We’re a new charity offering three £1,000 grants a month for people of colour based in the UK who want to make a new creative project. It can be anything: poetry, paintings, fashion, zines, music, food, flowers, photographs — whatever you want.

Here are the basics:

• We want to help you to get your idea for a creative project off the ground.
• We’re supporting artists and creatives who identify as people of colour and are based in the UK. You need to be at least eighteen years old. There’s no maximum age.
• Your project doesn’t need to cost exactly £1,000 but we’re not looking to part-fund projects which cost much more than £1,000 to realise. 
• Applications are assessed by an independent panel of judges, and we’ll award three grants a month. We hope to increase this number over time. 

The only two things we ask if you’re successful are:

• We’d love to see your realised project and share it on our platforms. But no deadlines or fixed expectations from us.
• Please credit us if and when you share your project publicly. This will mean more people can find us.

Why did we set up Grand Plan? 

Grand Plan is a fund run by creatives, for creatives. We are supported by a community of artist and creative ambassadors who give their time and money to back the realisation of new cultural projects.

In our different professional and creative lives, we’ve either observed or experienced the sustained and structural barriers which contribute to an under-representation of artists and creative people of colour in British arts & culture. You can read a little more about our backgrounds below.
 
We know what it can feel like to be small in the face of a large institution. We’re committed to building a fund which is simple and accessible. We’ve developed an application + judging process with the artist at its heart. In some ways, we want you to have to spend as little time as possible on this website!
 
Finally, we want to say a little bit about why we settled on £1,000 grants.
 
Many creative people experience a gentle “leg up”, the quiet giving (by an elder or relative) of a small yet significant amount of money to help them get started with their creative pursuits. Such investments can often mean the difference between an endeavour or project happening or not. Whole careers can pivot on such moments. We're keen to give others the opportunity of a “leg up”. We also appreciate that this is about more than just money, and we're committed to building a community to support those awarded grants in finding pathways beyond our initial fund.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@grandplanfund.co.uk