Fay Slover Fund
The Fay Slover Fund was established at The Boston Foundation in 2010 to support start-up or program grants to organizations looking to increase access to art in underserved communities.
The Fund provides grants of up to $25,000 for organizations working to create, sustain, or grow programs to increase access to the arts in underserved communities throughout the United States and beyond.
We have seen the following models achieve their goal of increasing access to art in their communities:
- Independent nonprofit organizations, grown from the ground up
- Programs within existing community arts organizations
- Programs within colleges/universities
- Collaborative efforts
Application process
The Fund is now accepting brief Letters of Interest (LOIs) for Fall 2022. LOI deadline: Friday, September 30.
Click the link below for the Request for LOIs, which provides more information on what to include:
Fay Slover Fund 2022 Request for LOIs
For current Fay Slover Fund grantees, more information will be posted In August 2022 on the Fall 2022 renewal application process.
Eligibility and Current Sites
Eligibility of Recipients
To be eligible for grants from the Fay Slover Fund, applicants must be:
- Organizations or programs working to create, sustain, or grow an art donation program
- Have a board of directors and a 501(c) (3) status*
* If your status is pending, please include a fiscal agency agreement. International agencies should provide an equivalent proof of NGO status.
Fay Slover Fund Grant Priorities
Funding amounts will be awarded based on key indicators of success:
- A demonstrated ability to acquire significant support from sources other than the Fay Slover Fund at The Boston Foundation
- Sustainability beyond our funding period
- Previous grantees who have demonstrated progress appropriate to the amount of funding they received in past years
- Previous grantees who have demonstrated decreasing reliance on FSF funding, as evidenced by grant representing a smaller percentage of budget and/or requesting less than the largest grant size
Learn more about our current Expansion Sites:
- Healing Photo Arts
- LexArts
- Flower City Art Center
- San Diego Art Institute
- Cleveland Print Room
- Outside The Lens
- Bishop Arts Theatre Center
Past Expansion Sites :
- Free Arts Minnesota‘s Youth Art Portfolio, Minneapolis
- Art Connects New Hampshire, a partnership between the New Hampshire Institute of Art and the New Hampshire Art Association
- Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, South Africa. Our first international expansion site.
- Art Connects New York
- Art Connection Hampton Roads, a partnership between Old Dominion University and Tidewater Arts Outreach in Norfolk, Virginia
- The Montserrat College of Art Art Connection in Beverly, MA (2010-2013, private funding. 2013-2014, Fay Slover Fund)
- New Bedford Art Museum/ArtWorks! / Art2Heart program in New Bedford, Massachusetts (2011-2014)
- Art-Reach Philadelphia’s Art Connection (2011-2013)
- Art Connects Los Angeles (one year program, active before Fay Slover Fund)
- Teens Reimagining Art, Community, Environment (TRACE)’s Community Curation Program, a collaboration between The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Park District
- Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont
- The Art Connection in the Capital Region, serving the DC-Metro Area and collaborating with Baltimore’s Maryland Institute College of Art
- The Art Connection-Rhode Island, based in Providence and serving the state of Rhode Island
- The Photography and Literacy Project of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York
- Path with Art
For more information about grants from the Fay Slover Fund at The Boston Foundation, please contact Mahalia Banton, mbanton@tpi.org or Leslie Pine, lpine@tpi.org at The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI)