New Music Organization Fund FAQs

The Organization Fund has three funding areas:

• General Operating Support
  • Covers general costs that support the applicant’s programming of/collaboration with US-based composers and artists.
• Creation of New Work
  • Funds specific new music projects and programs.
• Live Music for Dance
  • Supports costs associated with live music performances.
  • For dance organizations only.

This fund is for organizations only; individuals may not apply.  

All applicants, regardless of desired funding area, must: 

• Be based and doing work in the US.  
• Have a minimum of three years of performing, programming, and budget activity at the time of the application. 
• Have an average annual budget between $5,000 and $3 million over the past three years. 
• Have a dedicated organizational bank account. 
• Not be a university.  
• Not be an individual. This fund is for organizations only. Individuals may not apply.   
• Must have completed all previously awarded activities through New Music USA and submitted all required reporting. 
• Be committed to inclusion and belonging through their activities and programming. 

General Operating Support Eligibility  

General Operating Support applicants must:  

• Have a commitment to producing, performing, and/or commissioning the work of living, US/territories-based music creators on a regular basis. 
• Demonstrate commitment to working and performing in their community. 

Creation of New Work/ Live Music for Dance Eligibility  

Creation of New Work/ Live Music for Dance applicant organizations must:  

• Confirm that any newly commissioned work is an entirely new work. Proposals for expansions, arrangements or re-stagings of existing works are not eligible. 

Creators/musicians associated with Creation of New Work/Live Music for Dance applicants must:  

• Be based and doing work in the US and remain so for the duration of the project. 
• Not be enrolled in a degree-giving program. 
• Have completed any and all projects associated with previous awards from New Music USA including the Organization Fund, Creator Fund, Next Jazz Legacy, Reel Change, and Amplifying Voices. 

No. Your organization does not need to be a 501c3 to apply. If your organization is not a 501c3, fiscal sponsorship is also allowed and encouraged but it is not required.

If your organization received funding in a previous cycle of the Organization Fund (including last year, 2024), you may apply again this year, but please be aware that:  

• All projects previously funded by New Music USA must be complete, including all required reporting.  
• Being a past Organization Fund grantee does not guarantee that your organization will receive funding this year. 

Beginning in 2026, organizations that received Organization Fund awards the previous year must wait a year before reapplying to the program. 

• This means that organizations that receive Organization Fund awards this cycle (2025) will be ineligible to apply in 2026 and must wait until the 2027 cycle to apply again. 

Application Webinar – March 5, 2025, 2pm ET / 11am PT

• view below and at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses 

Q&A: March 14, 2025, 1pm ET / 10am ET: 

• view at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses 

Q&A: March 18, 2025, 2pm ET / 11am PT:  

• view at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses 

Yes! All webinar and Q&A sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the Organization Fund program page, here.

The endorsement letter and artistic letter of support are application requirements that help our panelists gauge the applicant’s impact on their community.

You only need to submit one type of letter. The letter you submit depends on the program area you are applying for. General Operating Support applicants must submit an endorsement letter, and Creation of New Work and Live Music for Dance applicants must submit an artistic letter of support.  

The endorsement letter is a statement of endorsement from an artist or other member of your organization’s community. 

The artistic letter of support is a statement of endorsement/commitment from the creator and/or artist with whom your organization is collaborating on your Organization Fund project. 

Any member of your organization’s greater community: audience member, board member, stakeholder, partner, performer.  

Please note that applicants cannot write their own endorsement letters, nor can members of the applicant organization’s staff. 

Please highlight the following in the letter of endorsement: 

• Why the organization applying is important to its community.

• Why the organization’s programs and activities are unique.

• Why New Music USA’s support would be important to the organization now.

The artistic letter of support should be written by the creator and/or musician with whom the organization is collaborating on the project they are proposing, for example: the composer the organization would like to commission.

For Live Music for Dance, the artistic letter of support should ideally also include a statement of endorsement/commitment from the choreographer on their project.

The letter should include the writer/writers role in the proposed project and demonstrate their commitment to collaborating with the organization to complete the project.  

The letters can be submitted as PDF files, or as audio or video files. There are no additional formatting requirements. 

You may upload more than one letter, but it is not required.

For General Operating Support the letters should be written by someone outside of your organization. The applicant cannot be the person who writes the letter. Staff members of the applicant organization also cannot write the letter.

For Creation of New Work/ Live Music for Dance project support the letter should come from the artists that you are planning to support with the funds if awarded.

Please provide your organization’s bio on the application form. You may leave the individual bio box blank.

That is a default contact form for all of our programs and not that important for this grant program. You can share your bio if you’d like but it is not necessary. You can write, “see organization bio” in the first section, and just enter it in the application section.

All applicants are required to submit a budget for their organization. Please provide the budget that best represents your upcoming fiscal year, and include the amount you are requesting from the Organization Fund in your income projections.

• General Operating Support applicants: please share the budget for your current financial year. 
• Creation of New Work and Live Music For Dance applicants: please share the project budget. 
• NOTE: There are no formatting requirements. Please share the documents you have available in your preferred format. It can be a Quickbooks report, excel, pdf, etc. 

• General Operating Support applicants must supply a recent audit or financial statement
• All applicants will share organizational budget totals representing the last three years. 
  • This is a simple text entry. We are asking for fiscal numbers (income and expense totals only) for the last 3 years. See screenshot below for an example of how it looks on the application.

The financial statement can be:

• The statement from your auditor
• A Form 990
• QuickBooks reports such as: an annual income statement, annual cash flow statement, annual balance sheet, or annual profit and loss
• An Excel sheet if that is how you keep track of your financial statement.

The goal is to show you have been in operation and have a history of budgeting and programming.   

No. The New Music Organization Fund offers grants to organizations only. Individual artists may not apply. We offer a separate grant program, the New Music Creator Fund, which supports individuals. The next Creator Fund cycle will open in fall 2025.  

This year we aim to fund approximately 70-80 organizations with an average award of $7,000. You can apply for up to $10,000. 

Please include 2 to 3 examples of your recent work that you have commissioned, performed, or presented. You may upload mp3, video or image files, or provide links to YouTube/Vimeo examples.

We recommend up to 5 minutes per work sample. You can submit any length of a work sample, however, if you are submitting longer works, please write suggested start and end times to view/listen.

Creation of New Work and Live Music for Dance applicants: be sure to include a work sample of the music creator and/or musicians you are planning to work with.

Here is what the application asks for in regard to endorsements. Each funding area has different requirements.

Endorsement Letter 

• General Operating Support – Community Endorsement Letter 
  • A statement of endorsement from an artist or other member of your community (e.g. audience member, stakeholder, partner, performer). Please highlight:  
    • Why your organization is important to different groups within your community What’s unique about your programs and activities? 
    • Why New Music USA’s support would be important to your organization in this current climate. 
    • Note: The letters should be written by someone outside of your organization. The applicant cannot be the person who writes the letter. Applicant organization’s staff members also cannot write the letter.

•  Creation of New Work and Music for Dance – Artistic Letter of Support 
  • A statement of endorsement/commitment from the creator and/or musicians on the project and their role. 
  • The letter should come from the artists that you are planning to support with the funds if awarded.

Other FAQs:

• The letters can be written or submitted as an audio or video file.
• There are no formatting requirements.
• You can upload more than 1 but it is not required.

Panelists consider the following in their application review: 

Impact 

• Does this organization regularly perform and program living artists in their community? 
• Do they engage with the community in a meaningful way as demonstrated by the letter of support? 
• How or will funding from this program increase or assist their impact? 
• Why is this organization important to and unique within the community? 
• What gap would be created if the organization no longer existed/had to reduce its activities?

Artistry 

• Is the music programmed original and distinctive? 
• Is the organization supporting the creative development of music creators and artists? 
• Does the program and artistic exploration feel relevant and considered? 
• Does it communicate unique perspective(s), inviting the viewer to explore new ideas

Need 

• Why do they need our support? 
• Why their work is important to their community of artists/audiences and why it’s critical to support this work in the current financial context

Inclusion and Belonging 

• Do they have a diverse group of artists or creators they work with or program? 
• Have they considered inclusion and belonging in their planning and programming? 
• Have they considered inclusion and belonging in their organization’s development? 

Applications will be screened first by staff for eligibility and completeness. Applications will then move forward to a peer review process completed by approximately 20 panelists working from around the country. Panelists will review each application against the criteria listed below providing a score that will then be averaged to create a ranked list. All criteria will be equally weighted during the review process. Award determinations will be made using the ranked list, considering any funding restrictions as needed.  

We will notify everyone about the status of their application by late June.

The timelines for funded activity differ slightly for the three funding areas:

• General Support funds must be used between July 2025-June 2026.
• Creation of New Work and Live Music for Dance funds must be used between July 2025-June 2027, based on the organization’s project timeline. 

Applications will only be accepted through our online application on SMAPPLY. Access the application here: https://newmusicusa.smapply.io. 

Email submissions will not be considered.

If you are uploading video work samples please prioritize .mp4 videos, using the most up to date software you have, as they will embed more seamlessly. If you are providing links to YouTube or Vimeo please be sure to provide “embed” links or conversely make sure your links are public. If you are providing links to password protected work samples, please make sure that you provide the password in the description of the work or at the tail end of your narrative, otherwise the panel will not be able to access your samples.

Please limit the file size to under 500MB. If you’d like to share a larger file, please upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and share a link instead.

Please note, Youtube links must be submitted in the ‘youtube.com/xxx‘ format, not ‘youtu.be/xxx’ format. To copy your link in the correct format, open the youtu.be format link in any browser and copy the full youtube.com link from your browser navigation bar.

Support from the New Music USA Team 

Due to the high volume of applications, New Music USA is only able to provide email assistance for technical issues with the application site. For help with your application the following services will be available: 

• Application Webinar – March 5, 2025, 2pm EST / 11am PST
  • view at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses  
• Q&A: March 11, 2025, 4pm EST / 1pm PST
  • view at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses 
• Q&A: March 18, 2025, 2pm EST / 11am PST
  • view at this link. Here are the slides and the Q&A responses 
  • All Webinar and Q & A sessions will be recorded and uploaded to this page.
• If you have a technical issue with the application site, email [email protected] with “Technical Issue” in the subject line.  

Due to the high volume of applications, New Music USA is not able to: 

• Accept applications after the stated deadline of March 27, 2025 at 11:59pm ET / 8:59pm PT. 
• Consider or inform applicants of incomplete or improperly submitted applications. 
• Provide feedback on grant applications. 

Notifications and any communications about your application will be made via email from our application site. Please add [email protected] to your address book to ensure you receive these communications. 

If awarded: 

• You will be required to document grant-funded activities, keep records of expenses, and submit documentation and receipts. 
• You will be required to submit a final report or update on funded activities by July 2026.