CALIFORNIA CULTURAL DATA PROJECT (CCDP)
To assist organizational applicants in completing their Cultural Data Profile, CEG will be offering a series of free in-person and web-based training workshops approximately once a month from August to December 2008. We strongly suggest applicants attend one of the trainings as soon as possible, even if you are applying for a grant with a future deadline.

These important training sessions will show you and your staff how to enter data into the California CDP and use its powerful reporting features.

You can participate in this California CDP Training Session from your home or office computer. Once registered and one day prior to the training session, you will be sent a link to connect to this training session online. During the online session, the California CDP associate will conduct the CDP New User Training Session, during which you will be able to ask questions and learn more about the California CDP.

Web-based session: The next webinar training session will be held on August 1, 2008 at 10:00 am PST.
Please go to the following link to register for the webinar training session: sfwebinar.eventbrite.com

In-person sessions: The August in-person training sessions will be offered in San Francisco on August 18 from 4:00 - 5:30 pm and August 19 at 4:00 - 5:30 pm.

Location:
Atrium Meeting Room, Second Floor
Bank of America Building
One South Van Ness Avenue @ Market St. Entrance is on South Van Ness Avenue.

Please go to the following link to register for the in-person training session: sfartscommission.org/ceg/ccdp/CDP_TrainingSessions_August.htm

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Frequently Asked Questions

The California Cultural Data Project (CCDP) & Cultural Equity Grants programs

Overview – What? And Why?

1. What is the California Cultural Data Project?
2. Does the California Cultural Data Project completely replace the traditional Arts Commission grant application?
3. If it doesn’t completely replace the application process, why fill out a profile?
4. So how does this affect my grant application?
4.1. What organizational budget information will I be required to submit as part of my CEG application?
5. What other funders are using the Cultural Data Project for their applications?

When Does this Go Into Effect?

6. When does the Cultural Data Project go into effect?
7. When should I set up a profile with the Data Project? How long will it take?

Who Will Need to Use the Data Project?

8. Who needs to have a profile with the Cultural Data Project?
9. What if I am an individual artist?
10. What if we are the arts program of a larger service organization such as an immigrant service organization?
11. What if we are a fiscally sponsored organization?

Troubleshooting

12. Who do I ask if I have a question regarding my profile?

Overview – What? And Why?

1. What is the California Cultural Data Project (CCDP)?

From the California Cultural Data Project (CCDP) website: “The California Cultural Data Project is a statewide collaboration that will collect comprehensive information about the cultural sector in California. The Project is dedicated to strengthening the arts in California and streamlining the grant application process for cultural organizations. The California Cultural Data Project is a collaboration of many of the public and private arts funders in the state.

The California Cultural Data Project will help streamline the funding application process for arts organizations by giving them the technology to organize their financial data to match each participating funder’s requirements. Organizations only need to complete a Data Profile once each fiscal year. It is available electronically and submitted as part of grant applications to many of the participating funding agencies throughout the year.

Financial data is drawn from each organization’s audit or financial statements, providing accurate and reliable information. Organizations will be able to use this system to track their own trends over time. Aggregate information will be available to help groups benchmark their organization against others by discipline, budget size and many other categories. It is anticipated that as many as 5,000 cultural organizations throughout the state will participate.”

For more general information about the California Cultural Data Project or to set up your profile, go to:
www.caculturaldata.org

2. Does the California Cultural Data Project completely replace the traditional Arts Commission grant application?

No. The California Cultural Data Project is designed to capture organizational budget information along with key non-financial data. It is not designed to hold project specific information like your proposal narrative, project budget or work sample materials. Because Cultural Equity Grant funding programs are project based, the majority of the application form will still be in the same format. But the CCDP will provide some of your organizational budget information and key statistics about your annual audience numbers which you will print out and add to your application.

3. If it doesn’t completely replace the application process, why fill out a profile?

Even though the California Cultural Data Project doesn’t replace Cultural Equity Grants’ application, almost every government funder and private foundation in the State will be asking for at least some information from the Cultural Data Project. So having your profile set up will help California funders ask for consistent organizational information from you and will avoid the need to continuously reformat overlapping data. The profile will also allow your organization to analyze the financial health, audience trends and operations of your organization over time using the array of reports available through the CCDP.

As the Cultural Data Project organizers note, the CCDP “will also benefit foundations, policymakers and researchers by identifying opportunities and challenges for the cultural sector that can be addressed through improved grantmaking and policy changes; informing foundation planning and evaluation; and providing comprehensive, standardized data to researchers who analyze and interpret the cultural sector.”

4. So how does this affect my grant application?

After filling out your California Cultural Data Project online, you will print out a funders report which you will include in your application. This report will provide detailed budget and audience numbers for panelists to assess. This information will supplement the budget information contained in your application form. Please review the most up-to-date guidelines which will be released in mid-July 2008 for how this information will be integrated into your application.

4.1. What organizational budget information will I be required to submit as part of my CEG application?

It is important to note that the CCDP represents the most accurate financial information on your organization. The data entered is based on your organization's financial audits from completed fiscal years.

Cultural Equity Grants requires applicants to submit the California Cultural Data Project Funder Report for the San Francisco Arts Commission, for the most recent completed fiscal year. The printed report will supplement the organizational budget information in the Cultural Equity Grants application, which requires financial data on your organization's prior, current, and projected fiscal years.

Depending on whether your organization operates on a fiscal year or calendar year, and where the grant deadline your organization intends to apply for falls, your organization's prior fiscal year information may not be entered into the CCDP as the most recent completed fiscal year. For example, if your organization operates on a calendar year and you are submitting information for a January 2009 deadline, you may not have completed an audit for 2008.

In that case, you will need to submit your organization's budget information for the prior fiscal year along with the current and projected fiscal years. The Organizational Budget form located in the 2008-2009 Guidelines and Application for Arts Organizations provides sections to report on prior, current, and projected fiscal years.

5. What other funders are using the Cultural Data Project for their applications?

As of early 2008, the California funders who will be asking applicants to utilize the California Cultural Data Project include:

Alliance for California Traditional Arts	Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission
Arts Council for Long Beach	San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture
Arts Council Silicon Valley	San Diego Foundation
California Arts Council	San Francisco Arts Commission
California Community Foundation	San Francisco Foundation
Culver City Cultural Affairs Division	San Francisco Grants for the Arts
David & Lucile Packard Foundation	San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs
Durfee Foundation	Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division
East Bay Community Foundation	The Getty Foundation
Fleishhacker Foundation	The James Irvine Foundation
Jewish Community Foundation	The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation
Los Angeles County Arts Commission	The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs	Walter & Elise Haas Fund
Marin Community Foundation	West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission
Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division

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When Does this Go Into Effect?

6. When does the Cultural Data Project go into effect?

The California Cultural Data Project has been online since January 2008. Each of the grantmaking agencies working with the Project will roll out their requirements over the course of their grant cycles so check with each funder for their specific timeline.

The Cultural Equity Grants program will be requiring our applicants to include specific California Cultural Data Project information beginning with the 2009 fiscal year grant cycle. This means that the first grant applications with this requirement will be the Creative Space and Cultural Equity Initiative – Level 2 grant applications in August 2008.

7. When should I set up a profile with the Data Project? How long will it take?

The California Cultural Data Project is already online and your profile can be created at any point. The organizers of the Data Project recommend that you schedule at least two weeks to familiarize yourself with the CCDP and enter in your profile information for the first time. You will be entering in two years worth of information on the first go round, so it will take longer than in subsequent years. Users of the Data Projects in other States have said that once their records have been aligned with the Data Project system they have only needed a day or two to enter in their information.

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Who Will Need to Use the Data Project?

8. Who needs to have a profile with the Cultural Data Project?

All organizational applicants to Cultural Equity Grants funding programs will be required to set up a profile for the California Cultural Data Project. Your organization will need to submit a funders report from the CCDP along with the grant application. The funders report will be a document which can be generated through the CCDP once you have completed your profile. The funders report will include organizational budget information and non-financial information such as audience numbers.

9. What if I am an individual artist?

The California Cultural Data Project is designed for arts organizations and focuses on institutional information, including organizational budgets. As such, individual artists and performers should not set up a profile on the CCDP. Cultural Equity Grants will not require any CCDP information from individuals.

10. What if we are the arts program of a larger service organization such as an immigrant service organization?

All organizations with a mission primarily focused on the arts should fill out your Cultural Data Project profile with your full organizational information. This means that any organization applying for Cultural Equity Initiatives, Level 1 & 2, Creative Space and Organization Project Grants from CEG should submit their full organization budget information. If you do not have a mission focused primarily on the arts, you are not eligible for these grant programs.

However, for larger immigrant service organizations applying for Artists & Communities: Innovative Projects grants who do not have a mission focused on the arts (and who therefore are not eligible for other CEG grants), when filling out your budget on the CCDP, please only include budget information for the arts program of the larger organization. If you have any particular questions about breaking out your program budget, please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk of the Cultural Data Project. Please note that there will be a section in the ACIP application which will ask for budget summaries for your overall organization's budget.

11. What if we are a fiscally sponsored organization?

You should still fill out a profile on the Cultural Data Project. There will be a field which will ask whether you have a 501(c)3 designation, and if not, to specify your status. Please be sure that when you fill out the rest of your Cultural Equity Grants application, you fill out a fiscal sponsor form and submit it with the rest of your application.

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Troubleshooting

12. Who do I ask if I have a question regarding my profile?

The California Cultural Data Project website has both online orientation tools and a Help Desk who you can contact Monday-Friday, 9 am – 5 pm.

If you haven’t already, please orient yourself through the introduction available here:

http://www.caculturaldata.org/training.aspx

If you still have questions about the site, how to fill out your profile, or technical accounting questions, the California Cultural Data Project Help Desk can be reached at:

Toll Free: 1-866-9-CAL-CDP or 1-866-922-5237
Email: help@caculturaldata.org
California CDP Help Desk Hours: 9:00am - 5:00pm, Monday - Friday

For questions about or problems with the site, please contact the California CDP Help Desk at help@caculturaldata.org.

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