Sample Arts Grant LOI

Laurie Weed's Portfolio Grant Writing

Dear [name removed],

Along with many of your broadcasting colleagues and members of the KQED family, the San Francisco/Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has established a dynamic consortium to preserve Northern California’s broadcast legacy. Regional media organizations, corporations, professional organizations, industry leaders and educators are collaborating to develop the Broadcast Archives and Museum of Northern California, which will collect, catalog and preserve Northern California television and radio programming of artistic, cultural and historical significance, provide public access to these programs, and serve as a teaching center for media literacy. We are seeking a grant of [X dollars] to seed the next critical phase of this unique project, allowing us to retain a professional fundraiser, develop full financial and political support, and obtain cost estimates for the lease, architectural design, and construction of the building as well as its technical infrastructure.

For most of the twentieth century, Northern Californians have relied on our local radio and television stations to inform, educate, and entertain us. Broadcast media not only documents our history, it also shapes our collective worldview. We all share memories of the radio broadcasts and television images of events that profoundly affected us. Every adult in the country remembers watching Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon and JFK’s funeral. Even those who were too young to remember the original broadcasts have a “television memory” of these events. Similarly, San Francisco’s historical tragedies and triumphs—the assassinations at City Hall, the Loma Prieta earthquake, the construction of our bay bridges and Super Bowl XVI, to name just a few—along with cultural phenomena such as the Summer of Love and the Gay Rights movement, are documented and remembered primarily through broadcast media. These recordings and images, and so many more, are imbedded in the collective psyche of those who lived through the events, and we may like to think of them as a permanent record for posterity. But, the recordings themselves are fragile. They are sensitive to temperature changes, dust and dirt. They become brittle and deteriorate over time. They must be stored properly and cared for. Preserving these recordings requires recognition of their importance and a commitment of resources.

Over the years, many irreplaceable audio recordings and film and videotape masters have been damaged or lost, in many cases permanently. Mergers of radio and television stations have exacerbated this problem by dispersing historical recordings to undocumented storage locations, or even throwing them out as stations consolidate their equipment and staff. Currently, there is no central repository in Northern California for television and radio archives. Considerable research is required to track down and preserve these collections—not only the recordings, but also scripts, memorabilia, props, and equipment of significant historical value.

The goals of the Broadcast and Archives and Museum of Northern California are to:

· Collect, catalog, and preserve Northern California's television and radio programming of artistic, cultural, and historic significance;

· Exhibit historic television and radio broadcast equipment and memorabilia;

· Present public screenings, seminars and educational workshops;

· Serve as a teaching center for film and video preservation, and for media literacy and other educational programs.

The Broadcast Museum will be the only museum in Northern California dedicated to local radio and television, and one of only four major broadcast museums in the entire country (joining the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, its sister museum in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago). Already home to the greatest concentration of radio and television stations in Northern California, as well as numerous cutting-edge media and media technology companies, San Francisco provides an ideal setting for the museum. As you may know, the Bay Area produced many pioneers and inventors of the early broadcast era, adding historic importance to an already impressive market position.

San Francisco’s international reputation as an epicenter for the arts helps to draw 16 million visitors per year to the area. Studies done for the City Arts Commission and the Economic Summit found that 50 percent of visitors to San Francisco from nearby communities cite museum attendance as a reason for their visit. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) alone attracts an annual audience of over 700,000 and maintains a membership base of 43,000. Just a few blocks from SFMOMA, in the burgeoning South-of-Market arts district, [name removed] has already contracted with the city to restore the 77,000 square foot Old Mint building and develop 40,000 square feet for its history museum. The Old Mint is ideally located for such an attraction, just a short walk from two of the city’s most-visited attractions—Union Square and the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market Streets—in addition to SFMOMA, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Moscone Center, the Jewish Museum, the Mexican Museum, the Cartoon Arts Museum and the Sony Metreon entertainment complex. The history museum expects to attract more than 350,000 annual visitors. The Broadcast Museum consortium is collaborating with [name removed] to develop the Old Mint, thus creating a highly beneficial symbiosis between the two projects.

Using the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago as an appropriate business model, as it also has a local/regional focus, the consortium estimates similar space requirements for the Broadcast Archives and Museum—about 15,000 square feet. The design will include multiple galleries, a screening room, a library with computer terminals for public access to the archive catalog, private viewing and listening consoles, radio and television control rooms and studios outfitted with vintage equipment, a video wall, a gift shop, and climate-controlled storage. By co-locating with the history museum and developing the space jointly, the Broadcast Museum’s portion of renovation costs can be greatly reduced, to an estimated four to five million dollars. We anticipate raising funds from a variety of sources, including federal museum programs, preservation tax credits, loans, and private donations. The Broadcast Museum will operate as a non-profit entity, and will ramp up to a self-sustaining level of operating revenue through ticket sales, membership sales, and special events.

Over the near term, the consortium will:

1) Secure seed funding for the project, which will be used to develop financial and political support;

2) Obtain cost estimates for the lease, architectural design, construction, and technical infrastructure of the facility;

3) Select and retain a professional fundraiser; and,

4) Organize a Northern California ‘Radio Hall of Fame’ event to publicize the museum and the fundraising drive.

Leveraging its partnerships and pool of professional abilities, accumulated expertise and resources, the consortium has developed a full-scale business plan, timeline, and complete financial projections, which we would be pleased to share with you. As you can see from the attached list of consortium members, early planning for this project has already generated great enthusiasm in the broadcast community, and commitment of numerous in-kind donations and exhibits. Your commitment of [X dollars] will initiate long-term funding for the museum and rally additional community support for the preservation of Northern California’s historical broadcast archives. The consortium is very grateful for your consideration of this request, and available to answer any immediate questions you may have. We hope you will visit our website at www.broadcastmuseum.tv to learn more about this project, and we look forward to your call.

Best regards,

[name removed]