Voordekunst & het Cultuurfonds
Accessible application system for cultural funding
With a new and user-friendly application route, individual creators and collectives can apply for funding from the Cultural Fund. Partner voordekunst can, in collaboration with the Cultural Fund, easily manage (pre)applications and budgets, and also process approvals or rejections.
The challenge
A smooth, fast application flow for creators and reliable management of applications
Creators need a clear application process, with quick feedback on their application. The Cultural Fund is happy to support individual creators and collectives and joins forces with partner voordekunst for this purpose.
The solution: a user-friendly and accessible application portal
No unnecessary forms
A manageable preliminary application for qualification before the creator proceeds with the full application
Response to the preliminary application within 1 week and response to the application within four weeks - exceptional in the funding world
The solution lies in matching the applicant to the right scheme (Development or Matchfunding) and the right (fund) budget. Together with voordekunst, Digital Natives has created a product that benefits both applicants and administrators, as three creators explain in Het Parool.
As a young creator, I am still searching. You have to write many applications, often without a response or with rejection [...]. It helps if the application process is accessible, as with this route from the Cultural Fund. Within six weeks, I had a result, super fast. I was also connected to voordekunst, where I receive a lot of practical guidance in PR and campaigning. That helps with visibility.
Our Approach
Quick Delivery and Further Development
With a quick launch in mind, we determined the strategy and goals with voordekunst in a short Discovery sprint. After that, the development team developed a first version of the product in a few weeks. After the initial go-live, we continued working on expanding the application portal and implementing a number of improvements.
The result
An application system to build upon
The result is an application system that is finely tuned to the process of voordekunst, the operation of the Cultuurfonds, and the practice of this time.
In a short preliminary application, it is first determined whether someone is eligible for funding. If so, they can make a final application for a development contribution (for research, training, experiment, and equipment) or a matchfunding contribution, a contribution to a crowdfunding campaign via voordekunst, for projects presented to the public.
By first submitting a preliminary application, the quality of the final applications is very high and it saves processing time at the fund. Additionally, the team at voordekunst can easily link an application to the right available budgets, and money is (temporarily) reserved for the continuation while awaiting the maker. More than 2000 applications have already been made in the system.
In the CMS, built with Laravel and Filament, preliminary applications and applications are received, assessed, and budgets allocated. Automatically sent emails guide the applicant through the process and the status of their (pre) application.
For the applicants, we have created a flexible application flow with Vue.js, fully in the style of voordekunst and the Cultuurfonds.
AI for process improvement - faster and targeted
To assess whether a project is eligible for funding, there are several considerations that the assessor goes through. Does this unique idea fit within the extensive criteria of the fund? And if not, where then?
With the use of AI, the system provides suggestions to match preliminary applications:
Which scheme fits the preliminary application?
Which fund fits / which funds fit with it?
Which budgets are still available from those funds?
The assessor thus receives suitable suggestions (provided the maker agrees to the use of AI,) and the suggestions help the assessors to work faster and more targeted. Ultimately, it is still people who make the decision.
The future
Connecting other funds
The simplicity and the focus on the applicant distinguish this product from traditional application systems and make it suitable to connect other funds to it alongside the Cultural Fund. In what we call 'white-labelling' - the ability to use the product under one's own brand name and logo - we make the system even more flexible.
