Congratulations to our 2018 Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant Winners!  We received 5 submissions and had about 20 participants join us to judge the cycle at our meet up and workshop.  It was a great conversation and the workshop took about 60 minutes to complete.  Congratulations to the winners:

Elk Creek Community Park ART Walk (Northern Sacramento Valley):
The Elk Creek Community Park ART walk is an ART project to beautify the local community park of the small community of Elk Creek. The proposal is to paint large squares of double sided MDO (sign board) in designs of quilt squares that communicate the history of the area and northern California. The painted squares will then be attached to the chain link fence that surrounds the park. With the placement of 16 squares around the park, visitors will be drawn to walk the perimeter of the park, take in the ART as well as the local scenery. A walking path will be scraped into the ground for the community and visitors to walk, and to admire the 16 squares of art around the park. What better way to unite the community with a community project. Once funds have been allocated an all call to the local quilters, artists, and community members who would like to participate will be made. I look forward to donating my time to work with the community to create these quilt squares. The Elk Creek Community Park is not publicly funded and volunteers are what keep the park maintained and open for the public to use. The goal would be to have the ART project completed by the second weekend in October, as the Elk Creek Community Park hosts the Crafty Elk, the third weekend in October, a fundraiser for the park, where art, crafts, and a swap-meet are held.
The ART Walk is an art project to create a walking path along the parks fence line, lined with paintings of quilt squares. The 4’x4′ painted quilt squares will be designed to illustrate the rich history of Northern California.

Morris Burner Community Teaching Garden (Reno, Nevada):
We would like to upgrade the current garden to be more productive, easier to manage, and provide year round growing. The garden will also be used as a means of connecting the local food community with the burner community.
The project will be a labor of love for the residents and guests of the hostel. To speed things along we would host a series of workdays to get more participants. We would love the opportunity to have an agricultural action day at the Morris for folks on the way to Burning Man, like we know happened in California on the way to Burning Man last year. Let’s talk about how we can make this happen! We may also hold workshops that both teach and receive labor in trade. The mission is to help the guest eat healthier and to shine a spotlight on the current state of our food system in America. The project completion dates correspond to the growing season. If we are able to obtain a greenhouse or construct a hoop house, then we would want that set up early fall so that we can get a good fall/winter crop. If the greenhouse is not the first project, then it can be extended to be ready for the coming spring growing season.

Photos by: Douglas Hooper

What is the Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant?
A program aimed at funding innovative community & civic projects within the greater California & Nevada (specifically but not limited to the Reno, Tahoe, Sacramento, Carson City and North Bay [Santa Rosa]) regions.  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 win up to a $1,500 grant.

Timeline:
–  Grant Opportunity is announced on May 3rd. 
–  Deadline for grant submissions is June 1st (Midnight)
–  Workshop Participants will review the grant proposals at the 2018 Multi-Regional Summit in Cisco Grove, CA (June 7-10)
–  Winner(s) will be announced Sunday afternoon at the Multi-Regional Summit  (June 10th)

Apply here:  https://goo.gl/forms/EUWk7UxAwMQKR4492

What’s special about the Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant?
Submissions to the 2018 ANZLS Civic Ignition grant cycle will be workshopped and judged by a group of participants and community leaders that attend this year’s Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant Workshop. 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.  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.

Who won the Civic Ignition Grant in the past?                                                                                      
2017 ELS Civic Ignition Grant winners

2016 ELS Civic Ignition Grant winners

> How to create a Project.