Congratulations to our 2020 NERT Civic Ignition Grantees! We received 9 submissions with a total financial ask of $13,500. These grants were discussed in a consensus based workshop with 30 participant leaders from the Northeast region. With $1500 in funds to allocate, we are very grateful for anonymous contributions of $500 and $750 to increase our funding ability.  A big congratulations to this years grant recipients:

Black Burner Project (Washington DC)
The Black Burner Project is a multicultural movement driving inclusivity at Burning Man, travel, self exploration and radical expression through imagery and personal stories. Project creator Erin is now taking this initiative offline (it is hosted on Instagram). She is working to create a platform with a wealth of easy information for people to access, traveling art shows for the talented artists that go to Burning Man, experiences and community and a means to support artist accepted to produce work for the burning man event. This grant supports a week of in person events at a gallery in Baltimore.

Nothing About Us Without Us (Pittsburgh)
Merging political activism with personal storytelling, this project represents the lived experiences of sex workers through writing and performance. In a series of talking circles and workshops, this project will engage sex workers in discussions about their professional experiences, motivations, and grievances. They will develop a written and performative work merging political activism with personal storytelling to represent the lived experiences of sex workers. Project Leader Lena Chen will facilitate as an active community member and participant in this dialogue.

GardenState Guerillas (New Jersey)
Cumberland County is in need of developing more culture as well as recognizing their community in need (special needs, foster kids, low privilege, local artists) Cumberland County is one of the highest for illiteracy, teen pregnancy, foster children, and autism. This project creates an equipped maker-space for AirCrete sculptures and buildings shared with the community including special needs.

OUR Crown Heights (NYC)
OUR Crown Heights is an interactive community engagement project, that emerged as a reflection on recent spikes in anti Semitic attacks and hate crimes in New York. It creates a platform for play, and self expression through poster illustrations, while highlighting each unique story-teller, and creating a collective visual identity of our neighborhood, Crown Heights.

NERT Group Photo- captured by Jim Taflinger

A big thank you to all of our applicants and workshop participants.

What is the Northeast Round Table Civic Ignition Grant?
A program aimed at funding innovative community & civic projects. This Northeast Round Table edition of the Civic Ignition Grant is aimed at funding civic activation from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and as far north as Montreal.

We are interested in programs that create collaborations, produce direct actions, utilize several of the 10 Burning Man Principles, are reproducible, and creatively tackle local social problems. This grant gives anyone the opportunity to submit a collaborative, creative, and principle-focused project with a chance to receive up to a $1,500 grant (USD).

Timeline:
–  Grant Opportunity is announced on Dec 5th. 
–  Deadline for grant submissions is January 14th (Midnight)
–  Workshop Participants will review the grant proposals at the 2020 workshop in NYC (January 19)
–  Grant recipients will be announced the following weekend

Apply here:  https://forms.gle/c5U7b54Mr2U9RjZT9

What’s special about the NERT Civic Ignition Grant?
Submissions to the 2020 NERT Civic Ignition grant cycle will be workshopped and judged by a group of participants and community leaders that attend this year’s Northeast Round Table in NYC. This group will be using the submissions as material to review and workshop while learning how to administer their own civic grant programs.

Who is eligible to apply?
Individuals, Groups, and Not-for-Profits are all eligible to apply.  We encourage projects be endorsed by a local Burning Man Regional Contact.  The RC does not need to be a project lead, or heavily involved with the process, rather they are simply endorsing the project and the leaders who are submitting.  We recognize not all regions have local RC’s and we encourage you to apply even if no RC is able to endorse.

How much can you ask for?
The maximum grant that maybe awarded is $1,500 (USD).  We encourage your project’s viability to not be solely dependent on this grant.  Think about other sources of funding that might be available.  Grants awarded could be less than the full amount.

What types of proposals will likely not get funded by this program?
Programs that are solely based on artistic endeavors and do not have a community or civic aspect will most likely not be considered for funding.  Funds should not be used for direct fundraising, chapter promotion efforts, or for paying people for their work.

What follow-up will be expected by grant recipients?
All recipients will be expected to submit written reports on what they have accomplished and learned in the course of their projects, along with accompanying visual media.  This media will be hosted on the Burners Without Borders website.

Suggestions for a quality grant proposal:
– Look at the BWB Grant Impact & Criteria Document to see how we think about grants.
– Reach out to your local Burning Man Regional Contact and ask if they might be an advisor.
– Watch our video “How to write Quality Grants: Burning Man 101”
(Starts rough but gets going at (9:00 in)
– Listen to our podcast  “Targeted Grant Writing: with Meta-Regional Jacqui Latendresse”

Who won the Civic Ignition Grant in the past?

See all our past Civic Ignition rounds and read updates from grant recipients here.

> How to create a Project.

> How to create a Project.