FUTURE FOCUS FUNDING
The Future Focus Program is a funding collaboration between Calgary Arts Development, the Rozsa Foundation, and the Calgary Foundation. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, who provided additional funds to support the program in 2024.
April 7, 2025: Program guidelines have been revised and published. Updates include revised application deadlines and the introduction of a new Investigation Phase. Download the updated guidelines at the links below. The Investigation Phase has separate deadlines and application questions from the Exploration and Investigation Phases. Please visit the Future Focus - Investigation webpage for more details on deadlines and application requirements for those program phases.
OVERVIEW
The Future Focus program provides funding to arts organizations who want to explore a key question or challenge facing their organization to enable a significant shift or transformation and to develop ‘future focused’ directions for operations that diverge from previous or current practice.
Organizations may be curious about how to anticipate, or encounter challenges they face, ask questions about their organizational purpose, their role in the arts sector and community, sustainability or continued viability, or how to adapt their business model or structure to operate into the future. The program supports organizations through the process of investigating, identifying, planning, and executing significant and purposeful adaptations in their operations.
PROGRAM PHASES
There are three phases of the Future Focus Funding program and the amount of funding available is based on the phase of work to be undertaken. The Investigation Phase has a separate application and deadlines from the Exploration and Implementation Phases. Please visit the individual webpages (linked below) to access the program guidelines and to learn more about each phase.
INVESTIGATION PHASE – up to $5,000
Initial planning and consultations, information gathering, development of exploration process.
This initial stage of the program supports organizations to have some time, space, and resources to start to investigate how to approach a significant circumstance or challenge facing the organization in a new or different way.
The Investigation Phase is intended to support organizations to access experts who can provide initial insights, to increase the staff capacity required to begin to explore change-based work within the organization, and to ultimately articulate the key question or challenge facing the organization that would benefit from further exploration (potentially via the other phases of the Future Focus Program).
Click here to learn more about the Investigation Phase.
EXPLORATION PHASE – up to $15,000
Identification of needs, initial development, project planning.
The Exploration Phase of the program supports organizations who are able to articulate a challenge, opportunity, or key question they are facing, and who are interested in better understanding how they may enable a significant shift / transformation in response to this question, or to understand how it may be possible to overcome this challenge.
This phase is intended to provide support for applicants to engage external support to identify needs, develop a project plan / strategy in response to their challenge / question / opportunity and to ultimately enable a pathway to implement this work.
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE - up to $25,000
Implementing significant and impactful change within the organization.
Building upon the work undertaken as part of an Exploration Phase or previous projects, the Implementation Phase is intended to enable applicants to execute recommendations/plans/learnings to make possible significant and impactful change.
Applicants can demonstrate they have enough information to inform them how to respond to their challenge / question / opportunity, and the Implementation Phase would support arts organizations to take action to purposefully adapt and enable their future work.
Click here to learn more about the Exploration and Implementation Phases.
Organizations may apply for more than one Investigation or Exploration Phase prior to seeking Implementation Phase support.
WHO CAN APPLY?
Your organization or group may be eligible to apply if:
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Your organization is arts-focused or is an organization engaging the arts to fulfill its mission.
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Your organization is operating in the Treaty 7 region (including Red Deer).
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Your organization is a registered charity, registered non-profit, ad-hoc group, grassroots organization, or operating with a comparable alternative organizational structure.
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Your organization does NOT have an active Future Focus project or outstanding Future Focus reporting.
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Your organization does NOT have an active funding agreement from the Rozsa Foundation, CADA, or Calgary Foundation for the same project.
Organizations can have only one active Future Focus project at any given time.
Organizations can submit only one application per deadline.