Our funding sources

As the principal channel of public funding for the arts in Scotland, the Scottish Arts Council receives most of its funding from the Scottish Government.  We also distribute funds from the National Lottery to the arts in Scotland. We distribute the funds that we receive through both regular revenue funding of key organisations and project funding to individuals and organisations.

Most of our project funding is channelled through what we call ‘open funds’, to which any person or organisation who meets the basic eligibility requirements can apply.  These funds are competitive; it is important to check the individual requirements of all our available open funds for the period 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.

We also have funds which we use to enable us to deliver some of our strategic priorities, either through competitive programmes which can only be applied to by identified groups (such as local authorities) or through one-off grants to partners with whom we have been working to deliver certain objectives.  These are called ‘managed funds’ and application is by invitation only. 

The application process

• If your application is successful, we will let you know the source of your grant.  
• If you would like to know the source of any of our funding before making an application, please contact our Grants Department.