Cultural Grant Panel Information

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Grant panel members play a critical role in the awarding of grants for the City of Boulder and the Boulder Arts Commission. In doing so, grant panel members contribute to the cultural and artistic vibrancy of our community and the role of the arts in advancing the city’s long-term plans and goals.

Each grant panel will include a minimum of five voting members. An Arts Commissioner will attend each review discussion meeting to observe the process as ex-officio, non-voting participant. Staff of the City of Boulder may not be appointed as members of a grant panel. The grant panel term is two years and panelists must live in Colorado.

Full participation from each member of the grant panel is required for the selection process to be successful. The required number of meetings will be kept to a minimum, generally no more than six, including training. It is important that each member attend all the scheduled meetings. Panelists are also expected to respond to email correspondence in a timely fashion and must maintain the scoring and meeting deadlines established by the Commission’s grant schedule.

Confidentiality

Given the confidential nature of grant materials, the grant panel discussion meetings are closed. Minutes will be taken at panel meetings and provided to organizations/individuals upon formal request. City of Boulder proceedings are subject to the Colorado Open Records Act §24-72-204(3)(a)(IV), C.R.S.

The names of members of each grants panel are publicly available information, including to grant applicants who may be under consideration. However, the panel is sequestered from the application through the decision. Applicants will be instructed not to contact member of the grant panel outside of regularly established meetings regarding any selection process or decision. Any such communication may disqualify an applicant from consideration. All correspondence by and between applicants and members of the grants panel is to be directed through the Office of Arts and Culture to ensure perception of fairness in the selection process.

Conflict of Interest

Grant panel members are required to adhere to the City of Boulder’s policy on conflict of interest standards, which states that grant panel members should be alert to avoid any action which could possibly be interpreted as a use of membership for their personal gain or a benefit to their family members and employers. Panel or group participation to further their interest or the interest of any organization with which he or she is affiliation is prohibited. View the City of Boulder conflict of interest policy.

Conflicts of interest are further covered by Title 2, Chapter 7 of the Boulder Revised Code which states that individuals shall not participate in any decision which could affect them, a member of their immediate family or their employer financially. A conflict of interest may also include non-financial conflicts, such as close relationship with one of the parties to a decision, long-term association with organizations or person involved, or any other situation which would lead to a clear “appearance of impropriety.”

If an applicant to the grant panel is related to a particular applicant under consideration in one of the ways mentioned above, they are asked to state that they have a conflict of interest and to refrain from discussing or voting on any decisions in the grant category in which that applicant has submitted.

It is expected that grant panel members may be aware of the work of some artists and arts organizations who apply to be considered for grants. Such awareness alone does not constitute a conflict of interest, nor does patronage such as attending events, donating or buying tickets, or owning a piece of work by a submitting applicant.

In furtherance of this policy, each person covered by the policy shall act according to the following guidelines. These guidelines are not exclusive and the policy shall also apply to situations not necessarily covered by the guidelines:

1. A grant panel member is expected to serve the city at large and represent the best interests of the city and its cultural development.
2. A grant panel member may take part in activities supported by Arts Commission funding.
3. A grant panel member shall excuse themself from deliberation and recommendation on any application with respect to which the grant panel member cannot or believes that he or she cannot exercise an unbiased judgment, even if not otherwise required to do so by this policy.
4. A grant panel member shall leave the room during the discussion and voting on any application room, or any action affecting, any organization by which he or she is employed or with which he or she is affiliated.
5. No grant panel member shall receive a benefit of any kind whatsoever in exchange for taking action in his or her membership capacity, nor shall they receive any remuneration whatsoever from any source as payment for services in that capacity, provided however they shall receive reimbursement from the Arts Commission or for actual expenses advanced in relation to those services.
6. A grant panel member shall bear in mind his or her close personal relationships, such as marriage, board membership, and past affiliations, so as to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest arising from those relationships.

Work of Grant Panel Members

These are the jobs that grant panel members are expected to undertake.

1. Agree to participate in the grants panel for two years.
2. Attend all meetings and trainings and participate in discussions with the full panel in order to ensure fully informed and thoughtful decisions. There will be approximately six meetings in 2025: an orientation meeting and five meetings during the grant processes to discuss applications. There may also be self-guided trainings provided by staff. Panelists are also expected to respond to email correspondence in a timely fashion and must maintain the scoring and meeting deadlines established by the Commission’s grant schedule.
3. To review applications and score according to the Arts Commission’s Scoring System and Rubric. Before the grants awards process begins, panel members will be trained in how to interpret the scoring system and rubrics, or set of criteria, which helps reduce the possibility of subjective scores based on personal preferences. Please keep in mind, however, that although panel decisions follow this set of criteria, scores could reflect a small degree of subjectivity individual to each panel member. Panel members must be able to defend their scores with observations about each application’s specific strengths or weaknesses during the scoring and re-scoring process.
4. Ultimately, the grant panel’s responsibility is to make a final recommendation to the Boulder Arts Commission on which grants to award.

Selection of Grant Panel Members

This is the process by which grant panel members are selected.

1. Grant panelists apply to the Office of Arts and Culture.
2. The application consists of a one-page document addressing their qualifications to be a panelist and how they align to the needs of the Commission, their resume, and documentation of any potential conflicts of interest.
3. Grant panel members are selected by Arts and Culture Manager.
4. Grant panel members are paid a stipend for their participation.

Grant Panel Member Qualifications

These are the ideal qualifications for a grant panel member.

1. Previous participation as panelist for arts and culture grants.
2. Arts and culture grant applicant or grantee, including but not limited to arts and culture grants.
3. Experience in a nonprofit organization and/or as a practicing artist, creative professional, or arts leader.
4. Limited potential for conflicts of interest in decision making.
5. Potential to catalyze positive change in the equity environment of Boulder’s arts and culture community. Preference will be given to applicants who have had limited access to opportunities due to financial, social, or cultural barriers, and/or have had a diverse lived experience.
6. Demonstrated ability to maintain schedules and respond to correspondence promptly.

Compensation and Other Benefits

Participation as part of the grant panel is voluntary. Individuals involved in the grant panel may receive a stipend, as deemed appropriate by the Arts and Culture Manager, or their designee. Please email harrisons@bouldercolorado.gov to find out what the stipend will be the year you are applying.

Removal and Resignation

If any individual involved in the Arts Commission grant application review process is not able to complete their duties, the individual is asked to notify the Arts Program Manager in writing with as much notice as possible so other arrangements can be made to complete the duties. An individual who fails to carry out duties as identified or meet expectations may be removed by the Arts and Culture Manager or their designee.

Grant Panel Process

Each panel-reviewed grant program progresses through this process to make a decision.

Summary process:

1. Applications are submitted.
2. Grant panel review and scoring and comments. Arts Commission also receives access to the applications for review.
3. First round of scores and comments are sent to applicants.
4. Applicant provides a one-page response.
5. Second round of review with a grant panel meeting to discuss. This meeting is not publicly noticed. Commissioner ex-officio offers short report back to the full Commission at the decision meeting.
6. Final scores due and published with the Commission packet.
7. Commission votes on panel’s top scoring application.

Process details:

Specifics vary from application to application.

For General Operating Support and project grants, the grant panel will read through the background information provided to understand the organization or project; they will then provide scores in two sections:

First, the panel members provide scores on the information provided in the “Panel Questions” section. Panel members provide a score of 1 to 8 for each panel question.

Second, the panel members provide additional points on two focus areas: 1) for Boulder-based organizations and 2) for encouragement points. A maximum of 4 additional points is available to the panel members for the encouragement points section, and 6 additional points for the Boulder focus section.

The scores for each panel member are added together to establish a preliminary score for the application. Those preliminary scores are averaged across all the panel members to establish a preliminary score. This score is used to rank the application for consideration. For each grant category, the Arts Commission will establish a threshold score over which an application is considered eligible for an award. Please note that meeting the threshold score does not automatically approve an application for funding.

In addition to providing a score, the panel will include questions or comments for each Applicant. Staff of the Office of Arts and Culture will provide these comments to the applicant before the second round of scoring. The applicant will have the opportunity to offer a one-page statement answering the questions raised, further informing the panel about the application.

After the one-page response is completed, the panel will meet to discuss the application and response, then rescore the application. Once this rescore is complete, the applications are re-ranked. At the decision meeting, the members of the Boulder Arts Commission then deliberate to decide final approval of the applications which will receive a grant. The Arts Commission may a) accept the top scores in the ranking, b) choose to adjust the ranking, or c) ask the panel to reconsider specific scores.

The complete scoring system and rubric can be found here.

Does the Boulder Arts Commission have an appeals process?

Yes. The appeals process can be found on the Arts and Culture website.