Project Funding for organizations

• Financial statements for the most recently completed fiscal year (signed by two Board members)
• Letters patent (all pages)
• Bylaws and regulations
• Organizational policies/standards or other regulations (if applicable)
• Up to four hyperlinks to excerpts or full texts of relevant works/activities

• The applicant must be an incorporated non-profit organization or an artist cooperative that pays no dividends.
• The organization must be headquartered on the Island of Montréal.
• The organization must have a board of directors whose members are mainly Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.
• The organization’s main mandate must be to carry out professional artistic research, creation, production and/or dissemination activities, or to bring together and represent professional artists and/or cultural workers in a discipline or multidisciplinary sector.
• The project must be a one-off artistic project aligned with the organization’s mandate and must not be completed before May 19, 2026.

Who is eligible?

• Incorporated non-profit arts organizations
• Artist cooperatives (that pay no dividends)
• Arts organizations in street performance
• Arts organizations in circus arts
• Arts organizations in digital arts

Who is not eligible

• For-profit businesses and any cooperative that pays dividends (only incorporated non-profits or non-dividend artist cooperatives are eligible).
• Organizations incorporated as general or limited partnerships.
• Public or para-public organizations representing governments or municipal corporations.
• Organizations dedicated to teaching, education, or professional training.
• Organizations operating exclusively in variety arts and/or comedy.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Activities completed before the Conseil des arts de Montréal issues its decision (about 12–14 weeks after the deadline)
• Promotional or commercial sound recording projects (albums, CDs, demos, etc.)
• Film, video or web production projects (from research/scriptwriting to post-production), including promotional/commercial video clips
• Capital projects, including acquiring specialized equipment
• Projects primarily for training (internships, masterclasses) or for promotional showcases/prospecting nationally or internationally

Eligible geographic areas

• Island of Montréal (headquartered on the Island of Montréal)

• Artistic merit (60%): artistic merit and quality of the project; consistency with the organization’s mandate and artistic orientations; artistic quality and originality of past projects.
• Community development and audience outreach (20%): effectiveness of audience outreach strategies; project contribution/impact on the development of the community and practices (artists, audiences, partners); relevance of dissemination actions or circulation potential (local, national and/or international).
• Management and administration (20%): project feasibility and realistic budget forecasts; ability to manage activities and complete projects; stable and balanced financial situation; organizational health and good governance; diversity of partnerships and revenue sources.
• Strategic impact priorities bonus (up to 6 points): additional points added to the mandate-based score, based on equity and representation (max 3 points), local outreach (max 2 points), and eco-responsibility (max 1 point).

• The Conseil reviews applications with peer evaluation committees in each discipline and assesses them on merit, awarding grants based on available budgets.
• Applications are evaluated using criteria tied to the organization’s mandate and the Conseil’s strategic impact priorities.
• A decision is issued about 14 to 16 weeks after the application date.
• The applicant is notified by email and must consult the results on the ORORA platform (no decisions are communicated by phone).
• If approved, the grant is paid in a single 100% payment after the decision letter is sent, and the organization must complete an end-of-project report on ORORA within 4 months after the project ends.

• Three calls for applications are scheduled each year (November 12, 2025; March 2026; August 2026).
• Projects must not be completed before May 19, 2026, and the Conseil does not fund activities carried out before the end of the evaluation process.
• Decisions are issued about fourteen to sixteen weeks after the application deadline and are communicated via the ORORA platform (no decisions by phone); decisions are final and not subject to appeal.
• An end-of-project report must be submitted on ORORA within four months of the end of the project, and late reports can prevent submission of new applications.