Grants For Creators™

Grants For Creators™

September 2026 Grants for Visual Artists, Filmmakers, Authors, and More!

Fund your projects and ideas.

Danielle Desir Corbett's avatar
Cielo Diaz's avatar
Danielle Desir Corbett and Cielo Diaz
Aug 10, 2026
∙ Paid

As we approach Fall, the busiest grant cycle of the year, we hope you are as excited about what’s in store as much as we are! ✨

➡️ This newsletter currently features (127) grants, fellowships, residencies, and other funding opportunities for U.S.-based creatives totaling approximately $2,051,193.

We will continue digging and add more awards weekly, so stay tuned!

➡️ Click here for our October 2026 Grants Roundup!

Updated September 15, 2026.


How To Find Grants via Our Newsletter

New here? Our grants list is chronologically ordered from September 1st to September 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 September grants as we find them.

  • Artists: #4 (Featured), 1 (Alaska), 7, 9 (Kentucky), 11 (Rhode Island), 12 (Ohio), 13 (Alabama), 14 (Wake County), 17 (Colorado), 21 (Guilford & Randolph County), 22 (North Carolina), 25 (Vermont), 27 (Dallas), 31 (New Orleans), 37, 39 (Broward County), 41 (Broward County), 48 (Minnesota), 61 (California), 62, 65 (Dutchess/Organe/Ulster Counties), 86 (Oregon), 91 (Arizona), 92, 94 (Houston), 95 (Houston), 103 (Southern), 112 (Western Colorado), 115 (North Carolina)

  • Authors/Writers: #6 (Featured), 8 (Emerging), 23 (Fiction), 29 (Greater Philadelphia; Women), 44 (Minnesota), 60, 62, 82 (Travel), 101

  • Ceramics: #117

  • Choreographers: #98 (New England), 99

  • Community Enhancement Leadership: #16 (Portland), 71 (College Students), 102 (Ohio), 114 (Bend, Oregon), 118 (Portland)

  • Creatives: #1 (Featured; Women), 55, 59, 61 (California), 84 (Mecklenburg County), 94 (Houston)

  • Curators: #33

  • Directors: #99

  • Entrepreneurs/Small Businesses: #45 (Virginia), 49 (Connecticut; Women), 59, 64 (Queens), 73, 74 (Early Stage), 75, 77 (Moms), 87 (Women), 88 (Texas), 107 (Moms), 109 (Women)

  • Farmers: #93 (BIPOC)

  • Fiber Artists: #4

  • Filmmakers: #24 (Phoenix), 36 (Production Companies), 38 (Documentary), 54, 67, 100, 108 (Native/Indigenous), 119 (Documentary)

  • Gender Justice: #28

  • Graphic 3D Creators: #18

  • Humanities: #70

  • Journalists: #8 (Featured; Women & Nonbinary), 30, 51, 53, 56, 71, 79, 90 (Mid-Career), 100, 106

  • Musicians: #3 (Pre-Collegiate), 43 (Minnesota)

  • News Organizations: #2

  • Nonprofits: #3 (Featured), 5, 10 (Southern), 15 (Chicago), 19, 26 (Tech), 32, 35 (Central Texas), 57 (Denver), 78 (North Dakota), 94 (Houston), 97, 113 (Montana)

  • Performing Artists: #20 (Indiana), 89 (Boston)

  • Photographers: #2 (Featured), 42, 72 (Early Career), 100

  • Playwrights: #58 (Science)

  • Podcasters: #46, 100

  • Poets: #60

  • Public Policy Professionals: #90 (Mid-Career)

  • Research: #5 (Featured), 50, 63, 68, 90 (Mid-Career), 116

  • Scholars: #6 (Featured)

  • Scholarships: #69 (College Students), 83 (College Students), 111

  • Screenwriters: #7 (Featured), 6

  • Sculptors: #110

  • Startups: #88 (Texas)

  • Storytellers: #52

  • Travel & Tourism: #76

  • Visual Artists: #20 (Indiana), 24 (Phoenix), 34 (Early Career), 40 (Broward County), 47 (Providence), 66, 80 (Portland), 81 (Connecticut), 85 (Los Angeles County), 89 (Boston), 96 (New York City; Emerging), 104 (Buffalo), 105 (Buffalo)


[FEATURED GRANTS]

1. The Audacious Voyage Grant - For Women Creatives

This grant funds projects that bring together three things: a real journey, a real environmental thread, and a real creative outcome. The voyage can be anything: an ocean crossing, a wilderness expedition, a human-powered journey, or an environmental observation project. What matters is that it takes you somewhere physically and demands something of you. The environmental component doesn’t require scientific credentials or formal research. It asks that you go somewhere, pay attention to what’s happening to the natural world around you, and bring that truth back. The creative work, whether a film, photo essay, written narrative, audio piece, or exhibition, is how that truth reaches an audience. The format is yours.

Applicants must identify as women and be undertaking a qualifying first-time transformative project. This doesn't mean you've never done anything - it means this project represents a meaningful first: leading an expedition, producing a major creative work, undertaking an adventure of new scale, or connecting exploration with environmental advocacy for the first time. $10,000 will be awarded.

Deadline: September 1, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


2. [NEW] The VMFA Aaron Siskind Award - For Contemporary Photography

This award supports early- to mid-career artists and established photographers who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to their practice but may not yet have received significant critical recognition. Two artists will each receive an unrestricted prize of $25,000. This material support is meant to enable photographers to complete a meaningful body of work—whether continuing or finalizing a photographic series; developing an exhibition, monograph, or book project; or pursuing another major creative endeavor.

Deadline: September 1, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


3. The Prism Foundation Community Grants - For Nonprofits

This opportunity funds projects that make a strong, positive impact on the API and LGBTQIA+ communities. Grants range from $1,000 to $5,000 and provide core funding to under-resourced and/or underrepresented local community organizations and projects.

Deadline: September 7, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


4. Princeton Arts Fellowship

This opportunity is awarded to artists whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. Applicants for this cycle should be early-career dancers, theater and music theater performers, and musicians who would benefit from spending two years teaching and working in an artistically vibrant university community. A $93,000-per-year stipend is provided. Fellowships are not intended to fund work leading to an advanced degree.

Deadline: September 8, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


5. [NEW] The Rolex Explorers Club Grant - For Scientific Research

This opportunity sends extraordinary explorers into the field, advancing science, deepening our understanding of the environment, and connecting our history to our future. The grant is open to explorers conducting fieldwork that addresses a novel scientific, environmental, or historical question in any discipline. In addition to demonstrating a spirit of exploration, candidates must submit a project or research proposal with a clear scientific rationale, original work, and the potential for significant impact or new understanding. Awards are $10,000.

Deadline: September 14, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


6. The Dedalus Foundation’s Senior Fellowship Program - For Writers & Scholars

Under this program, fellowships are awarded to writers and scholars who have demonstrated their abilities through prior accomplishments and are not currently enrolled in academic programs. It encourages and supports critical and historical studies of painting, sculpture, and allied arts from the twentieth century. Fellowship stipends vary by project needs, up to $30,000.

Deadline: September 15, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


7. [NEW] The STARZ #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive - For Screenwriters

This empowering program nurtures new voices in television. This initiative provides emerging writers with the opportunity to refine their skills and develop original spec scripts under the hands-on guidance of top-tier mentors, executives, and experienced writers. In 2026, we will select four writers to participate in both phases. In Phase 1, participants will connect with 15 industry professionals from a wide array of TV backgrounds while crafting a spec episode treatment. In Phase 2, each writer will write a full spec episode script based on an existing STARZ series and receive support from an industry mentor. Selected writers will receive a $5,000 grant.

Deadline: September 15, 2026

Apply to this opportunity.


8. [NEW] The IWMF Fault Lines Reporting Fund - For Women & Nonbinary Journalists

This opportunity supports journalists reporting on the forces driving racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and other forms of intolerance promoting hate in the United States. Successful applications will examine how false, divisive, and harmful narratives – such as stories that promote or normalize hate, discrimination, and the dehumanization of individuals and communities – take hold, including what is fueling them, where they are most pronounced, the scope of their impact, and where individuals and communities are making real progress in combating these hate-based agendas.

The three-year program is open to individual women and nonbinary journalists as well as teams of all genders led by women and nonbinary journalists. Applicants may be freelance or staff journalists reporting in the United States who have a strong track record of producing exceptional journalism. The selection process will award grants based on merit, reach, and the demonstrated need for funding. Grant awards will range from $2,500 to $10,000.

Deadline: Rolling

Apply to this opportunity.


Thank you for previewing our monthly Grants For Creators newsletter.

This is as far as free subscribers go.

We invest 20+ hours a week researching and curating the most relevant funding opportunities for U.S. creators and small business owners, all in one place. Your paid subscription supports our small, dedicated team working behind the scenes every day to keep this resource up to date with the latest finds. Thank you for supporting our work.


This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2026 Danielle Desir Corbett · Publisher Privacy ∙ Publisher Terms
Substack · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture