Emergency Assistance and Grants for Dramatists
Arts Council England
Website: artscouncil.org.uk/ProjectGrants
Notes: National Lottery Project Grants supports thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organizations. They invest money from Government and the National Lottery to support arts and culture across England.
Arts Council England Culture Recovery Fund
Website: artscouncil.org.uk/funding/culture-recovery-fund-grants#section-1
Notes: National Lottery Project Grants supports thousands of individual artists and community and cultural organizations.
Artist Rescue Trust
Website: artistrescue.org
Notes: Artist Rescue Trust (A.R.T.) exists to provide support to musicians and artists whose ability to perform, tour, and earn a living has been negatively affected by COVID-19. A.R.T. will provide $1,500 over three months to artists in need and amplify the stories, performances, and creations they had hoped to share with the world before the pandemic limited their ability to do so.
Brooklyn Arts Fund
Website: brooklynartscouncil.submittable.com/submit
Notes: Each year, Brooklyn Arts Council regrants hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to 501(c)(3) organizations and individual artists all across the borough of Brooklyn, NY. A Brooklyn Arts Fund grant is so much more than monetary support. It is an opportunity to connect with mentors, training, and future creative collaborators.
Dramatists Guild Foundation
Website: dgf.org
Notes: DGF’s programs help the American theatre thrive by providing playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters with the resources they need to make dramatic change. This lifelong commitment to an artist’s growth is unique to our organization: we support both new creators and those who have already emerged.
DGF Emergency Grants
Website: dgf.org/grants/grants-for-writers
Notes: The Emergency Grants program serves playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists in the theatrical genre. Applications are processed based on severity of need. Please be advised: DGF cannot process grant requests for funds toward artistic projects through this application process. Funds are most often used for necessary life expenses like groceries, utility bills, and medical expenses.
DGF Housing Assistance Grants
Website: dgf.org/grants/grants-for-writers
Notes: For nearly 60 years, DGF’s Emergency Grant program has provided support to writers facing hardships and listened to their needs.
During the theatrical shutdown, 80% of those hardships were related to housing. As a result, the Dramatists Guild Foundation created a specific application for those facing housing challenges that are widespread right now. DGF is committed to preventing eviction and displacement among theatre writers and to help dramatists rebuild their lives during the pandemic recovery period.
If you or a fellow writer could use financial support for outstanding mortgage and rent payments, sudden increases to rent prices, overdue utility bills, outstanding costs related to moving, or credit card debt related to any of the aforementioned reasons, the Housing Assistance Grant is available for you.
DGF Bridge Grants
Website: dgf.org/grants/grants-for-writers
Notes: The Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Bridge Grants are need-based awards of up to $500, now available to support dramatists with non-emergency and essential daily life expenses including:
• Medications
• Utilities
• Accessibility support
• Transportation
• Dependent care
• Holistic healthcare
• Mental healthcare
• Groceries
• Reproductive care
Applicants must meet DGF’s revised financial and professional eligibility requirements. Eligible dramatists who have previously received a COVID-19 Emergency Grant or Housing Assistance Grant are eligible to apply. This award is designed to be a one-time award to support dramatists.
The Entertainment Community Fund
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org
Notes: The Entertainment Community Fund is a national human services organization here to meet the needs of our entertainment community with a unique understanding of the challenges involved in a life in the arts. Services include emergency financial assistance, affordable housing, healthcare and insurance counseling, senior care, secondary career development, and more.
Entertainment Industry Assistance Program
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/services-and-programs/entertainment-assistance-program
Notes: Are you an entertainment professional facing a work or life challenge and don’t know where to turn? We can offer counseling, support, and other helpful resources. With a focus on support and education, we can help with:
• Creating a plan of action to address your concerns
• Providing individual and group support and mental health referrals
• Linkage to a variety of community resources and benefits
• Support for issues around sexual harassment
• Information on affordable housing and advice in dealing with landlord/tenant issues
• Financial wellness education to learn strategies and skills
• Emergency financial assistance
The Entertainment Community Fund is committed to maintaining your privacy and confidentiality.
Artists Health Insurance Resource Center
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/services-and-programs/artists-health-insurance-resource-center
Notes: Are you an entertainment professional in search of or confused by health insurance? We’re dedicated to keeping our community healthy and capable of pursuing their chosen careers through personalized health insurance counseling provided nationally; guidance and enrollment support; referrals to health care resources; and primary and specialty care at the Friedman Health Center in New York City.
Entertainment Health Insurance Solutions
Website: ehisca.com
Notes: This program, which is geared towards residents of the state of California, enables dramatists (and other arts workers) to make informed and educated decisions regarding health insurance. Through a combination of consultations, seminars, and community outreach, EHIS can help you enroll in the right health insurance plan to fit your needs. Learn more via the above link.
The Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/services-and-programs/friedman-health-center-performing-arts
Notes: Looking for primary care? The Friedman Center, which is affiliated with Mount Sinai Doctors, provides primary and specialty healthcare. The center, located just off Times Square, accepts most insurance plans, including Medicare and Worker’s Compensation. Free health insurance enrollment assistance is available at the center, too. Open Mon-Thu from 8:30am-7pm and Fri from 8:30am-4:30pm. Learn more and plan your visit via the link above.
HIV Initiative
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/HIVAIDSInitiative
Notes: While new medical treatments have given hope for an end to the epidemic, HIV continues to create significant emotional, medical, and financial needs among those infected and affected.
Our social workers are here to help through the continuum of living with HIV. HIV Initiative social workers can provide counseling services and often work in a supportive role over many years of a person’s life. We provide a safe, long-term network where people can receive both individual and group support.
We can connect with you by phone, virtually, or in person to help you locate resources in your community and coordinate those services in the context of a longer-term supportive plan.
Mental Health
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/services-and-programs/mental-health
Notes: Are you or your loved one an entertainment professional dealing with work or personal stress, anxiety, depression, or life transitions? Get in touch with our caring clinicians for help and support. We can provide:
• Assessment to help determine your mental health needs
• Short-term supportive counseling
• Referrals for ongoing care in the community and/or medication management
• Support Groups that offer a space to connect with others in our community on a variety of topics
• Education and information on understanding your mental health insurance coverage and community resources
Referrals are made to a wide network of providers familiar with industry issues and psychotherapists who accept commonly used health plan networks. Many offer sliding-scale fee schedules, convenient locations, and specialty treatments. Financial assistance may be available to help with the cost of treatment.
Women’s Health Initiative
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/services-and-programs/womens-health-initiative
Notes: Founded by Phyllis Newman, this health initiative ensures that women have a safe place to go when dealing with the ramifications of a serious medical diagnosis. The women’s health initiative promises confidential and compassionate help, including support groups, educational seminars, and medical care or referrals.
IndieSpace
Website: indiespace.org/programs-page
Notes: IndieSpace celebrates and centers independent theatre-making in New York City. We provide radically transparent, responsive, and equity-focused funding, real estate programs, professional development, and advocacy to individual artists, theatre companies, and indie venues.
Mary Mason Memorial Lemonade Fund
Website: theatrebayarea.org/page/LemonadeFund
Notes: A confidential resource for San Francisco Bay-area theatre-makers who have terminal or life-threatening illnesses and are in need of supplemental financial assistance to improve the quality of their lives as they deal with medical conditions. Since 2000, Theatre Bay Area has distributed over $100,000 to theatre workers in need through the Lemonade Fund. Much of it is made possible by generous donations by fellow artists. See website for information and application.
National Directory of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts Organizations
Website: vlany.org/national-directory-of-volunteer-lawyers-for-the-arts
Notes: Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts provides legal services to low-income artists and all non-profit arts organization in every artistic discipline. As a courtesy to the arts community in areas outside of the New York region, VLA compiled a list of volunteer lawyer organizations across the United States. VLA is not associated with any of the organizations listed.
New York City Human Resources Administration
Website: nyc.gov/site/hra/help/special-grant-document-guide.page
Notes: The New York City Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services (HRA/DSS) is dedicated to fighting poverty and income inequality by providing New Yorkers in need with essential benefits such as Food Assistance and Emergency Rental Assistance. As the largest local social services agency in the country, HRA helps over three million New Yorkers through the administration of more than twelve major public assistance programs, with more than 14,000 employees and an operating budget of $9.7 billion.
Springboard for the Arts
Website: springboardforthearts.org
Notes: Springboard for the Arts’ mission is to support artists with the tools to make a living and a life, and to build just and equitable communities full of meaning, joy, and connection. Founded as an independent nonprofit in 1991, Springboard for the Arts has an innovative 30-year history of supporting artists making a living and a life and artist-led community development work.
Springboard for the Arts is committed to providing access to programs and resources for all artists. Our definition of artist is broad and includes visual artists, performers, writers, music creators, culture bearers, makers, artisans, storytellers, social conveners, idea purveyors, imaginaries, visionaries, students, teachers, organizers, and nurturers. We are committed to unbiased treatment of all individuals without regard to race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, or any other basis.
Theatre Community Benevolent Fund
Website: tcbf.org
Notes: TCBF provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual theatre practitioners and nonprofit theatre organizations of Greater Boston and the surrounding areas, facing occurrences of a catastrophic nature including but not limited to extreme illness, devastating acts of nature, housing emergencies, vandalism, and theft, and who have limited or no resources with which to handle such events. TCBF recognizes the essential value of artists and arts organizations to society and treats all applicants with dignity, discretion, and compassion.
Theatre Washington’s Taking Care Fund
Website: theatrewashington.org/taking-care-apply
Notes: Theatre professionals—artists and company members—experience unforeseen personal emergencies like everyone else. If you are a Washington, DC-area theatre professional—on stage or off—currently residing and working (or have in the past two years) in the Washington, DC area, and are dealing with an unforeseen medical or personal emergency, you may apply to the Taking Care Fund.
TURN2US
Website: turn2us.org.uk
Notes: Turn2us is a national charity set up in 1897 to fight poverty in the UK. We help people in financial need gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants, and other financial help—online, by phone, and face-to-face through our partner organizations.
Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Website: vlany.org/pro-bono-legal-services/
Notes: VLA provides legal services to low-income artists and all non-profit arts organization in every artistic discipline. We consult with thousands of artists and representatives of nonprofit arts organizations each year. Typically, we offer consultations each business day.
We Exist
Website: weexist.co.uk/healthcare
Notes: We Exist is a trans* led organisation that wants to provide more spaces for trans* people to platform their work, their ideas and discuss issues affecting the community.
The ultimate aim of all the work we do will be to provide directly available funds for trans* people who need it to pay for healthcare needs in the face of ongoing failings from the current government and health service.
Woodcock Fund
Website: writerstrust.com/programs/woodcock-fund-grant
Notes: The Woodcock Fund provides emergency funding to professional Canadian writers in mid-project who are facing an unforeseen financial need that threatens the completion of their book, and who lack the resources to meet that situation. Each grant is given as one-time assistance for a specific emergency. (The program does not consider requests for chronic situations or project funding, nor can it consider situations resulting from general indebtedness or lack of employment.)
Emergency Assistance and Grants for Songwriters
Bluegrass Trust Fund
Website: ibma.org/bluegrass-trust-fund/apply
Notes: If you are or have been a professional in the business of bluegrass and are in a time of emergency need, you may apply here for assistance from the Bluegrass Trust Fund.
Professionals include, but are not limited to, artists, composers, broadcasters, media representatives, event producers, agents, educators, managers, and employees of record companies. Families of such individuals may also qualify for assistance.
HART Fund
Website: blues.org/hart-fund
Notes: The Blues Foundation established the HART Fund (Handy Artists Relief Trust) for Blues musicians and their families in financial need due to a broad range of health concerns. The Fund provides for acute, chronic, and preventive medical and dental care as well as funeral and burial expenses. Throughout the year at various events, the HART Fund provides free health screenings for musicians, with services including but not limited to checking blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, prostate cancer, Hep C, anemia, thyroid, kidney, and liver testing via blood work.
Jazz Foundation of America
Website: jazzfoundation.org
Notes: Musicians who have made a living playing blues, jazz and roots music know they can call our office at any time or walk through our doors for help in solving an emergency. We prevent homelessness with housing assistance, keep artists healthy with pro bono medical care, and provide financial support that keeps the lights on and food on the table.
Musicians Foundation
Website: musiciansfoundation.org/apply/
Notes: In today’s volatile professional climate, many musicians experience greater financial risk than ever before. Musicians Foundation provides aid that enables performers, educators, composers, and arrangers to continue pursuing their artistic process and vision. As the oldest non-profit of its kind in the United States, Musicians Foundation is dedicated to assisting musicians and their families in times of emergency, crisis, or transition. Our goal is to relieve the financial burdens of musicians who qualify according to the Foundation’s criteria.
Emergency Assistance and Grants for Dramatists Who Create In Other Mediums
The American Guild of Musical Artists Relief Fund
Website: agmarelief.org
Notes: The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) is the labor union of singers, dancers, and staging staff in opera, ballet, and concert dance, and concert choral performance in the United States. The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) Relief Fund provides support and temporary financial assistance to members who are in need. AGMA contracts with the Entertainment Community Fund (previously The Actors Fund) to administer this program nationally as well as to provide comprehensive social services.
American Society of Journalists & Authors Writers Emergency Assistance Fund
Website: asja.org/for-writers/weaf
Notes: The Writers Emergency Assistance Fund helps established freelance writers who, because of illness, disability, a natural disaster, or an extraordinary professional crisis, are unable to work. A writer need not be a member of ASJA to qualify for a grant.
Authors League Fund
Website: authorsleaguefund.org
Notes: Since 1917, the Authors League Fund has been helping professional writers and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. Most of those we help suffer severe health problems but have inadequate insurance; some face eviction; many are older writers whose income has ceased through no fault of their own. The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers, even their lives, with dignity by providing open-ended, interest-free, no-strings-attached loans to pay for pressing expenses.
Carnegie Fund for Authors
Website: carnegiefundforauthors.org
Notes: The mission of Carnegie Fund for Authors is to award grants to published authors who are in need of emergency financial assistance as a result of illness or injury to self, spouse, or dependent child, or who has had some other misfortune that has placed the applicant in pressing and substantial pecuniary need. We accept applications from any American author who has written at least one book of reasonable length that has been published commercially and received reader acceptance.
CERF+
Website: cerfplus.org
Notes: CERF+ is a national nonprofit arts organization serving artists who work in craft disciplines by providing a safety net to support strong and sustainable careers. CERF+’s core services are education programs, advocacy, network building, and emergency relief. Our emergency financial relief program, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, provides grants up to $6,000 and interest-free loans up to $9,000 to artists working in craft disciplines who are facing a career-threatening emergency or disaster.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Website: foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grants/emergency-grants
Notes: Created in 1993 to further FCA’s mission to encourage, sponsor, and promote work of a contemporary, experimental nature, Emergency Grants provide urgent funding for visual and performing artists who have sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of funding, or incur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates.
The Haven Foundation
Website: thehavenfdn.org
Notes: The mission of The Haven Foundation is to offer interim financial assistance to freelance professionals in the arts who face crises. The Foundation’s reach is the United States, and its awards are granted with a view to helping individuals overcome temporary adversity and return to full-time work.
PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund
Website: pen.org/writers-emergency-fund
Notes: PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
Depending on the situation, the Fund gives grants up to $2,000. The maximum amount is given only under especially dire circumstances and when monies are available. It is the Fund’s preference not to give repeated grants within a three-year period. See website for details and application.
Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants
Website: rauschenbergfoundation.org/programs/grants/rauschenberg-emergency-grants
Notes: Open to visual and media artists and choreographers ONLY. The program will provide one-time grants of up to $5,000 for unexpected medical emergencies. The grants are available to visual and media artists and choreographers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents in the United States, District of Columbia, or U.S. Territories. If you aren’t sure if your artistic discipline fits within these guidelines, please contact the grants administrator.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) Emergency Medical Fund
Website: sfwa.org/about/benevolent-funds/emergency-medical-fund
Notes: SFWA is an organization for published authors and industry professionals in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres.
The Emergency Medical Fund (EMF) is established to help genre writers pay medical expenses not otherwise covered by insurance. The fund is meant to cover only short-term (i.e. Emergency situations that interfere with the ability to write.) Requests must specify the recipient, a description of the circumstances, and the amount of support needed. Additional information may be requested by the EMF Committee.
Dramatists Guild Member Benefits
That Save You Money
Actors Federal Credit Union
Members of the Dramatists Guild are eligible to bank, invest, and secure loans through AFCU’s services.
Advertising
All DG members receive 50% off any display ad in The Dramatist to promote their self-produced shows or self-published books provided the book is a script, anthology of scripts, or about the business and/or craft of theatre writing.
American Theatre & ARTSEARCH®
Dramatists Guild members receive a 30% off discount on individual membership to Theatre Communications Group.
The Black List
Dramatists Guild members receive 20% off all hosting and evaluation services. The Black List’s script discovery platform provides abbreviated coverage services by professional readers and access to host screenplays and play scripts for industry members.
Broadway HD
Dramatists Guild members receive a 50% off discount. BroadwayHD® brings the magic of theatre to you anywhere you can access internet streaming content, including your computer, your phone, your tablet, and your TV.
Constant Contact
Dramatists Guild members are now entitled to 20-40% discounts on subscriptions to ConstantContact Email and Digital Marketing Services, plus an additional 30% off for the first three months of any new account activation.
Continuing Education Classes at The Dramatists Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing
The Dramatists Guild Institute offers hands-on, rigorous training for writers at all skill levels, providing students with an engaging and empowering educational experience. DG Members receive an early bird discount of $50 off for all classes.
Final Draft
Dramatists Guild members save over 30% on Final Draft, the preferred software for most industry professionals. It helps you format your scripts, map out your plots, collaborate in real time with fellow Final Draft users, and more.
Gold Club by TheatreMania
As a member of Theatremania’s Gold Club, you can purchase complimentary or discounted tickets to shows on Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off Broadway. Dramatists Guild members enjoy a 40% discount: $59.00 (vs. reg. price $99). Members are only charged a processing fee of $4.50 per ticket.
MasterWriter
Dramatists Guild members save 20% on the leading songwriting, lyric writing, and creative writing software. Whether you’re writing a song, poem, script, novel, or blog, MasterWriter will unlock all that the English language has to offer and will help you to express yourself in a unique and meaningful way.
New Play Exchange (NPX)
Dramatists Guild Members receive a 30% discount on a Writer subscription to the New Play Exchange (NPX).
Playwrights Welcome: Free Theatre Tickets for Writers
Playwrights Welcome offers available theatre tickets to playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists on the day of a performance, free of charge, all across the country.
Developed for members of the Dramatists Guild of America, Playwrights Welcome is a national ticketing initiative created by Samuel French, a Concord Theatricals company, along with input from other publishing and licensing houses. This program removes the barrier of cost from access to theatre, in order to better support the continued artistic development of our nation’s playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists—and by extension, the future of the American theatre.
PowerYoga
Dramatists Guild members are now entitled to 50% off annual subscriptions to PowerYoga as a means to incorporate care and wellness into your writing routine.
Scrivener
Dramatists Guild members save 20%. Scrivener combines all the writing tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.
Theatre Development Fund (TDF)
Dramatists Guild members qualify for discounted TDF Membership. DG Members are eligible to join the more than 110,000 theatre lovers who get the best ticket deals from TDF!
Theater 555
Dramatists Guild members are eligible to receive a discounted rate on theatre rentals at Theater 555 in New York City.
Video Conference Rentals
If you are hoping to have a collaborator meeting, a reading of your work, or a rehearsal on Zoom, but don’t wish to pay for your own account, we are renting out our channels (subject to availability) between the hours of 5pm and 10pm Eastern Standard Time on weekdays and 10am and 10pm Eastern Standard Time on weekends, for the small cost of $5/meeting.
