Application Guide:
Organizational Growth & Sustainability

Application Question

Tell us about your organization’s sustained arts and cultural work and the contribution it makes to San Diego’s cultural life. What has your organization built, maintained, or developed that feels most important today?

You may discuss recurring programs or services; artistic or cultural ideas that shape the organization; how the work has developed; what you have chosen to sustain or change; a recent accomplishment or experiment; or what you are trying to deepen next.

350 words maximum

Why We Ask

OSP invests in the ongoing cultural contribution of organizations, not a single project. We want to understand what the organization has built and why sustaining that work matters.

Panelists Consider

• a clear arts, cultural, creative, heritage, or field-serving purpose;
• evidence of sustained and intentional work;
• coherence across programs, activities, or services;
• a meaningful contribution to San Diego’s cultural life;
• evidence that the organization reflects on how its cultural work develops over time.

Application Question

Who is connected to your organization’s work, and how have those relationships developed over time? Tell us how your organization creates public benefit and how you respond when the needs, interests, or barriers of the people you serve change.

300 words maximum

Why We Ask

Established organizations have an opportunity to build long-term relationships and institutional knowledge. We want to understand whether those relationships remain active and responsive rather than being treated as assumptions.

Panelists Consider

• specificity about people connected to the work;
• evidence of established relationships;
• active listening or responsiveness;
• examples of learning or adaptation;
• thoughtful approaches to participation and access;
• credible public benefit connected to the organization’s purpose.

Before the narrative, select up to three priorities most important to organizational health and development during the next one to three years. Options include  

• financial sustainability
• revenue diversification
• staffing/workforce, artist compensation
• leadership development or succession
• governance, programs/artistic direction
• audience/community relationships, partnerships
• space/facilities, technology
• communications
• accessibility, evaluation/data
• organizational planning
• reducing or restructuring activity
• other

Application Question

How is your organization working to sustain what it has built while responding to change? Tell us about the opportunities, pressures, or decisions shaping your organization now and how you are approaching what comes next.

You may discuss financial or operating trends; revenue, staffing, leadership, audience, facility, or program changes; opportunities you are pursuing or declining; something you stopped or restructured; risks you are managing; or ways the organization adapted when something was not working.

400 words maximum

Why We Ask

Established organizations encounter change. Sustainability is not the absence of challenges, it is the ability to understand conditions, make thoughtful choices, and adapt while continuing to fulfill the organization’s purpose.

Panelists Consider

• a clear understanding of the organization’s current position;
• thoughtful interpretation of opportunities or pressures;
• realistic priorities;
• evidence of learning and adaptation;
• decision-making connected to purpose, work, and community;
• a credible approach to organizational continuity;
• appropriate attention to financial and operational sustainability.

Application Question

How do the people and partnerships behind your organization help sustain its work? Tell us how you invest in, organize, or support the artists, cultural workers, staff, collaborators, volunteers, and partners who make the work possible.

300 words maximum

Why We Ask

Organizational sustainability depends on people and relationships, not only programs and finances.

Panelists Consider

• a realistic understanding of the human capacity required to sustain the organization;
• intentional investment in artists and/or cultural workers where relevant;
• thoughtful staffing, collaboration, volunteer, or partnership structures;
• awareness of workload, continuity, or capacity;
• relationships that meaningfully extend or strengthen the work.

Application Question

What role would FY28 City operating support play in your organization’s sustainability and continued development? What would this public investment help you maintain, strengthen, change, or prepare for?

You may discuss maintaining core programs; artist or staff compensation; stabilizing operations; rising costs; accessibility; financial resilience; systems, equipment, or space; participation; leadership transition; testing a new approach; or leveraging partnerships and other funding.

250 words maximum

Why We Ask

Operating support is most valuable when it can respond to the actual needs of an organization. We want to understand where City investment fits within the organization’s broader sustainability strategy.

Panelists Consider

• a clear understanding of the role City investment plays;
• alignment with priorities described elsewhere;
• reasonable and eligible use of operating support;
• potential to support stability, adaptation, access, workforce, or sustained cultural contribution;
• thoughtful integration of City support into the broader operating context.