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GRAMMY FOUNDATION

GRAMMY Foundation

Contact information:
3030 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Phone: 310-392-3777

Fax: 310-392-2188 


Website: http://www.grammy.com/GRAMMY_Foundation/

Type of foundation: Public charity

Types of grants: Research, preservation

Description: The GRAMMY Foundation was established in 1989 by The Recording Academy to “cultivate the understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture.” The Foundation is interested in preserving recordings, as well as films and photographs, that relate to the nation’s music history. Grants are made in two main areas:

  • Archiving and Preservation Projects ($20,000 maximum award for implementation; $5,000 for planning): Grants are made to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the music and recorded sound heritage of the Americas. The Archiving and Preservation area has two funding categories: 1) Preservation Implementation and 2) Planning/Assessment and/or Consultation.
  • Scientific Research Projects ($20,000 maximum award): Grants are made to organizations and individuals to support research on the impact of music on the human condition (e.g., the effects of music on mood, healing, the medical/occupational well-being of music professionals, and the creative process).

The Foundation also runs:

  • GRAMMY in the Schools, a music education program for high school students, that engages students in Career Days, enables them to attend professional soundchecks, and provides cash grants to public high school music programs.
  • GRAMMY Camp, a residential summer program for youth focused on the commercial music industry.
  • MusiCares, providing assistance to music professionals in times of critical need. Services cover financial, medical and personal emergencies.

Sample grants:

  • $40,000 to Other Minds, San Francisco, CA for the New Music Preservation project. Other Minds will work with Internet Archive to preserve 6,000+ hours of audio and visual documentation from 4,000 audiotapes (ownership transferred from radio station KPFA). Through radiOM.org, the archive will be made available globally and for free. This grant enables digital conversion of 200 tapes (2008).
  • $20,000 to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, Los Angeles to digitize recordings of American traditional music focusing on the Western United States (2009).
  • $20,000 to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to digitize the George Stone Collection's Conversation Series, the Oral History Project and the WFMT Fine Arts Network Live Concert Series, resulting in more extensive catalogue records and improved accessibility for researchers (2009).
  • $19,961 to Caffé Lena (Saratoga Springs, NY) to clean, store, digitally transfer, and provide access to its valuable, at-risk archive of fragile reel-to-reels of live performances and field recordings (1960–1989), and related oral histories on audiocassettes (2012).
  • $20,000 to the KCRW Foundation, Santa Monica, CA to convert DATs and reel-to-reels from Morning Becomes Eclectic to broadcast-quality WAV files that are easily accessible by DJs for broadcast. Many will be made available online for the first time (2008).
  • $17,250 to WGBH to preserve and make available interviews from the landmark PBS television series "Rock & Roll." They will be available to the public through WGBH's Open Vault website and new radio pieces (2012). $15,000 to Center for Black Music, Columbia College, Chicago, IL to digitize, archive, preserve and make available to the public 142 audio cassettes containing in-depth interviews with 100 important Jamaican studio musicians, arrangers and vocalists (2010).
  • $11,000 to New York Public Radio to reformat a significant portion of its audio archive comprised of music and culture programming from the 1950s-1980s (2011).

Fit for public broadcasting: There is a clear fit with public broadcasting for efforts to digitize and preserve music archives and/or other culturally and historically significant recordings related to music.

Eligibility: Grants are made to organizations and individuals.

Deadline: There is one grant application cycle per year. The 2012 letter of inquiry deadline is October 1, 2012.

How to apply: Guidelines are available online. A letter of inquiry is required and must be submitted online. The online letter of inquiry form can be accessed from this page. Applicants will be informed in early November if a full proposal is requested. Grant announcements will be made in March 2013.

Giving range: Up to $20,000.

Assets: $5,676,998 (year ending July 2011).

Total giving: $200,000 (year ending July 2011). The foundation’s grant program is funded by The Recording Academy. View 2010-2011 annual report here.