Why Support The Marais Foundation?

At The Marais Foundation, we strive to make it easier for artists to get access to the micro-financing they need to support themselves and practice their craft. As a volunteer organization focused on micro-grants, we are able to:

  • Eliminate the administrative burden and minimize the barriers that oftentimes stand in the way of artists getting the support they need
  • Be highly responsive
  • Ensure that $0.90 of every $1.00 contributed is used to directly support artists

We are a partner with the artistic community. We provide:

  • Fast review and determination, generally less than ten days
  • Straightforward guidelines for funding
  • Simple, easy-to-use, and secure web-based application process
  • We respond to every inquiry quickly and provide meaningful feedback
  • Minimal reporting requirements; we don’t demand budgets or receipts; we simply require submission of the results from the grant to be promoted via our website and social media
  • Blind review of applications to remove bias based on gender, orientation, identity, etc.

Why Fund Artists Through The Marais Foundation?

Simple: Donor contributions go further and have a more immediate and dramatic impact on the artists we support. With a promise of $0.90 out of every dollar delivered directly to the artist, even a small donation will have a positive bearing on an artist’s ability to create. And when combined with other gifts, we can have an enormous impact.

For example, a $100 gift to The Marais Foundation will result in $90 made available to an artist to buy:

  1. A package of 3 12/24″ museum profile canvases plus a small set of acrylic paints
  2. A subscription to Abode Photoshop Elements
  3. Four sets of Ernie Ball Electric Paradigm Nickel Plated Steel guitar strings

With a gift of $1,500, the ability to impact an artist’s creation is even greater by enabling:

  1. A poet or a writer to engage an editor or pay for the layout of a self-published work
  2. A performer to rent studio space
  3. A musician to purchase equipment to record a new song

While these may seem basic to us, to an artist trying to create and struggling to make ends meet while they continue to create, this ready, immediate, and funded access to these simple tools of their trade will change their lives.

For example, a painter approaches The Foundation with a simple request for $150 for a canvas and a replacement set of new oil paints. Using these simple tools, the painter creates a work that is sold at a local coffee shop for $400. The value of that micro-grant is exponential:

  1. The money from that sale goes directly back to the artist, who now has $400 to reinvest in their art
  2. The artist builds their community and recognition, hopefully moving them to a place where they can create more art independent of future funding from The Foundation
  3. The coffee shop which hung the painting gets business and a reputation for good art, which creates repeat business
  4. A new piece of art is created that makes the world more beautiful