- Amount
- $250, no strings attached
- Awarded
- Monthly
- Open to
- For-profit and nonprofit ideas that strengthen Charlotte’s creative community
- Track record
- 600+ H.U.G.s awarded across Mecklenburg County since 2017
Your $250 gift can change a creative’s life.
Every month, Charlotte Is Creative awards Helpful Unfettered Gifts, or H.U.G.s, to help local artists, makers, and creative entrepreneurs take their next step. Try something new. Move a career forward.
Each H.U.G. is a $250 micro-grant that clears a small obstacle, like supplies, space rental, or the launch of a project, program, service, or product that might otherwise stall.
Since 2017, with support from private citizens and corporate donors, CIC has awarded more than 600 H.U.G.s to creatives across Mecklenburg County. Many of Charlotte’s standout creative businesses and artists started right here, with a single H.U.G.
Donate or Sponsor a H.U.G.
Your gift puts real money directly into a creative’s hands, fueling new ideas, local jobs, and the creative energy that keeps Charlotte thriving.
See every H.U.G. we have funded. En español: Programa de Micro-Becas HUG.
What’s a H.U.G.?
There’s a first time for everything. And, to do it, you’ll need an idea, a plan, a budget, confidence, luck and, possibly, A H.U.G.
A H.U.G. (Helpful Unfettered Gift) is a $250 micro-grant awarded monthly to help Charlotte creatives move “a first” – a new project, product or performance they’ve never done before forward. H.U.G.s are open to both for-profit and nonprofit ideas that strengthen Charlotte’s creative community.
H.U.G.s can fund:
- Materials or equipment allowing you to do new work
- Space rental or permits
- Marketing, design, or printing
- Legal or professional services
- Prototype or production costs
- Start-up costs for a new event
How It Works
- Apply right here — it takes about 10 minutes.
- If selected, you get $250 — no strings attached — to move your idea ahead.
- Share your story and inspire the next creative.
- Apply for a H.U.G.
Need some advice on the best practices for applying? Here you go!
COMING SOON: Meet last month’s H.U.G. grantees
Get a HUG
Need some advice on the best practices for applying? Here you go!
COMING SOON: Meet last month’s H.U.G. grantees
The Extra Squeeze
Each month, one H.U.G. recipient from the previous month is selected for an Extra Squeeze — an additional $250 and a custom promotional package thanks to our partners at Bogues Group, SpringClean Global, Charlotte Five and Charlotte Is Creative.
You can’t apply for it — it’s our way of giving an extra lift to a creative who’s going above and beyond.
$250 Micro-Grant HUG
HUGs (Helpful Unfettered Gifts) are $250 strings-free micro-grants – aka “Love Bombs of Cash” – awarded monthly to non-profit and for-profit creative initiatives in Charlotte to help propel the project forward or remove a small obstacle to its overall success.
Creative Entrepreneurs Initiative
With funding from Wells Fargo, we’ve taken granting to a new level. With their help, we developed the Creative Entrepreneurs Initiative, providing creatives with funding AND access to 10 instructional sessions with business experts teaching them about:
- Contracts and Proposals
- Strategic Planning
- Success Measurement
- Marketing and PR
- Billing and Bookkeeping
- Incorporating
- Business Communication
We teach our creatives that their time is valuable and that they need to invest it in themselves. So, we pay them to attend the classes that will move them forward.
We don’t want to pick between handing out fish or fishing poles. We want to do both. The Creative Entrepreneurs Initiative allows us to do that.
PLEASE DONATE.
Charlotte needs creative ideas and projects.
Creative ideas and projects need finances to move forward.
And, the creatives behind them need to know they’re seen, appreciated, and supported.
In short, they need a HUG. And, that’s where you can help! Your donation makes this program possible.
Thank you for supporting the HUG Program!
Creativity, for me, came from the rawest, most emotional space and lived experience. Receiving a HUG was the monetary seedling I needed to create a peer-led community for bereaved young people. A community that fosters creativity and provides hope and support while on their education journey, whatever that may be. The same community I wish I had when I lost my parents.
Nathalie Santa Maria, Founder of Leaves from Stella
Give a HUG
How it works
- ApplyApply for a H.U.G. It takes about 10 minutes.
- Get $250If selected, you get $250, no strings attached, to move your idea ahead.
- Share your storyShare your story and inspire the next creative.
Questions people ask
What can a H.U.G. fund?
Materials or equipment that let you do new work, space rental or permits, marketing, design or printing, legal or professional services, prototype or production costs, and start-up costs for a new event.
What is the Extra Squeeze?
Each month, one H.U.G. recipient from the previous month is selected for an Extra Squeeze: an additional $250 and a custom promotional package from our partners at Bogues Group, SpringClean Global, Charlotte Five and Charlotte Is Creative. You cannot apply for it.