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Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI)
CALI Futures
Amount
Up to $5,000
Deadline
Aug 28, 2026
Odds
~20 per cycle
Effort
1–2 hours
Can you get this?
✓Must be individual artist or cultural worker
✓Must reside full-time in California
✓Must contribute to an alternative effort
✓Alternative involvement must start on or after Jan 1, 2020
✓Individuals and teams both eligible
Your real odds
The total annual pool is $100,000, split into roughly 20 grants of $5,000 each, so you are competing for one of twenty spots.
This is the program's first competitive round, running from 2026 through 2028, and CCI runs a multi-stage review that moves from staff to field practitioners to reference checks for top candidates, which means competition gets real in the later stages.
What it takes
Confirm eligibility: California residency, active artistic/cultural practice, and involvement in a qualifying alternative effort since January 1, 20201–2 hours
Draft your application: clear project request, description of your alternative-effort contribution, and a framing of its broader systemic implications5–10 hours
Submit via Submittable before the deadline30 minutes
Worth knowing
CCI contacts your references and reaches out independently to field contacts to verify your engagement, so list people who can speak specifically to your role in the alternative effort, not your artistic work in general.
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