Artist Grant Application

To start the year off strong and to prove our dedication to support the community, rather than ask you for money or to support the project financially, we will be offering to one, or a few, artists, a grant (total available this time: $1000.00 USD). Simply fill out the form with: your artistic ambition, examples of your previous work if any, how you will use the money, how much you need etc. [Form is below]

To start, we are offering up to $1000 USD*. We have a panel of artists (former members) who will discuss the different projects and make decisions on which project/person will get the money. This is in part a method to bring awareness to this project and these issues. Strategically we will make the payout after the film is publicly released on streaming platforms. The plan is before April 4th, the Jehovah's Witness version of Passover, their only holy day.

Also anyone who is an active Patron on our Patreon can vote in a pole to influence the grant payout. To be a Patron it only costs $1.00/month to join. You can quit any time. We will make a video about each artist who has applied, describing their work, and put it on our Patreon channel for the community pole, each time we offer the grant.  

The source of money now is the director. Ideally, in the future, it will come from the views, rental, and purchases of the Witness Underground documentary and the listens of the Witness Underground podcast through Patreon or other platforms, and sales of merch and art. Some portion** of the money that comes in on Patreon we will give back out as a grant. This is a rewarding social experiment that we hope will elevate artists, help people heal, and also flip around the extractive dynamics we see happening with some forms of activism and big personalities constantly asking for money in this space.

*less any bank wire transfer fees. (usually around $20.00 but depends on the country. Western Union would likely be the worst case.)

**after a grant or two we will determine how much is a sustainable percentage to payout as a grant, and how often we can do it, probably around 20% going forward from film and art sales revenue. Some of the artists have agreed to offer a 20% share of sales of their music, towards the grants. Ideally this becomes the standard for everything monetary with this project.