America250 Grant Recipient Toolkit

​​​​​​​Congratulations on receiving an America250 project grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board this year!

To activate your grant award, follow the steps outlined below: ​​​

1. ​By April 1 - Complete your grant agreement.

  • Log in to SmartSimple.
  • Access your grant agreement by selecting In Progress under the Requires Attention section of your SmartSimple home page.
  • Open the item that says Grant Agreement in the Activity Type column.
  • Complete, scan and upload the Credit Line and Logo Use Form​.
  • Click the Open Grant Agreement button. Print and sign the grant agreement, then scan and upload the signed document as a PDF file. Upon receipt, we will add our signature and upload a copy of the final completed contract back to that site for your records.

2. April - Notify your WI legislators and the Governor that you receieved this grant.

  • Write a letter of thanks to the Governor, your state senator, and your state assemblyperson. Explain the importance of state support for the arts and how that support not only helps your organization but also the state as a whole. ​
  • Upload these letters along with your signed grant agreement and Credit Line and Logo Form. 

​3. April - Add your event to WI's America250 event page: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=HNHi9OT6O0W2wClkZjd5qhjt_bUfizdPuU11qLnlYIRUOVJCVklERUc2VEhUQ0oySlRLNDJHMVVQSy4u
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4. April - Include (or plan to include) the 3 logos and the WAB credit line in your print and electronic project-related materials.

​​WHS America 250.jpg     or      America250_WI.png​

    • ​The credit line language to use is: "This project is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts."​​


5. January 30, 2027 OR 30 days following your project end date, whichever comes first - Submit your final report for this project.​

  • After you login to SmartSimple, you will see the home screen with two sections. The top section titled Welcome… shows the in-progress and approved/declined applications.
  • The section titled Requir​es Attention sho​ws the in-progress and submitted activities associated with your applications. The final report is one of these activities.​

6. Notify your local media and stakeholders (board, staff, members, etc.) - this is something we strongly recommend

7. Track the impact of your grant - this is something we require

  • Throughout the project, track the number of people that your project serves, including youth.
  • Track exactly where the funds were used (personnel, marketing, production costs, etc.). This information will be required for your final report. 
  • Document people engaging wi​th your artistic work
    • ​Share photos and media and also explain that this is supported through a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
    • Share photos online and link/tag the Wisconsin Arts Board
    • Gather photo credit information, when available. 
  • K​eep track of project successes or areas where improvements could be made.​​
  • If possible, track the social/economic impact of this grant within your community (including its impact on youth, elders, within communities of color, within the disability community, etc.). Americans for the​ Arts has developed a helpful tool for tracking this data: https://ww2.am​ericansforthearts.org/explorer.​