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Impact Collaborative

The ZAP Impact Collaborative program is intended to identify and facilitate individualized opportunities for Tier II grantees to build organizational capacity – through curated networking, workshops, trainings, and mentoring. 

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ZAP Impact Program Guidelines

CONGRATULATIONS to the ZAP Collaborative Program's First Cohort!

After reviewing Interest Forms submitted by Tier II grantees a selection committee chose eleven organizations to participate in the first Collaborative cohort.

Cottonwood Heights Arts Council
Excellence in the Community
Flamenco del Lago
Lyrical Opera Theater
Make Salt Lake
Mental Healthy F.i.T.
Midvale Arts Council
Millcreek Arts Council
Salt Lake Academy of Music
Story Crossroads
Wasatch Theatre Company

The program will bring together 10-15 Tier II grantees who are similarly positioned whether in budget size, discipline, staff size, or organizational priorities. Participants will be selected through assessment of an Interest Form, a review of the most recently submitted ZAP Tier II Application, and in consideration of cultural and geographic diversity of Salt Lake County.

The program is structured as monthly two-hour meetings over the course of six months. Topics covered will be focused on issues most relevant and important to the selected organizations. Sessions may cover topics such as board recruitment and management, leadership development, program evaluation and data collection, or fundraising and development among various other topics.

Monthly meetings may be structured as panel discussions, presentations, casual coffee conversations with industry leaders, or perhaps field trips. As with the topic selection, the structure of the meetings will be catered to selected cohort members’ needs. Where one group may benefit from a training session on sponsorship development and a tour of a performing arts venue, another group may best be served from board training and discussions with board chairs from large community nonprofit organizations.

The schedule, topics covered, and structure will all be finalized in consultation with selected cohort members.

IMPACT COLLABORATIVE GOAL

The goal of this program is to provide the resources and support to our Tier II grantees to bring them to their next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity so that they may more efficiently advance their mission.

Every one of the ZAP grantees (and broader arts and culture community members) holds expertise in many areas whether being successful development officers, engaged community connectors, or administrative wizards. The vision of the Impact Collaborative is to support the growth and economic stability of our Tier II community through various learning and networking opportunities as well as through fostering our community connections between one another to achieve organizational growth and achieve each organization’s personal definition of success.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be considered for this program organizations must:

  1. Have been awarded for the ZAP 2023 Tier II cycle.

  2. Be able to commit to the full schedule of trainings.
    • The same organizational representative will attend all trainings, as attendance is mandatory. Other organizational representatives are welcome to fill in as needed.
    • Organizations can send up to two representatives to each session.

Selection Criteria

One goal of the Impact Collaborative program is to build a network of resources through colleagues, shared experiences, and knowledge. The selection of participants will be based on finding organizations that have similar needs. This may mean that the group is comprised of organizations working in the same discipline, have a similar budget size, or work with and in similar communities. Due to this priority of grouping similar organizations into the same cohort, the selection process will be heavily influenced by the organizational needs reported on the Interest Form.

The selection committee may be comprised of ZAP staff, ZAP advisory board members, and County staff. The selection committee will review all submitted Interest Forms and will also utilize information submitted in the organization’s most recently completed ZAP Tier II grant application. This may include audience and staff information from the SmartSheets form as well as narrative responses.

The Selection Committee will prioritize: 

  1. Organizations that have received ZAP funding for the last three years. Organizations that do not meet this criteria will still be considered. 
  2. “Medium” sized organizations as defined by; 
    1. Organizations with average three-year organizational budgets of approximately $75,000 to $500,000 
      1. While our selection committee will target organizations in this range, those outside of this range will not be disqualified from consideration. 
    2. Organizations with at least one paid staff person (full-time or part-time) 
  3. Organizations who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts in their organization (as described in their ZAP Tier II application); 
  4. Organizations with similar needs for capacity building support, as indicated in the Interest Form responses. 

We understand that all organizations have a need for capacity building support. The intention of the first year of this program is to group like organizations with similar needs together so that the group can begin at a similar starting point.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

No. This program will not impact the annual grant review process. Additionally, information gathered in the Interest Form, will not be used as review material for future grant application reviews.

There is no additional funding for participating in this program.

This is a pilot program and while we plan to continue the program in future years, we will not know for sure until late 2024. In the meantime, we plan to offer other learning, training, and networking opportunities throughout the year, open to all community members. Please be sure to follow our social pages @slcoZAP and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming opportunities.

There will be a webinar on Thursday, January 11, 2024 where you will be able to ask questions. OR

Please feel free to reach out to Kelsey Ellis, ZAP Impact Program Manager at kmellis@slco.org with additional questions.