Update: Second cycle of Measure P grants will kick off soon — as growing pains continue
Update: The Fresno Arts Council on Friday, March 14, launched the 2025 Measure P grants process. Dates associated with letters of intent and grant applications — reported as tentative in the article below — are now confirmed.
By Doug Hoagland
After a four-month delay, the business of awarding $6.2 million in Measure P arts grants will kick off in mid-March.
The Munro Review offers 10 key points about the 2025 grants.
(The following dates are tentative because the Fresno Arts Council, which runs the grants program, needs to translate application documents into Spanish, Hmong and Punjabi before the process starts. Keep in mind the guidelines are complicated and we aren’t able to address every question an applicant might have. Best bet is to check for updates on the Fresno Arts Council website.)
1.
From March 14 to April 4, nonprofit arts organizations or fiscally-sponsored projects must submit a letter of intent to the Arts Council. This will enable the Council to evaluate if would-be applicants meet such criteria as having state-approved nonprofit status.
The letter of intent – termed a readiness evaluation by the Arts Council – will be pass/fail. Those that pass will be considered ready and eligible to file grant applications. Those that fail could correct deficiencies, if they do so by April 4.
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Letters of intent weren’t required in 2024 – the first year for arts grants under Measure P, the ⅜-cent increase in the Fresno sales tax that voters approved in 2018 to boost parks and arts over 30 years. In 2024, some grant applications were not passed on for review and scoring because of deficiencies such as incomplete information.
2.
From March 14 to June 6, applicants can submit their grant applications if their letters of intent pass.
3.
Competition for the Measure P money could be intense. The $6.2 million available in 2025 is significantly less than the $9.4 million that was awarded in 2024. More money was available in 2024 because Measure P funds built up over several years as the grants program was developed and then launched.
One possible indication of interest in 2025 grants: Kimberly McCoy, chair of the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission, said at a Feb. 24 Commission meeting that people are calling her wanting to know when they can submit applications.
In 2024, the Arts Council received 137 applications, with 112 grantees ultimately receiving Measure P funding.
4.
Once the application period closes in early June, it will take several months – perhaps into late summer or early fall – for adjudicators to score applications and for the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission to award grants. That means arts organizations won’t know as they prepare their 2025-26 budgets if they can count on Measure P money. Budget years typically begin July 1, and the grants are designed to align with that.
The saga of Measure P: See past coverage in The Munro Review’s comprehensive archive
The delay is unfortunate, says Lilia Gonzáles Chávez, executive director of the Fresno Arts Council. The Arts Council tried for an earlier timetable, first going to the Commission on Sept. 30, 2024, to get a jump start on 2025.
The goal was to begin accepting applications in November 2024 and get money to successful applicants by July 1, 2025. The delay was caused, in part, by debate among Commissioners, and the City Attorney’s Office having to review each revised set of grant guidelines.
5.
In another change from 2024, established organizations (annual budgets exceeding $50,000) can apply for only one type of grant.
They must choose between an operational support grant (covering utilities, rent, staff salaries, etc.) or project specific support (covering artists’ fees, materials, venue rentals, etc.) In 2024, established organizations could apply for both grants, and some did. The change was made to free up more money for other applicants, according to Gonzáles Chávez.
For the city’s big cultural organizations – like Arte Américas (a Latino cultural arts center) and the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra – the cap on a project grant is $150,000, while the cap on an operational support grant is $400,000.
6.
Emerging organizations (annual budget less than $50,000) can apply for both operational support grants and project specific grants. That guideline is unchanged from 2024, and it meets one of the goals of the city’s Cultural Arts Plan, Gonzáles Chávez says. That goal is to help smaller arts organizations become more financially stable.
Emerging organizations will be eligible to receive $50,000 in operational support and $50,000 in project support.
7.
Individual artists and arts organizations without nonprofit status can apply for grants if they have a fiscal sponsor. Among the requirements of the fiscal sponsor: it must be a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit recognized by the Internal Revenue Service and be based in Fresno.
In 2025, the Arts Council will put out a call for fiscal sponsors early in the process to help applicants that need one, according to Gonzáles Chávez. In 2024, a list of possible fiscal sponsors came out late in the application period.
8.
In 2025, an established organization or “a fiscally sponsored entity” – to use the language of the guidelines – can only apply for only one project support grant.
That guideline would seem to address a controversy that erupted in 2024. The Downtown Fresno Partnership submitted six applications for downtown projects totalling nearly $900,000, the most money sought by any applicant.
In the end, the Downtown Partnership, which promotes the economic well-being of the city’s central core, got one grant for $76,487. The Downtown Partnership said the Arts Council, in rejecting its other five applications, cited a nonexistent guideline limiting each applicant to one project application. Gonzáles Chávez eventually said the guidelines were “silent” on that point.
They no longer are.
9.
A new guideline in 2025 addresses the fact that some 2024 grantees were called out for possibly operating outside the City of Fresno, which would violate Measure P. The Arts Council received “community feedback” about potential violations, says Gonzáles Chávez, who previously declined to identify which 2024 grantees might be involved.
The new guideline states that all activities – including rehearsals, performances and presentations – funded by Measure P must take place in the city.
But there’s a wrinkle. Some bigger arts organizations – with multiple funding sources – could conduct activity outside the city as long as they don’t use Measure P funds for that activity, Gonzáles Chávez says. Yet without the resources to closely monitor grant recipients, the Arts Council would have to depend on the organizations “to be forthcoming with information,” she adds.
10.
The 2025 grant guidelines include a new statement designed to address equity in how the Measure P grants will be awarded throughout the city. The statement reads: “Award allocations will be recommended by the [Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission] with intent that these investments recognize, reflect and support the cultural, demographic, and geographic diversity of all parts of the City of Fresno.”
In 2024, Commissioner Jose Leon Barraza consistently raised his concern that southeast, southwest and south central Fresno neighborhoods did not get a fair share of Measure P funding. Barraza – who’s running for the City Council in southeast Fresno – told The Munro Review on Feb. 24 that he’s satisfied with the statement.
The Munro Review has no paywall but is financially supported by readers who believe in its non-profit mission of bringing professional arts journalism to the central San Joaquin Valley. You can help by signing up for a monthly recurring paid membership or make a one-time donation of as little as $3. All memberships and donations are tax-deductible. The Munro Review is funded in part by the City of Fresno Measure P Expanded Access to Arts and Culture Fund administered by the Fresno Arts Council.
