Each year Stitch gives a portion of its proceeds to charity. Recipients have included The Lupus Foundation, Armstrong Community Music School and The SIMS Foundation. Last year, for the first time Stitch was proud to give away the Stitch Craft & Art Indie Upstart Grant for the first time in Stitch history. Our grant winners were Freshie & Zero and Vinca. We loved the warm fuzzy feeling we got from doing this so much that we want to offer this grant for a second year. Our community is busting at the seams with creative, inventive, smart peeps with the most amazing ideas. They are out there right now dreaming up designs, planning a business, inventing stuff, and hand-making lovely things. We want to encourage this! Yes! We want to help someone totally awesome with a kick-ass business idea get started (or continue to grow) their rad company. We are super excited about this grant, as it will further our efforts to build and connect our creative community. We will give the grant recipient a minimum of $1000 raised from the application fees from this form (20 clams a pop) and our charity raffle to be held at Stitch on November 10, 2007. If that isn’t cool enough, we will also be giving away a second award with gifts and donations from various local businesses. The grant winners will also be invited to participate in Stitch 2008 and will be featured on the STITCH website. Do you want to apply? Have we described your crafty self to perfection? We are so excited to see what you have in store for us, but first, we must present the rules: -You must submit an application by October 1, 2007. Please print out, sign and send your completed application to the address below with your $20 application fee (non-refundable) made payable to Stitch Productions. Stitch Grant c/o Jesse Kelly Landes po box 49503 austin, tx 78765-9503 -You must describe your goals for your business, you may include a business plan or something less dramatic, just show us that you have a sound idea cookin’. We want to know that you are serious about starting or growing your business. Show us what your plans are for making sure it is successful and how you are qualified to run a small independent business. - We also want to see the creative details about your biz too, so send pictures, samples, sketches, a poem or anything about your product to prove it is the bomb! -The award is open to anyone starting or growing an existing business. You must design and make a modern crafty product for retail. -The grant is open to anyone living in the United States, but you must be a participating in Stitch, either on the runway or in the guerilla craft fair (application deadline for participation is August 15, 2007). -Winners will be announced at Stitch, November 10, 2007. -Incomplete or late applications will not be considered for the grant.