Funder Spotlight: Created by an Oscar Winner, the Jerome Foundation Backs Film and More

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IP Funder Spotlights provide quick rundowns of the grantmakers on our radar, including a few key details on how they operate and what they’re up to right now. Today, we’re catching up with the Jerome Foundation, which supports early-career artists, works in Minnesota and New York City, and was looking at ways to make life easier for grantees well before COVID. 

Where the money comes from

Inside Philanthropy readers of a certain age (we’re looking at you, baby boomers) may remember the 1961 film “The Sand Castle,” a slightly surreal flick about a day on the beach as seen through the lens of a little boy, his sister and the sand castle they create and populate with a range of imaginary characters. 

The founder of the Jerome Foundation, Jerome Hill, didn’t win his Oscar for “The Sand Castle.” Hill, who primarily directed documentaries, was instead awarded a golden statuette for his 1957 documentary of Albert Schweitzer. But the creative breadth of “The Sand Castle”—featuring both black-and-white and color cinematography, a dream sequence, and a frustrated painter who does his best to capture the ever-changing scene—is far more illustrative of the scope of creativity supported by Hill’s foundation. Like the multi-talented director, who passed away in 1972, his philanthropy engages with creative endeavors of all types, and isn’t afraid to color outside the lines when it comes to grantmaking practices.

Where the money goes 

The application cycle for virtually all of the Jerome Foundation’s programs are over for the year, but get your calendar ready—if you’re based in either Minnesota or New York City and are involved in creating almost any kind of art, you may want to set yourself a reminder for the next available cycle. Here are a few of the available opportunities:

While Hill was also a painter and composer, film was his vocation. And thus, support for filmmakers makes up a large portion of Jerome Foundation grant opportunities. There are grants of up to $30,000 for film, video and digital production in both Minnesota and New York City. There’s also a grant program for Minnesota-based film, video and digital artists.

Individual artists “in all disciplines” may want to apply for individual artist fellowships, while arts organizations that work to support early-career artists may qualify for an arts organization grant. Are you holding a convening or doing research to support early-career artists? Jerome has grants for that, too, which are made throughout the year.

And if you’re an artist who has received a Jerome Foundation grant in the past five years, you just might receive an invitation to apply for a fellowship in the south of France—specifically, via the Jerome@Camargo program, which hosts Jerome beneficiaries in Cassis, France, at the Camargo Foundation, Jerome Hill’s second foundation, sited on his former home in France. Or at least, that invitation may come after the artists whose trips were canceled due to COVID-19 have been rescheduled. 

Who can (and can’t) secure funding 

Jerome is very specific in its focus on early-career or emerging artists. For this funder’s purposes, that means artists who may have been working for up to 10 years or even a bit longer but who, according to the foundation, “are NOT at a point in their careers where they receive consistent development and production opportunities and significant recognition, awards, and acclaim.”

Other criteria apply, as well. Jerome supports artists who are generating their own original work. Translators, actors or artists who are producing, interpreting, or in other words “covering” already-existing work don’t qualify, and Jerome also doesn’t fund students in degree-granting arts programs. There are some other criteria, which the funder has outlined relatively clearly on its website. 

One cool thing to know 

In word and deed, Jerome is dedicated to diversity in the arts. The foundation has cast its net way outside the usual suspects in the arts funding world to focus on supporting BIPOC-led arts organizations and BIPOC artists themselves. For example, Jerome is one of the funders partnering with McKnight, Ford and Bush foundations in the recently announced Regional Cultural Treasures program in Minnesota, providing $600,000. Jerome’s president, Ben Cameron, said that the funder has also given $400,000 to the New York Community Trust for strengthening BIPOC arts organizations in New York City. News is also in the works for a third related grant “of significant size (for us)” that isn’t yet ready to be announced. 

The funder is also walking its talk. Jerome Foundation’s checks aren’t coming from an organization with the usual board makeup of old, white men. Instead, the funder has recruited a board leadership that’s as diverse as the work and the people they’re funding. Earlier this month, the board welcomed a New York City artist, Helga Davis, as its newest member. Cameron said that, with her arrival, the population of Jerome’s board is now 78% BIPOC and 67% female. The board has a diverse range of ages as well, with 44% baby boomers, 22% millennials, and 33% Gen X. 

As Mike Scutari reported for IP in April, Jerome also took creative steps to make grantseekers’ lives easier before the COVID pandemic made such steps more popular, and is doing what it can to support BIPOC-led arts organizations and artists and to look beyond the current evolving crisis to help underfunded artists survive long term. 

Latest moves

In addition to a new board member, participating in America’s Cultural Treasures, and the as-yet-to-be announced grant, Cameron told me that Jerome is testing a pilot program for leadership at Minnesota arts organizations. The invitation-only program, he said, is “designed to support [leadership] searches and/or discretionary funds for new leaders.” The program is intended to assist Minnesota arts organizations with mounting effective searches for new leadership, and provide the resources so that incoming leaders can launch new programs or initiatives. 

Cameron said that Jerome is receiving gratitude for these initial grants “disproportionate to the amount we are actually spending,” which probably demonstrates just how much this kind of program is needed in the arts (if not the entire nonprofit) world. 

Cause for hope

I asked Cameron to tell IP readers about either the most hopeful trend he sees happening in philanthropy and/or something that has given him and his staff joy over the past year. His answer addressed both questions. 

Cameron said that many of MacKenzie Scott’s recent grants, particularly those to the arts (including Jerome Foundation grantees) have been “fantastically cheering.” In terms of trends, Cameron added, “We are also seeing greater recognition of the importance of general operating support and of how past practices have contributed to weak capitalization of arts groups over time. Our hopes are that the commitment to operating support and to capital health will continue.”