Grand Plan Grants

Grand Plan Grants is sponsored by Grand Plan. Provides £1,000 grants to artists of colour in the UK to support their creative projects and professional development.

Application Guidance — Grand Plan What does Grand Plan support? Grand Plan is for people of colour, aged over 18, living in the UK, looking to make a leap with their creative practice. In particular, we try to support projects and people that might not easily find funding elsewhere.

Our grants can cover: the cost of equipment, courses, your time, materials, travel, or whatever you / your project needs. How does the application process work? You submit your application using text or audio, and a copy is sent to your email.

Siddharth and Savena (Grand Plan’s Director and Programme Manager) read through every application on a rolling basis. Before the next judging meeting, they create a shortlist of c. 40-60 applications.

Ahead of each judging meeting, two independent artists review the shortlist and rank applications alongside Siddharth and Savena. At each meeting, 20-25 applications are then chosen to receive a grant. 4) Receiving your decision A few days after the meeting, we’ll inform everyone if they have been successful or not.

We do not provide individual feedback due to the volume of applications we receive. We summarise key feedback and themes we found across the applications. We also let applicants know if they were shortlisted.

What criteria do we use when reviewing applications? The main questions we ask when reviewing your applications are: Is there a clear idea of what you're doing and why you’re doing it? Humans will read your applications, so don’t be afraid to be a human in your writing!

Tell us why this idea is important to you and how it’ll make a difference. This could include: giving us a sense of your background, where you are coming from, or what you are passionate about. We aren’t reviewing your academic achievements, awards or institutional backing.

It might be more relevant to tell us a story about why you are where you are at with your creative work, or who or what has shaped or inspired you. Is it realistic to make your project happen for £1,000? We fund ideas where £1,000 covers the majority of costs.

We don’t want you to stretch £1,000 for a £10,000 project! We want to know that you have an understanding of what you can do with £1,000. Your budget just needs to be a rough breakdown of how you’d spend the money.

It might be e. g £200 mentoring, £300 equipment, £400 to pay myself, £100 for materials. This doesn't need to be a detailed budget (e.

g we don’t need links to specific equipment). We just need to see that your idea is doable with the grant. Is it likely that you could get the money elsewhere?

We want to fund projects we feel are not as likely to find support from major funders. Find our application form here . When will I hear back with a decision?

If you applied by 23. 59 on Wednesday 17 June 2026, you’ll hear back from us on Friday 3 July. If you apply now, you'll hear back from us in early-Autumn 2026.

Don’t feel you have to respond to every sentence of the guidance; these are meant as helpful pointers in making your application, but not to be stressed over! Open with a short sentence about what your project is. This really helps us get to grips with exactly what you want to do early on in reading your application and makes it clear what the money would support.

Pick a format that you feel most confident in. We accept applications in written and audio form. Your written application can include emoticons, bullet points, sub-headers - whatever works for you.

We also don’t judge applications based on spelling and grammar. Don’t add backing music to your audio application. We use a transcription software to help us process audio applications, and background music makes it harder for us to review your application.

Don’t send us pre-made PDF or proposal decks. We appreciate you might be applying to lots of different open calls but if you don’t answer questions it’s hard to see how this grant in particular will be useful to you. We only need to see one example of your work.

This could be a link to images, audio, or videos of any works in progress or projects related to your application. If you haven’t got them on a website already, a link to a Flickr post, Vimeo video, YouTube video, Instagram post, or a Google Drive file works as well. Think about what additional files relate most closely to what you want to do with the money.

We also won’t have more than a few minutes to review each application link, so avoid long films or audio files. It’s a good idea to write a draft out in another document so you don’t lose anything in the form before submitting it. And we’d recommend spending no longer than 1-2 hours writing your application.

We have read enough applications to have a sense of when something might have been written with AI. We would much rather receive an application in bullet points than written by AI - it’s important that we hear your voice. The prompt you use to write your application will be more interesting to us than an AI’s response.

Examples of successful applications To make this process more transparent, we have contacted past grantees and asked if they are happy to share copies of successful applications. You can find a selection of them below, along with short descriptions about the project. These can also be found on the White Pube’s Funding library.

Even if our questions are slightly different now, we hope these examples offer you a steer on what we’re looking for. We have also redacted key information to keep applicants’ identity private - please respect their wishes. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at info@grandplanfund.

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uk Application One - Research and development for a duet circus performance Application Two - Artistic collaboration and exploration Application Three - Community sauna and healing sessions Application Four - Redesigning assistive devices Application Five - Community books and word event Application Six - Showcasing comedians of colour Application Seven - One month international residency Application Eight - Hosting a PoC Pride event Application Nine - Photography zine Application Ten - Traveling for film networking Application Eleven - Finishing short stories Application Twelve - School illustration workshops Application Thirteen - Short film screening Application Fourteen - Comedy Database Application Fifteen - Community Exhibition Can companies/registered charities apply?

No, we only support individuals and collectives. Can I apply with a project that costs more than £1000? We won’t part-fund projects where £1,000 doesn’t cover the majority of the cost.

We are also unlikely to fund projects where company running costs, marketing, or university projects make up a large proportion of the budget. What do we mean by “people of colour”? We know that it’s not a perfect term, and sadly there isn’t one.

Because of that, on our application form we simply ask you to decide whether you identify as a part of the Global Majority / a person of colour or not. We’ll trust and respect however you choose to answer that question and we won’t be checking or policing it. For information on why the fund is for people of colour head to our about page .

Does my project need to be community related/related to my ethnicity? No! It does not need to relate to your ethnicity or be beneficial to a community.

You just have to explain why your project is important to you. Can I apply as a duo/group? Yes!

Whoever applies will be treated as the ‘lead’ applicant and will be our main point of contact. If successful, we will name the group rather than an individual as the grantee. Can a support worker submit my application for me?

Yes, just state your relationship to the applicant in one of the answers to your questions. Can I upload photos/PDFs/portfolios to my application? Whilst we don't allow you to upload files, you can share links to files with us.

For example, you can upload a file to Google Drive or Dropbox and share a link to your file. Can you give me feedback on my application? We are a really small team and don’t have the capacity to provide individual feedback, However, after each round we try to update our application guidance - if you wish to reapply.

What will I get if awarded the grant? We will send you a simple grant agreement, in which we ask you to credit us if and when you share your project publicly. Once signed, you will receive a grant of £1,000.

We ask that you use the money to complete the project you applied for within 6 months of receiving it (though we are open to adapting this if things change for you and you need to delay). After six months, we send you a short form to hear how you got on. Plus you will have the option to chat to our team for support if you need it.