FAQs

Programs are very competitive. Unfortunately, each year many worthy projects cannot be funded. You are welcome to email the Grants Manager to schedule a feedback call to discuss how your proposal could be improved in the future.

Applicants to the Recording Program may also apply to either the Performance Program or the Supplemental Program, if the applicant satisfies the program eligibility requirements.

Generally, applicants to the Performance Program may not apply to the Supplemental Program, and vice versa, except in instances approved by the Fund in advance. Please contact the Fund directly for further information regarding application to multiple grant programs.

For all programs, the Fund is primarily interested in supporting works written within the last 40 years.

Projects featuring American music of particular importance to the field but outside the Fund’s definition of contemporary will only be considered on a case-by-case basis; please contact the Grants Manager for more information.

Yes, jazz is supported. For examples of projects and ensembles that have been supported in the past, please see the lists of grantees from recent grant rounds.

Composers with U.S. citizenship, as well as composers that have lived and worked in the U.S. for a significant period of time, are eligible. The Fund does not set rigid parameters but considers any questionable situations on a case-by-case basis. For the Fund’s purposes, “American” refers to the United States, its territories, and possessions.

Only the donation of goods that have a fair market value are allowable as a budgetary item, consistent with IRS regulations for filing Form 990.

If you wish to show the value of the donation of services, you may do so in a supplementary note to the budget, but only if the contributed services:

1. create or enhance nonfinancial assets, or
2. require specialized skills, are provided by individuals possessing those skills and would typically need to be purchased if not provided by donation.

In this case, indicate the full value of the donated services in the supplementary note. Within the budget itself, indicate the actual amount of money paid for the services. If the services were completely donated, the amount of the expense should be $0.

Donated services that do not meet either of the two criteria should not be represented anywhere in the budget.

Popular music is not supported. The Fund’s emphasis is on contemporary American concert music and jazz.

Yes. Submit a letter from a lawyer confirming your organization’s equivalence to a publicly funded 501(c)(3) organization. All financial figures in the proposal should be converted to U.S. dollars.

In order to ensure a fair review process, the Fund does not release the names of the panelists.

For the Recording and Performance Programs, panelists are otherwise unaffiliated with the Copland Fund and are generally nominated by panelists who have previously served on a panel for the Fund. Panelists are experts in the field, rotate with each grant cycle, and are selected by a program advisor, who works independently of the Fund’s board to assemble the panels.

Panels for the Supplemental Program are made up of a combination of members of the Copland Fund’s board and administration and experts from the field who are otherwise unaffiliated with the Copland Fund.

Contact the Grants Manager for advice before beginning an application.

Educational institutions may not apply directly, but they may serve as the fiscal sponsor for projects that involve professional musicians (including faculty). Projects including student ensembles are generally not eligible for support. Projects that primarily involve professional musicians are eligible even if some students also participate.

Generally, no. The Fund’s emphasis is on contemporary American concert music and jazz. However, programs of this nature do not have an adverse effect on your application as long as there is sufficient eligible contemporary concert music activity.

Projects involving youth choruses performing at an exceptionally high level are eligible for support, provided that they are performing contemporary American concert music intended for young voices.

Performing groups such as orchestras, opera companies and chamber music groups with a consistent core membership, as well as ‘flexible’ ensembles with consistent artistic leadership and identity, are considered performing ensembles. Dance companies are also eligible to apply for projects that involve live performances of contemporary American music. Performing ensembles may seek support from the Performance Program.

The Copland Fund will not fund indirect costs on a project, so it is advised that you do not include them in the budget.

Music festivals, music venues, and any other organization that organizes and presents live musical performances by a variety of performing groups can be considered a “presenting organization”. Presenters may seek support from the Performance Program.

Yes.

Yes, the Performance Program accepts applicant ensembles that are self-presenting as well as hybrid presenter-ensemble organizations.

Award decisions will be announced in or about November of the application year. Please do not contact the Fund for updates about grant decisions.

The General FAQs are located here.

Organizations without non-profit status may seek support with the sponsorship of a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. You must submit a letter from the sponsoring organization describing the nature of the arrangement, and undertaking to be responsible for disbursement of funds if a grant is awarded. In addition, you must include the sponsor’s IRS tax-exempt determination letter. Create one PDF that contains both items.

Please do not exceed the maximum number of characters for each section of the proposal.

Submit your ensemble's budgets. Do not include personal income and expenditures or other information not related to the activities of the performance entity for which you are applying. We will follow up with you if we need more information about your fiscal sponsor.

Organizational budgets refer to three consecutive years of revenue and expense statements:

1. the actual statement from the preceding fiscal year
2. a projected statement (budget) for the current fiscal year
3. a projected statement (budget) for the fiscal year for which support is requested

We strongly recommend using our Excel template to create your statement, which indicates the format level of detail we generally like to see. However, we will accept other formats.

Financial statements refer to statements, often prepared by an accountant and sometimes audited, that reflect a more complete picture of an organization's financial details, including statements of activity, cash flow, balance sheets, and accompanying notes. Not every organization is required to have an audited financial statement, however, if your organization has one for any of the past three fiscal years, you are required to submit the latest one. 

Organizations applying with a fiscal sponsor should create the account using their own contact information, not that of the fiscal sponsor.

Because this program is extremely competitive, the Fund will not accept multiple proposals in the same round from organizations other than recording companies. Recording companies are limited to 3 proposals per round.

On average, fewer than 15% of applications are successful in the Recording Program. In recent years there have been an average of 125 preliminary applications per grant round and an average of 18 grantee projects per grant round. 

Award decisions will be announced on or about June 30 of the application year. Please do not contact the Fund for updates about grant decisions.

This should be the place where you “make the case” for funding your project. Explain why you have chosen to record the proposed works, the significance of your recording, the quality and appropriateness of the performers and recording personnel, and any other information that would assist the panel in its review.

Individuals (and ensembles without non-profit status) may not apply directly, but may seek support with the sponsorship of a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. You must submit a letter from the sponsoring organization describing the nature of the arrangement, and undertaking to be responsible for disbursement of funds if a grant is awarded. In addition, you must include the sponsor’s IRS tax-exempt determination letter.

Alternatively, individuals (and ensembles without non-profit status) may request that their record company apply for the project directly. For the Recording Program, record companies may be either non-profit or commercial.

As long as the recording has not been released by the time of the full application deadline (March 31), you are eligible to apply. We understand that some projects may be released before funding decisions are announced.

The General FAQs are located here.

It is not necessary to list the works for which you are not requesting support in the Works to Be Recorded section, nor is it necessary to provide scores or audio samples for these works. Please mention these works briefly in your proposal narrative so that the review panel fully understands the context of the project.

We prefer to see the budget for the entire project, but you may decide to either provide us with the full budget or an abbreviated budget that only covers the works for which you are requesting support. Indicate which of these two options you have chosen in the Notes section of the budget form.

Only works that are complete by the time of the full application deadline (March 31) are eligible for support.

In order to be considered a commercial record company for the Fund's purposes, your company must have a Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN) and a business checking account in your company's name. In addition, you will be responsible for completing annual IRS expenditure responsibility forms if you are awarded a grant.

Yes, but only the music by American composers would be eligible for support.

Yes. Recordings that will be distributed primarily or solely digitally, whether by download or streaming, are eligible. For all projects distributed digitally, grantees will be required to post liner notes and credits on an appropriate page of their web sites and to provide a permanent copy of the funded recording for the Fund’s archive.

Award decisions will be announced during or about the end of February after the application deadline.  Please do not contact the Fund for grant decisions.

Please submit organizational budgets for your support year and the two previous years. For the 2019 round, this means FY 2019, FY 2018 and FY 2017.

The General FAQs are located here.

The project description should be a detailed description of the specific project for which you are requesting support. For example, presenters should include information about the performers, repertoire, venue(s), timeframe and audiences served for a proposed concert series. Music service organizations should supply details about the personnel and participants involved, timeframe for completion, and end goal of a proposed project. 

Organizations without non-profit status may seek support with the sponsorship of a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. You must submit a letter from the sponsoring organization describing the nature of the arrangement, and undertaking to be responsible for disbursement of funds if a grant is awarded. In addition, you must include the sponsor's IRS tax-exempt determination letter. Create one PDF that contains both items.

It is not necessary to submit board or financial information for the fiscal sponsor unless we follow up with you with a request for more information.

A proposal narrative should be a general description of your organization’s activities, plans for the upcoming season, and any other significant points to make your case for support. Applicants applying for general operating support are required to submit only a proposal narrative. Applicants applying for project support are required to submit a proposal narrative and a project description.

The "copy into new application" feature has been removed. We apologize for the inconvenience.

To access all of your applications, both in progress and completed, click on "My Account" on the upper-right hand corner of the page. Your applications and their statuses will appear on the right hand side of the page.

You can click on the cross to re-order your work samples. Be advised, however, that the panel may elect to listen to one or more of your work samples in a sequence other than the order in which you provide them.

Immediately upon registering on the site, you should receive a confirmation e-mail at the address that you provided. Normally, you should receive a second e-mail approving your registration within three business days, which will contain instructions about how to log into the site. If you don't receive either of these messages, first, check your junk e-mail folder. Be sure to add onlinegrants@coplandfund.org to your address book or whitelist. If the message is not in your junk e-mail box, call us at 212-461-6956 or send an email to onlinegrants@coplandfund.org so that we can assist you further.

"Path" is a technical detail and simply shows the type of HTML formatting that the text editor is using. It can be helpful if you are trying to format your text in a particular way, but otherwise may be ignored.

No, the text boxes have unlimited capacity. Drag the bottom right hand corner of the text box down to increase the viewable area. However, it is recommended that you make your answers as concise as possible while still making the case for your application.

Please send us an email at onlinegrants@coplandfund.org and we will reply. If the question is of sufficient general interest, we will post it to this page, however, you will not be identified.

Be sure to update your browser to the latest version. We support the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. If the problem persists, please contact us.

Fields marked with a red star are required.

Click on "My Organization" on the upper-right hand corner of the page, then update your information.

For optimal security, it is recommended to choose a password that contains at least six characters. It should include numbers, punctuation, and both upper and lowercase letters. However, passwords with a low security rating will still be accepted. You are responsible for keeping your password secret. You can change your password at any time by going to the "Username & Password" section of "My Account".

Please note that our personnel do not have access to your password. However, we can assist you to change it if necessary.