Grant Proposal for the Academy of American Poets

Dear Sir,

Ref: Grant Proposal for the Academy of American Poets

The Academy of all poets in America would like to apply for a grant for its annual National Poetry Month.

Introduction

The Academy is a non-profit organization in nature, dedicated to celebrating great poetry. It has, for generations, successfully fostered poetry through the annual National Poetry Month; an active website; a six-monthly literary journal; and annual poetry appraisals and special occasions (Poetry Grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation, 2014). National Poetry receives national traction and attracts a large number of poetry lovers. The Academy’s commitment to contemporary poetry and commitment to facilitating poetic expression has placed it at the forefront of literary art.

Problem

The annual National Poetry Month, which is held every year in April, has for the past few months been hosted at the local YMCA. The YMCA insists on charging the Academy $5,000 to rent their space. Due to financial constraints, the Academy has to find another venue for the event. It has been progressively challenging to raise the amount of money required for the venue, and the Academy’s Board is anxious that these financial constraints will result in the activity’s closure.

Proposal

In line with the National Endowment for the Arts’ mission to bringing arts to all Americans, the Academy proposes to conduct a comprehensive social media campaign on literary art and to broaden the National Poetry Month audience to radio and TV broadcast. The School of poets in America would like to maintain the use of the local YMCA or use the facilities at the local community center (Williams, 2011).

Aside from maintaining the annual National Poetry Month, the Academy of poets in America endeavours to reach the widest possible audience. In order to increase the national audience for contemporary poetry, we propose to broadcast the National Poetry Month’s reading on public radio and TV. We will be working closely with Houston’s KUHF radio and KUHT television stations to advertise and broadcast the event. Each of these mediums will carry out a campaign prior to the event in order to attract participants to the readings (Cobb, 2011). The performances will additionally air as webisodes on the Academy’s website: poets.org.

The Academy will be interacting and working closely with the utmost contemporary performers of our time. These include Nick Flynn, Frederick Siedel, Mary Karr and C. D. Wright all of whom are enthusiastic to endorsing the essential place poetry occupies in our culture. Our goal is to attract Americans to poetry in the mass media and social media platforms.

Staffing

The Academy of American Poets is steered by a well capable team of ten directors. Each of the staff members has contributed greatly to American poetry and acquired sound experience in the field. The program will be under the stewardship of the Academy’s Executive Director, Jennifer Benker, who will be closely assisted by the Finance Director Eric Engleson.

Budget

We propose a budget of US$ 100,000 to support our social media campaign, radio and television advertising, and broadcasting. The expenses include program expenses, measuring effectiveness, governance and information dissemination (Radley, 2004).

Conclusion

The Academy is dedicated to encouraging Americans to make poetry a larger part of their lives. This mission is closely linked with that of the National Endowment for the Arts to sustaining and transforming the development of arts in the country (Warren, 1984). We trust that this plan will go a long way to bringing poetry to all Americans.

Yours sincerely,

Marketing Director