Applications are not open
Grants are personal, not charitable — PTD is a for-profit company and a grant from this account is NOT tax-deductible for the recipient. No application window is open yet.
This page is the working detail behind 30% of Vers Capital. It exists so that the terms of a grant are public before the first one is given, rather than written to fit whoever happens to receive it.
What a grant covers
The gap between the work being real and the work being fundable. Money that arrives after you are already selling is not the money that was needed.
- First sample and small production runs.
- Shoots, lookbooks and campaign assets.
- Materials, tooling and manufacturing deposits.
- The listing itself, so a grant never costs the recipient a fee.
The terms
| Term | Position |
|---|---|
| Repayment | None. A grant is not a loan and there is no schedule. |
| Equity | None. We do not take a stake in anything we fund. |
| Revenue share | None. We do not take a cut of what the funded work earns. |
| Exclusivity | None. You are not required to list with us, stay with us, or leave anywhere else. |
| Ownership | Yours. The work, the IP and the audience are yours before and after. |
| The listing fee | Waived on anything a grant paid for, so a grant never costs its recipient a fee back. |
The only thing we ask is that you tell us what happened. Not a report, not metrics. A message saying whether it worked.
Eligibility
What is decided: grants go to trans artists, brands and creatives; the work has to be real rather than a plan; and being funded is not conditional on selling through PTD.
Tax
We are not your accountant and this is not tax advice. It is stated here because a grant programme that leaves this ambiguous hands its recipients a problem twelve months later.
What we will not fund
- Anything where the money is the product. No re-granting, no funds of funds.
- Work already delivered and already paid for. This closes a gap, it does not reimburse.
- Ongoing operating costs. A grant is not a salary and cannot pretend to be one.
- Anything that needs us to hold or route a third party's money.
- Anyone we cannot pay without the payment itself becoming the story.
How to apply, when it opens
There is no form and no waitlist, because a waitlist for a programme with no criteria is a way of collecting hope. When a window opens it will be announced on the Vers Capital page and here, with the criteria and the amounts published at the same time.
If you want to be told when that happens, join the CLUB or write to zo@studiozonyc.com. Neither one is an application and neither improves your odds.