Alastair Moock performs at Passim in Harvard Square. Moock won an Iguana Fund grant from the nonprofit last year that allowed him to create an album that was distributed free for kids with cancer. (Photo: Dan Tappan)

Passim has added a week to the deadline applications for its Iguana Music Fund grants, which give artists between between $500 and $2,000 for their project pitches made by 5 p.m. Oct. 23.

Artists with an affiliation to New England either by residence or tour history can apply, and the awards area is broad: career-building projects or projects that provide community service through music. That could be anything from support for recording, manufacturing, publicity and marketing to instrument repair or replacement, additional equipment and instruments or whatever special projects an artist can envision.

“Passim has a unique commitment to the Boston music community,” said Dan Hogan, executive director of the Harvard Square club and nonprofit organization. “Programs like Passim’s Iguana Music Fund … allow us to nurture continuous generations of performers. Many of the grants we have provided have made a huge difference in the lives and careers of the artists who have received them.”

The deadline change resulted from moving the application process to early fall from spring, Passim publicist Adam Klein said Tuesday. Managers worried “that this didn’t make it on everyone’s radar,” he said.

The Passim Iguana Music Fund was launched in 2008 after an anonymous donor approached Passim with the idea to start a program to help local artists. To date, nearly $150,000 has been awarded – more than $40,000 of it last year to 24 area musicians that Hogan said included Kristin Andreassen, Tom Bianchi, David Champagne, Maya de Vitry, Antje Duvekot, Lorne Entress, Mark Erelli, Kristen Ford, Connor Garvey, Jenee Halstead, Ward Hayden, Matt Heaton, Shannon Heaton, Gregory Liszt, Aoife O’Donovan, Vinx Parrette, Hayley Reardon, Eric Royer, Laurence Scudder, Bethel Steele, Natalie Sara Weaver, Brian Webb, Natalia Zukerman and Alastair Moock.

“The 2013 Iguana Fund grant helped me create an album for kids with cancer which has now been distributed to nearly 1,500 patient families around the country,” Moock said. “In an era when musicians are increasingly giving away their work for free – sometimes by choice, as in this case, oftentimes not – patronage of the arts has never been more important. The Iguana Fund is one of the very best and most accessible organizations out there directly supporting musicians in their work.”

Recipients of this year’s grant will be announced in early December.

For information about the Passim Iguana Music Fund, visit passim.org.