April 2026 Funding Opportunities for Filmmakers, Artists, Entrepreneurs, and More!
Leap into motion with these grants.
Spring is on the horizon, and we are hoping for no more snow! ❄️
As we leap forward and enjoy more daylight hours, April is filled with opportunities for artists, filmmakers, small businesses, and so much more.
➡️ This newsletter currently features (125) grants for U.S.-based creatives totaling approximately $3,893,074. We are continually adding more funding opportunities weekly, so stay tuned.
➡️ Click here for our May 2026 Grants Roundup!
How To Find Grants via Our Newsletter
New here? Our grants list is chronologically ordered from April 1st to April 30th.
To help you save time, we also indicate who grants are for in award titles, and we’ve included a numbered index below summarizing featured opportunities.
We will continuously share more April grants as we find them.
Architects: #42 (BIPOC), 54 (Chicago Loop)
Arts Administrators: #52 (Chicagoland; Early Career)
Artists: #2 (Featured), 3 (Miami), 6 (Delaware), 9, 12 (Painters), 14, 21 (Dallas), 25 (Emerging), 26 (Vermont), (30) (Women/Transgender/Gender Non-Conforming), 31 (Bay Area), 37 (Bexar County, Texas), 38 (Mid Career), 39, 44 (Colorado), 52 (Chicagoland; Early Career), 56 (North Dakota), 59 (Texas), 61 (Washington State), 62, 64 (Puerto Rico), 67 (Central Florida), 73 (Massachusetts), 78, 79 (Seattle), 88 (North Dakota), 90, 93, 104, 108 (North Dakota), 109
Authors/Writers: #1 (Featured), 7, 15 (Arabic), 48, 49 (Early Career), 72, #81 (Bookstore & Comic Shop Owners), 110 (Emerging; LGBTQIA+; Georgia)
Beauty Industry Professionals: #84
Cartoonists: #22
Ceramics: #27, 40 (Emerging; Philadelphia), 95, 99
Circus Artists: #50 (Artists of Color)
Community Enhancement Leadership: #32, #33 (Philadelphia), 52, 97
Creatives: #101 (Boston)
Cultural Exchange: #85
Entrepreneurs/Small Businesses: #3 (Featured; Early Stage; Women) 4, 23 (Nassau & Suffolk County), 35 (Women), 36 (Women), 41, 46 (South Carolina; Women), 47, 71 (Sacramento), 83 (Black), 86 (Wisonsin), 100 (Women), 106 (Women), 113, 114 (Minneapolis & Saint Paul)
Filmmakers: #28 (Women & Gender Expansive), 58 (Documentary), 75 (Documentary), 80, 98 (Documetary), 107 (Short), 112 (Documentary)
Founders: #65 (Early Stage), 94
Gender-Identifying Youth: #13
Humanities: #7 (Featured)
Journalists: #4 (Featured), 8 (Featured), 10 (Featured), 19, 20, 48, 60, 68, 70, 74, 76, 77 (Emerging)
Nonprofits: #1, 5 (Connecticut), 8 (Nevada), 18 (New York City), 24 (Oregon), 29, 34, 43 (Philadelphia), 57 (North Dakota), 69 (Santa Barbara County), 82 (North Dakota), 87, 91 (Bronx; Arts), 92 (Pennsylvania), 96 (North Dakota), 103, 105 (St. Petersburg)
Performing Artists: #17 (Arabic), 102
Photographers: #6 (Featured; Documentary), 111
Podcasters: #89
Poets: #2, 49 (Early Career)
Political Economy: #5 (Featured)
Researchers: #20, 51 (Oral History), 90
Scholarships: #9 (Featured), 55 (Women; Northern California)
Scientists: #20
Screenwriters: #66
Travel Awards: #10 (Students)
Visual Artists: #11 (Women; Houston), 16 (Arabic), 45 (New York City Based)
[FEATURED GRANTS]
1. The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers
The fellowship is intended to afford writers in residence uninterrupted time to focus on their work, free from the distractions of daily life and other professional responsibilities. It is offered during the fall semester at Columbus State University. The fellowship begins on the first of September and ends on the first of December. During this time, the writing fellow will reside in a spacious private apartment inside Carson McCullers’s childhood home, the Smith-McCullers House.
The fellow is provided with a stipend of $5,000 to cover costs of transportation, food, and other incidentals. Fellowship recipients are encouraged to take an active role in the community and to meet informally with students and local residents interested in writing. The fellow will work with the McCullers Center director to plan a presentation near the end of the residency.
Deadline: April 1, 2026
2. The Geneva Car Barn Temporary Mural Project - For Artists
The San Francisco Arts Commission invites artists and artist teams residing in the United States to submit qualifications for The Geneva Car Barn Temporary Mural Project. Located in the Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside (OMI) area of San Francisco, the Geneva Car Barn was originally constructed in 1901 as part of the City’s electric streetcar infrastructure. Now a City Landmark, the building is leased and operated by the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), with Performing Arts Workshop (PAW) as an anchor tenant, offering youth arts programming, creative workforce development, and community engagement activities.
The temporary mural will measure approximately 800 sq. ft. and will be installed along the west-facing façade and turret on the first and second-level exterior windows. The design will be printed on and installed as ACM DiBond with an anti-graffiti clear coat and will be on display for a maximum of 3 years, beginning Winter/Spring 2027. The Artist Contract is for $20,000 and covers design only, including all artists’ fees and associated expenses for design, community engagement activities, and consultation during fabrication and installation.
Deadline: April 6, 2026
3. [NEW] The Spring 2026 Makers Mindset Grant - For Women-Led Consumer Brands
This grant exists to fuel early-stage women founders building ambitious, thoughtfully crafted consumer brands. Throughout the year, Makers Mindset will award equity-free capital to founders navigating the realities of growth and seeking meaningful support to reach their next milestone. Businesses must sell a CPG product in the beauty, food, beverage, pet, tech goods, or home goods sectors.
This grant goes beyond funding. It’s about belief, access, and community – helping founders reinvest in their businesses while becoming part of a network rooted in shared learning, visibility, and long-term impact. Three brands will each receive a $10,000 grant to reinvest directly into their businesses. They will also have mentorship, guidance, community and connection, visibility, and amplification.
Deadline: April 10, 2026
4. [NEW] The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism
This opportunity provides experienced journalists with grants up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories with a strong economic, financial, or business angle. You don’t need to be a business reporter to apply — many of our previous Fellows have been generalists, or cover beats such as health care, education, or the environment. Others have focused on issues such as economic inequality or corporate accountability.
They consider proposals from both freelance and staff journalists in all forms of media — text, audio, photo, and short-form video — and encourage those that combine formats to create a multimedia package. We look for projects that focus on important local or regional topics, as well as those that tackle compelling national or international stories or report on under-covered communities or issues. Journalists from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. The Fellowship provides a grant of up to $15,000 per project and is open to anyone with at least 5 years of professional experience in journalism.
Deadline: April 13, 2026
5. The Don Lavoie Fellowship - For Students Interested in Political Economy
This is a competitive, renewable, and online fellowship program for undergraduate students, recent graduate students, young professionals considering graduate school, and early-stage graduate students. Fellowships are open to students from any discipline who are interested in studying key ideas in political economy and learning to apply them in academic and policy research.
Don Lavoie Fellows attend a series of online activities, including an online discussion portal and reading discussion sessions led by scholars, that introduce them to key ideas in the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy, as well as contemporary work in this tradition. Fellows will join a network of Mercatus students, alumni, faculty, and scholars who are conducting and engaging with cutting-edge research in contemporary political economy. Up to $1,250 will be awarded.
Deadline: April 15, 2026
6. [NEW] The PowerLines Photography Fellowship - For Experienced Documentary Photographers
PowerLines is seeking an experienced documentary photographer for its 2026 Photography Fellowship, a three-month program dedicated to humanizing the impact of rising utility bills on everyday consumers and communities across the United States.
The Fellow will develop and execute an original visual project with the potential to become a public-facing book, exhibition, or story platform — and will contribute to a lasting image library that supports PowerLines’ work. When writing their project proposal, communities and individuals should consider how they are confronting utility costs, addressing electricity access, and the economic realities and limitations of energy use.
The fellowship will run from May 15, 2026, through August 15, 2026. This is a paid fellowship offering a $30,000 stipend over the 3-month period. Applicants must have a proven track record of working on economic and human issues with sensitivity and depth, and they approach storytelling with both rigor and creativity.
Deadline: April 15, 2026
7. [NEW] The Global Arts Prize
This prize celebrates artists and creative ventures spearheading an innovative approach to the relevance of the arts in our time. Each year, $60,000 USD is awarded between two winners — regardless of size, location, or focus area — for their contributions to the future of culture. It is open to all arts and humanities initiatives leading innovative work, regardless of size, discipline, or stage of development. From emerging startups to established institutions, the Prize recognizes organizations redefining the relevance of the arts in today’s society.
Deadline: April 20, 2026
8. [NEW] Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Public Service Journalism
This prestigious award is for mid-career opinion journalists and news reporters. It awards up to $100,000 to support mid-career journalists who specialize in fact-based commentary, giving you time away from daily responsibilities to pursue a project that enhances your journalistic skills and results in public service journalism. Funds can be used to cover travel, research materials, and living expenses while fellows focus fully on their project.
Deadline: April 20, 2026
9. Financial Goals Scholarships - For College Students
Do you have an awesome financial goal? Is college your first step in getting there? Then, you can enter the Financial Goals Scholarship and win $2,000 to help make your dreams a reality. Available to U.S. citizens and Permanent Residents 18 or older, enrolled or planning to enroll in college.
Deadline: April 30, 2026
10. [NEW] Sharon Begley Science Reporting Award - For Journalists
This award comprises a career prize, recognizing the accomplishments of a mid-career science journalist, and a grant of at least $20,000 to enable the winner to undertake a significant reporting project. Awardees will also be paired with a senior science journalist who will serve as a professional mentor to help support the project. Candidates should have been working journalists for at least 8–10 years, including significant experience in science journalism, or provide equivalent evidence of commitment to the field. Time spent as an editor counts toward eligibility.
Deadline: April 30, 2026
11. [NEW] Rooted + Relational Community Micro-Grant
This award funds up to $5,000 for community-based projects that work to examine how race, gender, sexuality, and body politics shape the everyday lives and histories of Boricuas across the archipelago and diaspora. The 2026-2027 the Rooted + Relational theme is Black Cuerpas: Race, Body Politics & Culture.
Deadline: April 30, 2026
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