FY2021 Annual Grant applications available October 15

From Hal Partlow, Associate Director of Grants –

Some changes are being introduced in FY2021 so before completing an application, it is strongly recommended that you first read the grant guidelines, which you can find on the individual grant pages located under Grant Opportunities. The format of the Grants area was designed to help you easily navigate the life cycle of a grant which has been broken down into 4 steps: Find, Apply, Review, and Manage.

The Grant Opportunities page lays out all 24 grants that the Arts Commission offers in a tile format. This page allows you to filter the guidelines for opportunities that are currently open, whether they are available to individuals or organizations, and if they offer operating or project support. Once you select an opportunity you will be taken to that grants page. On each of the grant pages, you will find guidelines on the left and important information on the right. This information includes the grant period covered, when the application opens, the deadline to submit your applications, who is eligible to apply and basic funding request limits. The guidelines may indicate other eligibility or grant requirements, so please read through them prior to initiating an application in our online system.

Remember that you will submit applications (and if awarded funds, manage your grant) through our online grant system. For those of you who are not registered in the system, please see the About the Online Grants System information here for complete information about how to register and keep your information up to date. Registration may take between 1-7 days to be approved. Please register prior to any grant opening or deadline to avoid missing a potential funding opportunity. 

The Commission is introducing a new operating support grant opportunity for small arts organizations that will allow for use of less restrictive funds, and help build capacity and develop leadership potential.  Small Rural Partnership Support and Small Urban Partnership Support will be available to approved arts organizations that exist in either a rural or an urban county (see guidelines for county list) beginning FY2021. This new grant was developed as a way to offer unrestricted operating support to those organizations who historically apply in a project support category, but lacked some of the necessities to move up into the Partnership Support category, notably the annual financial audit and a full-time employee requirements. Organizations applying for Small Rural (or Urban) Partnership Support must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization with a minimum of three years Commission funding in other categories in the last five years. Requests are based on a percentage of the organizations budget expenditures which will be verified by uploading to the application a Form 990 (“Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax”) that has been submitted to the IRS within the last 12 months. Like our other operating support categories, applications to this category will be reviewed on a competitive basis. If you feel that this category might be good for your organization, contact your program director to determine eligibility. Applications to this category will be reviewed on a competitive basis.