PECO, Team Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Creative Industries, powered by PA Council on the Arts, have partnered to support grassroots audience development initiatives in the Philadelphia five county region and part of York County.
Donor Name: PECO
State: Pennsylvania
County: Chester County (PA), Delaware County (PA), Montgomery County (PA), Philadelphia County (PA), York County (PA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/31/2025
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Less than 1 Year
Details:
The grant is designed to enhance community access to arts activities by fostering the growth of diverse audiences. To achieve this, applicants must understand the characteristics of their current audience and identify new demographics to engage—this could include variations in age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, or abilities. This collaboration aims to strengthen the connection between arts programs and the vibrant communities they serve.
The grant program activity period is October 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, and includes two distinct types of funding:
- Planning Grants
- Designed to help arts organizations assess their current audience, identify new audiences, and develop strategies or programs to attract and retain them. Eligible activities include audience research, creating a plan to diversify audiences, or evaluating existing plans to refine or pursue a different approach.
- Implementation Grants
- Intended for arts organizations that are actively implementing strategies to engage and retain new audiences or building upon existing efforts. A detailed timeline of activities must be submitted alongside the grant application.
Powering the Arts Grants Fund
New Audience Planning or Implementation Projects Strategies may include but are not limited to:
- Removing barriers
- eliminating obstacles that prevent desired audiences from participating in arts programming, such as admission fees, accessibility challenges, program types, or reaching diverse populations and new age groups.
- Exploring and clarifying the concept of inclusivity in relation to the community the organization serves.
- Support community engagement activities to reach new audiences.
- External community engagement programming
- conducting community arts programming outside of the organization which may attract and retain new audiences.
- Designing innovative engagement strategies, activities, and programs for new audiences.
- Creative collaborations
- partnering with other community organizations to connect with and plan for new audience development
Funding Information
- Grant amount = $5,000
- Required 1:1 match (50% of the match can be in-kind)
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include nonprofit arts and culture organizations or nonprofit community organizations offering arts and culture programming, with an annual budget not exceeding $2M.
- Organizations may use a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
- Organizations must be located in one of the following counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia, or York.
For more information, visit PECO.
