Commercial Grants

December 20th, 2018

(If you have questions, please be sure to contact the executive director, Bruce Whittenberg prior to sending the application.)

Head each answer with the question to which you are responding. Do not print and include the entire page of questions.

Please respond to each question about your proposal carefully and succinctly. Don’t tell us everything you know, tell what is important for us to know.

A major goal for GMF’s founder, Ed Craney was to improve commercial broadcasting in the state. There is no deadline for grant applications from commercial stations if you can demonstrate that this is:

• An urgent and critical issue (including the top priorities identified as most important by Montanans in the spring media survey: jobs and the economy; healthcare; and education)
• Production is time-limited

Provide a budget for your proposal (not your entire organization) in a form GMF trustees can understand, with expenses and purposes clearly delineated. Be sure to list other sources of funding, if applicable.

If there are critical supporting documents, please include them.

The Process

When I receive a grant application, I first review it for eligibility and completeness and whether it meets the criteria for a commercial station no-deadline application. If there are questions, I will contact you.

I email the Grants Committee, outlining the application briefly, attach a copy of the application, with a request that the Grants Committee review and make a recommendation which I then send the full board to fund or to decline funding.

With the attached grant application and recommendation to fund, I attach a formal email vote form, with a deadline to respond. Each GMF board member reviews the grant application and votes on it.

If the majority of the board members vote to fund the grant proposal, I will send notification and a required grant agreement, to be signed and returned. I will then send a grant check from GMF.

A report is required when the program is completed, to include a narrative and a complete expense report, along with any other relevant information, including information about numbers of viewers.

You can download the commercial grant application here.