How I Fund My Creative Projects

It is crunch time for grant writing right now. I've got funding proposals and grants due up the wazoo.

Since I've been exploring my process as a filmmaker this spring, I'm going to share a bit about an important part of making creative projects that's not talked about enough: getting money for them.

After mentioning in my last post that my short film Strangers had a budget of about $50,000, quite a few people asked how I got the money. It's a great question.

On the set of Strangers. Me (centre) with DoP Chase Gardiner (right).

There's a short answer and a long answer.

The short answer is government grants. In Canada, you can apply for lots of different funding for artistic projects. I also put some of my own money into Strangers from a line of credit.

The long answer is quite a bit more complicated. Since I'm working on a big grant due next week, and an even bigger one due at the end of the month, this seems like a great time to dive into the process of pitching, proposals, and grant writing.

If you're not in Canada.... Sorry? (Eh?) Other countries, like in Europe, often have project grants available, but I don't believe the United States is one of them. But the U.S. does have grants from many other sources. (There are ups and downs to both systems, of course.) In the end, asking people for money has similarities no matter how you’re doing it. Going to private investors, writing a government grant, or pitching to a producer or studio. The basics are the same.

Right now, I'm working on funding as part of my journey to direct a feature. The dream would be for me to just have some company pay for everything. They write me a cheque and then handle the rest. Cha-ching! I'm definitely pursuing those avenues too. In my experience, that's a pretty rare thing to happen though. I typically fund my projects on my own.

So how do I do that?

First, a bit about my own journey funding arts projects.

When I was in the last semester of my undergrad, a professional theatre artist came in to talk to my directing class and said something along the lines of, "Don't wait for people to give you opportunities. Go out and make them yourself."

I really took that to heart.

The Untold Tales of the Brothers Grimm, the theatre show I got my first grant to produce.

Once I graduated, I started writing grants to put on theatre shows. I didn't get a one for my first show, so I did some crowdfunding for it instead. I was able to pay everyone involved, but it was just a small honourarium. After that, I started taking grant writing seriously.

Now that I'm about a decade in, I've produced a projects (in both film and theatre) with budgets well over $100,000. It took some time to get here, but now I'm feeling like I know what I'm doing when it comes to finding money for creative endeavours.

I never really thought I'd use my B.A. in English and Theatre, but I think I found the perfect marriage of those things by writing cool shows and writing grants to produce them. (Grant writing is, essentially, writing persuasive essays.)

You probably want to know how to get that fat money now, right?

There's a hundred different ways you can find money for a creative project. For myself, I'm boiling it down to just four:

Grant Funding.

In Canada, there are grants at the federal level (like Canada Council for the Arts and Telefilm Canada), the provincial level (like Alberta Foundation for the Arts), and in major cities at the municipal level. These range widely from $500 to multi-million dollar grants. In the U.S. and elsewhere, there's plenty of grants that come from places other than the government. Do some digging online. To get started, here's a list of about 75 grants from StudioBinder. There's money out there to be found, you just have to find it.

Get other people to pay for it.

This can mean a lot of different things. I've run successful crowdfunding campaigns (like on Kickstarter and Indiegogo). They're a lot of work, but you can get a lot of money from them. You can also go after donations through a donation drive or fundraising campaign, which is something I've done more in non-profit work with theatre companies I run.

Private investment.

Instead of asking individuals for money, you can also ask companies, corporations, or investment firms for money. This could be a sponsorship, it could be part of a financing plan, it could even be in-kind support.

Pay for it yourself.

I try to avoid that as much as I can. But if you believe in yourself, why not invest in yourself? I went to university—that was expensive, even with student loans. But honesty, I learned more just making art on my own. So if you're willing to pay for schooling, are you willing to pay for your own artistic projects? You can think of them as training or a DIY film school. Making a short film is basically like doing a thesis project anyway, right?

But then again, as Max Bialystock says in The Producers, there's two cardinal of being a producer...

I see writing grants and proposals as a creative endeavour.

Writing proposals is hard. It takes a lot of work. And a lot of practise to get good at it. But I actually like writing grants now.

No, really. Grant writing is an integral part of the artistic development for my projects, as well as the financial development. Why?

When I have an idea for a new project, a grant or pitch is the best way for me to expand that idea into a vision. What is this project? Why am I interested in exploring it? How am I going to pull it off? When? And with whom? You can't make a film with just an idea. But if you have a vision for it, then you're ready to get started.

Writing a grant or putting together a pitch is my way of fleshing out all my ideas. By the time I'm done, I'm much closer to actually making a project than when I started. So if you feel like you have lots of ideas for projects but never actually do them, try putting a pitch together. Try writing a grant. It might be the boost you need to get yourself started.

(exp)lore—the audio play series I produced with Jupiter Theatre during the pandemic—was entirely funding through government grants.

As I said, I've been writing grants, pitches, and proposals for a while now. Am I an expert? I dunno. Maybe. I definitely still have more to learn. I've had a lot of successes and a lot of failures over the last ten years. If you're interested in hearing some tips or how I go about writing grants, let me know. Maybe I'll write up a whole thing about that too.

If you are interested in grants, I've got one more thing to share about it. Malcom Gladwell did an episode of Revisionist History about granting systems. It's about science research grants, but the same can certainly apply to arts funding.

Money and art are connected. Whether we like it or not.

Most of the time, we gotta have money to make art. So we may as well own it. My philosophy is similar to that advice from my last year of theatre school. Don't let others tell you what you can and can't make. Go out and make it on your own. It's worked for me so far.

But doing things on your own can come with a lot of emotional work as well.

Writing grants, putting out pitches, it all comes with a lot of rejection. Rejection can be really hard. So resilience is just as important for artists today as creativity or talent. If you want to be good at finding money for your projects, you need to invest a lot into your proposals and pitches. And the more you invest in something, the tougher it is when you get a "no".

Here’s three things I do to help deal with rejections.

These aren't just for grants and pitches. I've been getting lots of rejections for film festivals over the past couple years too. Although, two of my short films just got into their first film festivals, including Strangers! (I can't say more yet, but if you want to follow my journey more closely you can find me on Instagram or follow me on Substack.)

First, feel the feelings.

When I get a big rejections, I give myself a day to feel however it makes me feel. Sometimes it’s not a lot. Sometimes it’s quite a lot. But ignoring it usually doesn't help.

Second, stay busy.

After I submit a grant or do a pitch, I get onto the next one right away. That way, I’m not stewing and waiting for the answer. That's the worst. This way, if I do get a "no", I have somewhere else to put my energy. (And sometimes I completely forget about things, so a "yes" can be a fun surprise!)

Third, try changing to a growth mindset.

Each pitch is an opportunity to grow. Focus on getting better each time, not on the result you want (that's out of your control anyway). Keep refining your material. Keep trying new things. For grants, if you don't get one, apply for the next in take with an even stronger application. I've done this numerous times and I often do get funding with a second application.

Okay. So that's a bit about how I find grants and funding. Got any questions? Comments? Feedback? Fire away! And all the best with you finding funds for your own creative projects this year.

Now, I have some grants to write. So I'm going to get back to that.

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I write about the process of making movies and my filmmaking journey.