ABOUT THE NLP PUBLIC GOODS GRANTS
The NLP Public Goods Grants are an experiment in community-based income redistribution and resource sharing. For every 50 subscribers, NewLights gives $500 per year to an artists’ books/print/publication project that is helping to grow and care for the ecosystem and community. The grants are unrestricted and there are no reporting requirements. There is no application process. NLP subscribers nominate projects and then vote on which will be the final recipient.
The hope is that the grants will genuinely help grow infrastructure for the book/print/art community while also providing a proof of concept for other instances of non-competitive, democratic, public funding in the arts outside of traditional nonprofit fundraising and philanthropy.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Any project, press, organization, business, individual artist, etc. that is helping to grow and care for the artists’ books/print/publication community and ecosystem through the creation of some kind of public good. That “public good” could be resources, tools, online platforms, programming, classes, etc. This basic criteria is meant to be broad, open, and inclusive.
A voting boost will be given to projects that: a) are run by and/or primarily support people from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the field; b) are in the early stages of their development (5 years or less); and/or c) exist outside of the traditional nonprofit structure, such as co-ops and democratically-run projects.
HOW IT WORKS
Each year NewLights sets aside $500 for every 50 subscribers in a standalone savings account to be used for the grants. All of the money set aside is used for a single grant. So if NLP has 130 subscribers in a single year then the grantee will receive $1000 that year.
Towards the end of each year NLP subscribers will receive an email with instructions on how to submit nominations for possible grant recipients. NLP researches each nominee to see if they qualify for the voting boost described above.
After the nomination period ends, voting begins. Each subscriber is allowed one vote.
In the event of a two-way tie the available funds are split evenly. In the event of a three-or-more-way tie, a run-off vote between all of the tied nominees will be held.
The voting boost system kicks in if the most votes are cast for a nominee that does not meet the voting preference criteria. In that case, if the second-place nominee is eligible for the voting preference, and the difference between the two vote counts is less than or equal to 5% of the total votes cast, then the nominee with the voting preference will be the chosen grant recipient. For example: 70 total votes are cast, which means that 5% of the total votes cast is 4 (70 x .05 = 3.5, rounded to 4). If the first-place nominee does not meet the voting preference criteria but the second-place nominee does, and the difference between the two vote counts is 4 or less, then the second-place nominee will receive the grant.
The voting boost will also break a tie in favor of a nominee that does meet the voting preference criteria.
Grant funds will (hopefully) be distributed before the end of each calendar year.
NLP will maintain and make publicly available documentation of nominations, votes, and fund distribution for each year.
Grant recipients are ineligible for another NLP Public Goods Grant for the next three years.
The grant criteria and process will be refined from year to year as the need arises and NLP subscribers are very welcome to suggest changes to the process at any time.
2023 public goods grants nominees
This is the full list of the nominees for the 2023 (the first!) grant. The * indicates that the nominee meets the criteria for a voting boost. Voting took place from 12/9/23 to 12/16/23. The recipient will be announced soon.
Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective*
Moving Parts Press LATINX/CHICANX/POETX Broadside Series*
Burn All Books Scannners Archive*