Grant Policy

For more than 20 years, the Foundation and its staff have been at work supporting the arts and sciences throughout Lower Saxony. There have been a number of changes in the environment over the years – in the foundation field on the whole, in cultural policy and in culture itself. This has all influenced the focus and the path of the Foundation’s grant policy. And it has sharpened the Foundation’s profile.

One thing has not changed: the determination of the Foundation office to assure all grant applicants that they are in good hands and will be treated according to well-proven principles. We cannot guarantee funding, but we can guarantee a reasonable and reasoned process of decision. And if, in spite of a favorable evaluation of project contents, funding is not possible, be assured that this is due to the financial limitations that affect the Foundation in its state-wide mission. For we cannot grant one cent more in any one year than we have in that year.

A mission-oriented grant policy, based on principles, and the funding of exemplary projects is one positive answer to the material limitations. And this is how we go about it:

· Funding is limited, but advice is not
Even if preliminary consultations lead to the conclusion that a project does not fit into the Foundation’s current profile, we still advise every applicant to the best of our ability, drawing on our years of experience and referring to the network that the Foundation is a part of.

· First look, then fund
No matter how good a project application sounds, no matter how supportive an advisory opinion might be – neither can replace personal perception. We talk to the people and receive an on site impression, if necessary, of the institutions and those responsible for the project.

· Fewer funders, more focus
When a number of institutions support a project, no one of them feels genuinely responsible for it. We give our support to fewer projects, but whenever possible as the only – or the main – funder. We get actively involved, at times from the first preliminary consultation through the application process and the grant. up to the last day of the audit.

· The pertinent external view: advisory opinions
Advice and evaluation by qualified persons is essential if standards of quality are to be maintained. Generally, the decisions the Foundation’s boards make are based on one – or, in complicated cases, two – external advisory opinions.

»To give the promotion of the arts a certain measure of stability« – this was one of the reasons that the Foundation of Lower Saxony was established in 1986. »To foster the development of the state in the interest of the common welfare« – that is what its ordinance demands. Both have something to do with financial resources, the amount of which we cannot completely influence. But both also have something to do with quality and contents. Here, we gladly accept full responsibility.