is to influence grantmakers to consider arts and culture as elements of broad social issues and as a frame for considerations and approaches to social issues.

A complementary goal of this effort is to influence grantmakers to shift their foci to increasingly include advocacy and public policy and practice including resources and systems-design.

Another complementary goal of this effort is to include considerations of racial equity and accountability in the choice of effective practices to share.

The key strategies are:

To investigate effective examples and recommendations for long-term advocacy infrastructure through a consultant-led, staff and member-informed field-scan report.

Through partnerships, share arts and culture experiences with non-arts funders and public agencies, accompanied by strategizing sessions on how to integrate arts and culture into their budgets.

Document, disseminate and facilitate discussions of examples of other funders who have worked to achieve the integration of the arts into public practices and policies as well as philanthropic portfolios.

Share technical information on methods employed by other funders who have achieved these changes.

Share recommendations for establishing/support long-term advocacy infrastructure.

These insights from the field would be shared through such means as:

  • GIA Summits (formerly called Thought Leader Forums)
  • The GIA Reader
  • The annual conference
  • Engagement of other affinity groups and their members
  • Online learning, such as podcasts and webinars