All applications received by the published deadline are reviewed through a two-step process. First, applications are reviewed by HAA staff for objective eligibility criteria. For example, the applicant must be based in the City of Houston and must offer publicly accessible programs during the duration of the grant period. Second, all eligible applications are scored by panelists, who are experts in the arts and vetted through the HAA Grants Committee of the Board of Directors. Each year, HAA assembles approximately 130 panelists, depending on the number of applications that must be read and scored. Panelists, like grantees, cannot be employees or board members of HAA, nor their family. Panelists must remove themselves from scoring if they have a financial or other meaningful conflict of interest with any particular application. The competition process is reviewed in full by the Grants Committee of the Board of HAA, voted on and then advanced to the Board of HAA for its review and vote. Once Board review is complete, the results are sent to the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs as a packet of recommended grantees for the City’s approval.
This year, Mayor Turner has approved a change to the formula for grant amounts. The BIPOC boost formula is a permanent part of the larger grants competitions’ formulas for funding, including the grants programs Support for Organizations (SO), Support for Artists and Creative Individuals (SACI), and Festival Grants (FG). This portion of the granting provides an additional boost to organizations and individuals selected through the community-based panel adjudication process used in all grant programs. The formula applies to those applicants who meet BIPOC qualification criteria for their grant program and who have been scored for funding by peer panels. More specifically, successful applicants already awarded through the panel process will benefit from a 45% boost, capped at $20,000, applied to their budget-specific estimated eligible award. The organizational qualification requires organizational applicants meet at least three of five criteria. BIPOC qualification requires individual applicants to self-identify as BIPOC. In its inaugural year, the Mayor has allocated an additional $800,000 to the grants programs to support the new formulas. |