The Kiosk: Financials for Freelancers

Relief Grants

NEW: Consumer Finance Protection Bureau - Mortgage and Housing Assistance
For artists who have been experiencing housing instability, or having trouble making rent or mortgage payments as a result of the pandemic, federal, state, and local governments are offering help with housing expenses and avoiding eviction. 

Actors Fund Entertainment Assistance Program
The Actors Fund provides services and financial support to entertainment professionals facing personal or work-related problems. It is also a conduit for emergency financial assistance in times of pressing need or in response to catastrophic events. 

ARTNY Relief Fund for Small Theaters
Seeded by a generous gift from The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the fund is intended to create an accessible relief fund for small theatres with annual budgets under $250k who are based in or primarily produce in New York City. Grant applications will be reviewed and scored on a rolling basis by a diverse panel of theatre makers and administrators from a range of roles in the field, and nominations for grant panelists will be solicited from the public.

Authors League Fund 
Since 1917, the Authors League Fund has helped professional authors, journalists, poets, and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Repayment of this emergency support is not required.

The Barbara and Carl Zydney Grant for Artists with Disabilities
This program will provide unrestricted cash grants of $1,000 to artists with a disability ages 21 and older who have experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis. The program is open to visual, media, music, performing, and literary artists who live in New York City’s five boroughs. The application will open on Tuesday, May 4 at 10:00 AM EDT and close on Tuesday, June 15 at 5:00 PM EDT.

CERF+
Includes grants and/or brokered assistance, such as booth fee waivers and discounts or donations on supplies and equipment, after a career-threatening emergency such as illness. Artists interested in CERF+ emergency assistance must first complete an inquiry form. If it is determined that you may be eligible for assistance, you will be invited to apply for assistance. Before filling out an emergency assistance inquiry form, carefully read through the eligibility criteria and supporting documentation requirements.

City Artist Corps Grants
Supports NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. With New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) as lead partner working with more than a dozen re-grant and art services organizations, the program will distribute one-time $5,000 grants to more than 3,000 artists to help them sustain their practice and engage the public across New York City's five boroughs this summer and fall, beginning in July. Artists working in any discipline are eligible to apply. Applications for the first cycle of funding open Tuesday, June 8; applications for additional cycles will come online later this summer.  


Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Created a temporary fund to meet the needs of artists who have been impacted by the economic fallout from postponed or canceled performances and exhibitions. For as long as our Board of Directors determines it is necessary and prudent to do so, the Foundation will disburse $1,000 grants to artists who have had performances or exhibitions canceled or postponed because of the COVID-19 virus.

Mayer Foundation
For residents of New York City. Economic relief grants to needy individuals who are distressed or suffering as a result of poverty, low income or lack of financial resources, including as a result of natural or civil disasters, or from temporary impoverishment, loss of employment, death or incapacity of a family wage earner or damage to home and property; to provide health care to those who cannot afford health care or whose health insurance or financial resources are insufficient to cover medical needs. 

Musicians Foundation
The Musicians Foundation provides grants to U.S. musicians in any genre in a time of acute need due to personal, medical, dental, or family crisis, natural disaster, or other emergency situation.

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