The Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) Supporting Grants Programme is open for applications. Funded by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, to date more than 1700 beneficiaries have received support of over R43 million through the programme, leveraging in excess of R567 million in sponsorship from the business sector.
A non-profit company that serves as South Africa’s leading champion of business and arts partnerships, BASA aims to develop and support mutually beneficial partnerships between business and the arts, ensuring the continued growth of the creative sector in South Africa. Both a catalyst for intentional collaborations and committed to ensuring the relevance and sustainability of the arts in society, BASA offers innovative programmes, supports knowledge transfer, skills development and training within the cultural and creative sectors. Supporting Grants form the core of BASA’s mission to promote mutually beneficial partnerships and are open to all registered creative organizations and practitioners, regardless of their size or level of experience and financial support is available for projects able to demonstrate compelling mutually beneficial partnerships with business.
“BASA has a long-standing history of bringing together the business and the creative sectors to drive socio-economic growth and development in South Africa,” comments BASA CEO, Ashraf Johaardien. “Through its Supporting Grant programme, BASA has supported various initiatives that demonstrate the value of collaboration between the two sectors,” he adds.
As a first step, interested parties should submit a one-page formal letter of interest. The letter needs to cover the name of the project, a brief description of the project, the name of the business sponsor, and the nature of sponsorship the business is offering to the project (in other words, whether the sponsorship is cash, in-kind or both, and to what Rand value). The letter of interest must be accompanied by the business sponsor’s letter of endorsement. BASA then invites eligible applicants to complete a full online application. The next deadline for letters of interest is 5 May 2023.
Applicants should take note that not all applications are successful through the sole act of applying. A range of criteria is considered, including but not limited to the scale and impact of the project, artistic merit, feasibility, contribution to social cohesion, and the reach of the proposed project, all in relation to the funding available for disbursement. Preference is given to projects that offer tangible benefits to their business sponsor(s), and since BASA is a membership organisation, preference is also given to projects where both the arts organisation and business sponsor(s) are BASA members.