Application Resources

Maximize your application success with these tips:

1. Review Guidelines

Download the latest SCR Application Guidelines (updated annually).

2026 SCR Application Guidelines

2. Organize with Tools

Use this brainstorming worksheet to prepare a competitive application.

Brainstorming Worksheet

3. Focus Your Narrative

Include:

Project Summary: Cover the "5 W's" — who, what, where, when, and why.
Goals: Indicate what you hope to achieve.
Community Need: Explain the importance of your project.
Marketing Plan: Detail your outreach strategy across media platforms.

Budget Explanation: Ensure your narrative aligns with the numbers shown in your budget form.
Adaptability: Plan for partial-funding scenarios.

In Arts Education and Community Arts project applications only:

For additional support, attend a grant-application seminar or schedule an individual consultation with our coordinator—required of first-time applicants and returning applicants who did apply at least once for 2021 Decentralization Grant or 2022, 2023, 2024, or 2025 SCR funding.

Find out if you're eligible:

Eligible Applicants

The following criteria must be met regardless of grant category—with any exceptions noted below:

The legal address of the organizational/individual applicant of record must be within Clinton, Essex, Franklin, or Hamilton County or the Haudenosaunee tribal community of Akwesasne, and the funded project must take place within the same county as the applicant’s legal address.

An applicant organization must be a governmental or quasi-governmental entity, a tribal organization, or a nonprofit incorporated, or registered to do business, in New York State. The address on the documentation provided must be in the county where the project is taking place.

Applicant organizations must have an active board of directors/trustees and up-to-date bylaws.

In the Community Arts category, organizations, collectives, or individual artists who do not meet these requirements can apply for SCR funds through a fiscal sponsor or community-based partner (e.g., a public library). The entity serving as the fiscal sponsor becomes the “applicant organization” and must meet the same eligibility requirements listed in this section for a direct nonprofit-organization applicant and provide the same required documents.

An individual artist or group of artists who apply, including those who use a fiscal sponsor, must each be 18 years of age at the time of application and may not be enrolled in a full-time degree program.

In no way may applicant organizations discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religious belief, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Previous grantees must have submitted all required final reports from all previous cycles.

Projects must start and be completed during the funding cycle—January 1-December 31, 2026, with the possibility of an extension up to six months at the discretion of the SCR coordinator.

Pre-K-to-grade-12 Arts Ed projects must take place during the school day and in partnership with a public school and one or more certified arts teachers, with inter-curricular collaboration encouraged but not required.

Ineligible Applicants

The following entities and individuals are not eligible to apply for SCR funding:

New York State agencies and departments, including SUNY schools.

Public universities/colleges; public, private, or parochial secondary and elementary schools.

Staff or board members of an SCR site.

Entities or individuals applying to fund student projects.

Individuals or unincorporated organizations applying in the Community Arts category without an eligible fiscal sponsor or community-partner organization.

A group that is formed/incorporated as a business corporation or limited liability company or partnership (LLC, LLP) in New York State or in another state and registered to do business in New York State.

Non-incorporated chapters of organizations whose “parent” is incorporated outside of the SCR site’s service area.

Past SCR grantees who have failed to submit final reports.

For additional details, please see the “Eligibility Criteria and Requirements” section of ALCA’s 2026 SCR Application Guidelines (pages 4-7).

Recipients of SCR funding MUST credit the program by including the following required SCR/NYSCA/ALCA credit statement in all marketing and publicity materials EXACTLY as it appears here:

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts.

For additional requirements once SCR funding has been awarded, please see the “Grantee Responsibilities” section of ALCA’s 2026 SCR Application Guidelines (page 13).