OVERVIEW

KlezCalifornia is accepting proposals and distributing grants from The Yiddish Culture Fund. In 2023, up to $6,000 is available. Proposal deadlines in 2023 are August 1 and October 1 for requests up to $500; September 1 for requests up to $3,000. 

PRIORITIES

Grants from The Yiddish Culture Fund will amplify the growing interest in Yiddish culture and help develop the next generation of Yiddish culture leaders and producers in the San Francisco Bay Area. For in-person events, we will give priority to projects in the broader Bay Area. We will consider in-person events held outside the region if they are hybrid (offer an online option) so Bay Area residents can participate. Grantees may be individuals or groups (incorporated or not, charitable organizations or not).

KlezCalifornia will support funded projects with event publicity to our 3,000-member mailing list, offer access to our connections if wanted, and provide mentoring if requested. In the longer term, we want to engage with new Yiddish culture leaders in strategic thinking about the future of Bay Area Yiddish cultural activities.

We encourage proposals that:
• Are activities organized by the next generation of Yiddish culture leaders or designed to attract people who might become those leaders
• Are new or early-stage projects by individuals and groups
• Are participatory, in which individuals learn and practice skills
• Are hybrid (simultaneously in-person and online) events, to promote accessibility
• Network with Jewish and/or other community infrastructure, in addition to KlezCalifornia
• Have the potential to be financially sustainable over time.

Examples of projects we encourage:
• Regularly scheduled or one-time events: jams, sing-alongs, Yiddish conversation groups, Yiddish literature classes (in Yiddish or translation), workshops, performances, festivals, in-school events.
• Translating, transcribing, or creating Yiddish cultural works for a public event. 
• Subsidy for registration, housing, or travel for a next generation leader to attend a Yiddish culture event (such as KlezKanada, Yiddish New York, Yidish Vokh) if the person has applied for support from those groups, needs an extra subsidy, and commits to organizing (not only performing at) specific event(s) when they return home. 

We will not fund:
• Research
• Projects that do not include a related public component
• Lectures/classes/performances that are neither by nor targeted to the next generation of Yiddish culture leaders
• Fundraising events
• Religious or political activities.

Principal project leaders will be added to KlezCalifornia’s mailing list for at least the grant period. Projects receiving grants must include, in both online and printed event publicity, “Presented with support from KlezCalifornia’s Yiddish Culture Fund.” We encourage grantees to present their events “in association with KlezCalifornia” and to permit a one-time blast to their mailing list inviting people to join KlezCalifornia’s mailing list.

APPLICATION FORMAT

In an email to grants@klezcalifornia.org, provide:

• Name(s) of applicant(s), with email addresses, phones, mailing addresses, and ages
• Status of applicant(s): individual, group of individuals, business (such as a band), incorporated organization, charity, etc.
• Project description: at least one paragraph, no more than one page
• Project beginning and ending dates
• Project budget (income and expenses), indicating time period and showing no net loss
• Requested grant amount (between $100 and $3,000)
• Anything else you want to tell us (up to one paragraph).

APPROVAL PROCESS

The first rounds of proposals are due August 1 and October 1 for requests for $500 or less; September 1 for larger requests for up to $3,000. Decisions for grants up to $500 will be announced within six weeks of the application deadline. Larger requests (up to $3,000) will be reviewed quarterly, and decided within four months of the application deadline.

KlezCalifornia’s Yiddish Culture Fund Advisory Committee will make recommendations to KlezCalifornia’s Board of Directors, whose decisions will be final.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

One-time projects: one brief report indicating funds expended, progress made, and event description (if appropriate).


Longer-term projects: semiannual or at most quarterly brief reports with the above information.

ABOUT KLEZCALIFORNIA

In 2023, KlezCalifornia is celebrating our 20th anniversary connecting people and communities with Yiddish culture. We have offered San Francisco Bay Area residents (and now anyone anywhere online) rich and meaningful programs. We presented fourteen Yiddish Culture Festivals (2003-2016) and four cabarets (2016-2017), most attracting 300-400 people. When the pandemic hit in full force in March 2020, KlezCalifornia pivoted and presented almost 70 on-line participatory workshops in klezmer music, Yiddish song, and Yiddish dance; and online lectures on subjects from Jewish humor to Ashkenazic family genealogy. Workshops that had attracted 10-20 participants in person drew 50-100 online; online lectures attracted 100-300. Our monthly newsletter (now discontinued) and multi-faceted website (continuing) connect readers with the world of Yiddish culture, music, dance, theatre, food, history and resources within and beyond our organization.

KlezCalifornia will continue to hold monthly online Yiddish Conversation Salons. We will continue to provide a home for fiscally-sponsored projects for selected arts, culture, and education projects that involve the Jewish community or other communities among which Jews live or have lived. Our online Honor Wall will continue to enable donors to pay tribute to their loved ones and their heritage. KlezCalifornia will no longer present our own workshops or lectures but will sometimes co-present events of interest to our community. Although we will no longer publish a monthly newsletter, we will continue to update the Event Directory with events KlezCalifornia co-presents plus selected events of other groups and will send occasional e-blasts to those on our mailing list.

We encourage tax-deductible contributions of all amounts to expand The Yiddish Culture Fund to the desired size of $50,000.

KlezCalifornia, Inc.
6714 Gladys Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530
415-789-7679
grants@klezcalifornia.org