OGP Grantseekers - Apply

1. All OGP applicants are required to complete a CDP and upload an LA County Department of Arts and Culture OGP Funder Report, obtained from the SMU DataArts website, with the grant application. If the OGP Funder Report is not received with the application, the application will be considered incomplete and will be disqualified.
2. All applicants must complete Balance Sheet information.* Please be sure to allow extra time to complete this section.

*NOTE: Organizations operating under a parent agency and those with an annual budget of under $50,000 do not need to complete the balance sheet in the CDP profile.

Information on how to get started can be found in SMU DataArts’ Knowledgebase. You can also search the Knowledgebase to help you as you work. You can find information about the new questions in the CDP, balance sheets, and audits (to name a few topics). Applicants will also have access to online training and can receive support from SMU DataArts’ Support Center during regular business hours.

Plan to spend 10 to 15 hours completing each CDP. The Department of Arts and Culture recommends completing the profile as soon as deciding to apply. The Department of Arts and Culture cannot extend the application deadlines to allow for extra time to complete the CDP.

Applicants with three or more years of completed programming, must submit three consecutive years of data. If filling out the CDP for the first time, please complete a CDP for each of your three most recently completed fiscal years. Going forward, applicants will only need to provide one year of data. NOTE: For organizations with only two full and consecutive years of producing and programming history, submitting a CDP for two recently completed fiscal years is acceptable.

If the applicant organization has an annual audit or review, all financial data entered into the CDP must be based on audited or reviewed data. Do not enter data until after receiving the annual audit or review by an independent certified public accountant. If the organization has no audit or review, and does not plan on having an audit or review for its most recently completed fiscal year, base the CDP entries on the most recently submitted 990.

If the annual audit or review has not been completed in time to submit a CDP, enter data from the prior fiscal year based on the prior year's audit report. The most recent year of the CDP should be the same year for which the applicant organization had its most recent audit.

Completion of a CDP activates the website’s error check designed to catch inconsistencies and missing data. The website will not allow you to complete your CDP until all errors are corrected. Please allow additional time to make corrections to the data after each CDP is submitted. NOTE: Organizations with incomplete CDP data will not be able to download the OGP Funder Report.

When you are finished entering data, click on the tab titled, Review and Complete. Confirm that the all totals on this page (total revenue, total expenses, total assets, total liabilities, and total net assets) match the totals in your board-approved financial audit/review or year-end financial statements by restriction. If the totals do not match, contact SMU DataArts Support Center for assistance at 1-877-707-3282.

Applicants must download a Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture OGP Funder Report to attach to the grant application. You can find instructions on how to access your OGP Funder Report by viewing reading this instructional blog post. Once you have your OGP Funder Report, be sure to review the report to ensure you didn’t leave anything out during your data entry. You should also keep an eye out for any big percent changes from year to year. If something looks incorrect, you can make revisions to your Data Profile and generate a new Funder Report. Instructions on how to do so can be found in a blog post on the topic, located on the Data Arts website.

The OGP Funder Report is a central part of the grant application. Grant review panelists rely heavily on the applicant’s funder report explanations to understand how the organization operates. Please provide notes to explain any variances reflected in the applicant’s OGP Funder Report. Applicants are required to explain variances of 10% or more in income or expense line items from year to year. Applicants are strongly encouraged to explain other significant deficits or surpluses. 

Note: starting in 2021, the OGP Funder Report will include narrative explanations. The applicant may cut and paste those narratives into the application OGP Funder Report explanations as needed. Unexplained budget variances may result in a reduction of points.

When completing the CDP for a department or an ongoing program within a larger organization or institution, fill out the Data Profile for the sub-unit only. Do not enter any data for the parent organization.

Unsure whether or not your organization qualifies as an applicant under a parent organization? Data Arts has provided a helpful blog post on that topic.

The Department of Arts and Culture utilizes data from a variety of sources to evaluate and improve programs and to understand the local arts ecology. Some of this data is collected directly from grantees and sometimes through partnerships with organizations like SMU DataArts. Check out our How We Use Data to learn more.