Building a Grant System Around Equity
If you have ever worked in the non-profit or education sectors, you know exactly what the grant application process looks like. It is usually a mountain of paperwork, rigid criteria, and confusing online portals. But here is the quiet truth about those traditional systems: they don't just create extra work; they actively screen out the very communities that need funding the most.
When smaller, under-resourced schools or community groups (especially those serving Indigenous, Black, racialised, or 2SLGBTQIA+ youth) have to compete for funding against well-funded urban institutions with dedicated grant writers, the playing field becomes uneven.
When I took over as Project Manager for the ArtistsInspire Grants (AIG) program at ELAN Quebec, I knew we couldn't just keep tinkering at the edges. We needed to completely overhaul how we looked at allocation, access, and equity.
Listening Before Designing
We started by launching a province-wide consultation process, sitting down with schools, arts consultants, and artists of color, Indigenous creators, and queer community leaders across Quebec. We asked them a simple question: What is actually stopping you from accessing these funds?
The feedback was clear. The barriers were structural. The application process took too long, the criteria didn't value intersectional identities, and regional or isolated communities felt completely left out of the loop.
With those insights, we went to work building a Grant Equity System. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all model, we built a framework that deliberately prioritises applications from communities facing intersecting layers of marginalisation. We looked at geography, systemic barriers, and demographic realities to ensure the funding went where it would make the deepest impact.
From Two Hours to Seven Minutes
Changing the selection criteria was only half the battle. If a system is equitable on paper but still requires two and a half hours of administrative headache to apply, it isn't actually accessible to a busy teacher or an overworked community advocate.
We completely rebuilt the digital application platform from scratch. By automating the technical backend and focusing entirely on a user-first design, we managed to drop the average application time from 2.5 hours down to just seven minutes per grant.
By removing the digital and administrative friction, we saw an immediate shift. Application volume surged, and we maintained a 94.67% approval rate because the platform was finally designed to help people succeed rather than catch them making mistakes.
Reaching the Places That Usually Get Left Out
The real test of this new system came when we launched a strategic pilot project aimed at 26 schools located in regional, rural, and Indigenous communities across Quebec. These were places that historical data showed had rarely, if ever, successfully accessed our funding in the past.
Because the new platform was fast and the equity system recognized their unique local challenges, the pilot was an overwhelming success. For the first time in seven years, the program successfully optimised and spent out its entire $560,000 budget, ensuring that hundreds of regional and marginalised youth finally got access to high-quality creative programming.
The takeaway for me is simple: equity isn't a buzzword you add to a mission statement. It’s an administrative choice. It’s about looking at your data, listening to the people on the ground, and being willing to rewrite the rules so that the system works for everyone.