CHICAGO COMMITMENT STRATEGY

Arts & Culture Loan Fund Grant Guidelines

Overview

The Arts & Culture Loan Fund provides small and medium-sized arts and culture organizations with loans to address cash flow shortages and strengthen the financial capacity of its borrowers. The program is sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by IFF in partnership with BDO FMA and Fifth Third Bank.

Purpose

The objectives of the Arts & Culture Loan Fund are to:

  • Provide working capital loans to address the short-term cash flow needs of small and medium-sized arts and culture organizations.
  • Strengthen financial awareness and management by deepening organizations’ understanding of cash management tools and organizational budget cycles.
  • Help organizations build institutional credit history, so that they may continue to build relationships with lending institutions to meet future organizational financing needs.

Eligibility

Applicants to the Arts & Culture Loan Fund must:

  • Be a current general operating support grantee of MacArthur’s Culture, Equity & the Arts program, or have received a grant in the MacArthur Funds at the Prince Charitable Trusts or the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation with a grant term ending in 2023. Loan applications must be made prior to the end of a grant term to be considered for this program.
  • Have an annual expense budget in its last fiscal year between $250,000 and $5 million at the time of its loan application.

How to Apply

To apply for a loan through the Arts & Culture Loan Fund, you must first contact IFF, a lender, developer, and consultant that strengthens nonprofits and the communities they serve by providing leadership, capital, and real estate solutions.

If you are an eligible grantee and are interested in applying for an Operating Line of Credit, please contact Molly Bartels Roth for more information.

Program Design

Typically, the lenders that participate in the program make available a standard line of credit with monthly interest payments and one or two-year terms. Loans range in size from $50,000-$100,000. The interest rate varies and is determined by the originating lender.

The MacArthur Foundation has partnered with Fifth Third Bank and IFF to underwrite and service the working capital loans as part of this Fund. MacArthur has no role in the underwriting, approval or servicing of the loans made through the Fund. The Fund is administered through a partnership among MacArthur and the following organizations:

History

The MacArthur Arts & Culture Loan Fund was established in 2009 as a joint program between MacArthur’s programs on arts and the Impact Investments team. View results of an evaluation of the program from 2009-2016.

Learn how Silk Road Rising and Chicago Artists Coalition developed long term strategies and made investments in their mission with help from loans and training with our partner organizations BDO FMA and IFF in our Chicago Story, Nonprofits and the Art of Financial Stability.

 


Updated June 2023

  

Stay Informed
Sign up for periodic news updates and event invitations.

Connect with us on social media or view all of our social media content in one place.

The privacy of your data is important to us. We've updated our privacy policies in response to General Data Protection Regulation.