4Culture Grants + Calls

Sustained Support

Sustained Support assists with the day-to-day needs of arts, heritage, and preservation organizations over two-year cycles—this reliable, consistent support lets creativity flourish in the places that make King County a cultural hub. This grant is available for organizations and agencies—first time applicants, contact us with your questions!

Steps to apply

1 What Sustained Support Funds

1 What Sustained Support Funds

Artists and arts groups all over King County use Projects funding to create and share new work, to reimagine past work, to take advantage of learning opportunities, to pay for the material needs that bring their idea to life, and more.

Criteria

We fund all of our grants through a competitive process, carefully evaluating each application. For this particular grant, we focus on different criteria depending on what how your organization is structured and what type of work you do. Below we outline all the different types of organizations that can apply, and what we’ll look for—please contact us if you’re unsure of what category you fit into.

In addition to your reviewing your application, we will conduct an on-site review of your organization. Professionals from the field and community members provide written reports, which are given to the panelists considering your application. New applicants should contact 4Culture staff right away to set up an on-site visit.

Arts

For arts service organizations:
  • Clarity and achievement of your organization’s mission and goals.
  • Community impact and support, achieved through a consistent level of programming and accessibility for audiences.
  • Active role of artists in your organization’s mission and activities, and the continuity of artistic, management, and board personnel.
  • Financial accountability as demonstrated through board, audience, and contributed income.
For local arts agencies (LAAs):
  • Quality, scope, diversity, and impact of your annual programming.
  • Commitment of local government through dedicated staff, commission structure, and annual financial investment in cultural programming.
  • Responsiveness to community needs—including diverse populations—through strategic planning, programming, funding, collaboration, technical assistance, convening, and communications.
  • Growth and development of resources, scope, impact, and community participation.

Heritage

  • Professional staff with background and training in a field related to the organization’s core mission.
  • Professional standards adopted by the governing board of the organization, including policies and procedures relating to collection and resource management, conservation, archives, or operations.
  • Accreditations or certifications received from professional associations or other agencies, including the organization’s participation in the AASLH Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations (StEPs), Museum Assessment Program (MAP), and/or the Conservation Assessment Program (CAP).
  • Quality of existing and proposed programming and its relationship to the mission and goals of the organization. Diversity or range of programs available to the public.
  • Accessibility of services, including open hours of facilities. Community outreach, including efforts to expand and/or diversify visitors, membership, staff, and/or leadership.
  • Your organization’s contribution to the preservation, conservation or interpretation of resources relating to King County history and heritage, especially resources that represent neglected aspects of King County heritage.
  • Commitment or contribution to public service as reflected in your budget, including in-kind contributions from volunteers, the community, and partnering governments. The proportion or percentage of your budget actually devoted to King County history and heritage purposes.

Preservation

For non-profit organizations and development authorities:
  • Professional staff with background and training in historic preservation or a closely related field, and professional standards adopted by a governing board.
  • Quality programming related to historic preservation, diversity and reach of programs available to the public.
  • Accessibility of services, including open hours of facilities. Community outreach, including efforts to expand or diversify audience, membership, staff, and leadership.
  • Tangible contribution to the preservation, conservation, or interpretation of King County’s built environment. Focus on resources that represent neglected aspects of King County’s built environment.
  • Community support for an organization as reflected in its budget, including in-kind contributions from volunteers, the community, and or partnering governments. The proportion or percentage of the applicant’s budget actually devoted to preservation services.
For municipalities:
  • Commitment of local government, staff time dedicated to historic preservation, annual investment in preservation activity.
  • Volume and impact of activity, as reflected in survey/inventory, landmark designations, design review.
  • Additional program offerings, such as design guidance, technical assistance, interpretive programs, tours, or events related to preservation.
  • Community engagement, as reflected in advocacy efforts, partnerships, volunteerism. Community outreach: efforts to expand or diversify audiences served, efforts to diversify commission/board leadership.

On-Site Reviews

Organizations that apply for our Sustained Support and Cultural Facilities grants are evaluated by teams of on-site reviewers, who attend a scheduled event or open hours and provide written comments for use by grant review panels. Please contact Bret Fetzer at 206 263.1599 for more information about being an on-site reviewer.

Public Benefit: Why It Matters

Every time a visitor to Washington State stays in a hotel, they pay a Lodging Tax—this is where our funding comes from, and our mission is to put it back into the community. As you work through your application, tell us exactly how your fellow King County residents will be able to enjoy and learn from your work. Here are some ways you can provide public benefit:

  • Free performances, exhibitions, workshops, screenings, or readings.
  • Events in the often under-served areas of suburban or rural King County, to low-income, youth and senior groups, individuals with limited physical abilities, recent immigrants, or residents from minority races or ethnicities.
  • Free, electronically accessible materials, including literary publications, audio, or video recordings.

2 Are You Eligible?

2 Are You Eligible?

Sustained Support is available for King County-based non-profit organizations, local arts agencies, municipalities, and tribal governments. We award these funds based on an organization’s overall mission and accomplishments—this grant is not project-based.

The following types of organizations may apply:

Arts

  • Local arts agencies (LAAs) with a 3-year minimum operating history, and a record of artistic or cultural accomplishment.
  • Nonprofit organizations that provide arts programming to the public and those that provide services—training, administrative support, technical assistance, and more—to arts professionals. Organizations that do not have 501©(3) non-profit status may apply under the sponsorship of another 501©(3) “umbrella” organization.

Heritage

  • Federally-recognized 501©(3) historical museums and heritage organizations, public corporations, and tribal governments with a two-year minimum operating history of managing collections, and/or presenting exhibits and programs with a focus on King County heritage to the citizens of King County.

Preservation

  • Nonprofit organizations and public development authorities with a two-year minimum operating history of preserving one or more historic properties, assisting owners with the preservation of historic property, or conducting programs that interpret the built environment for the citizens of King County.
  • Municipalities with a landmarks program established by city ordinance, historic preservation services contracted through an interlocal agreement to the King County Historic Preservation Program (KCHPP), or city staff dedicated part- or full-time to historic preservation tasks. Staff and special commission members must have attended an interlocal cities training workshop, if offered, at least one city landmark nomination must have been submitted for review, survey and/or inventory of historic sites must have been conducted, and outreach or educational activity must have been conducted.

3 Helping you succeed

3 Helping you succeed

Workshops

Workshops make a huge difference in the success of your application—each year, we find that the strongest applications come from people who have attended a workshop.

Tutorial Video

Watch this step-by-step application tutorial video to assist you through the process of creating an account, starting your application, and saving it for later.

View last cycle’s Arts, Heritage, and Preservation applicants on our Past Grants page

Contact

Arts: Bret Fetzer, (206) 263-1599
Heritage:Brian Carter, (206) 263-1586
Preservation: Dana Phelan, (206) 263-1604

4 After You Submit

4 After You Submit

Timeline

The deadline for this grant is October 19, 2016 at 5:00 pm PDT. Most 4Culture grants take approximately three months from application deadline to when we announce our funding decisions.

Panel Process

We make all of our funding decisions through a panel process, in which a group of peers assesses your application. 4Culture staff facilitates the panel process, but does not vote or try to influence the outcome. This grant also includes a site review component—please contact 4Culture staff to set up an appointment.

Contracts and Payment

If we select your organization for funding, your grant manager will work with you to create a contract outlining a payment schedule.

Requirements and Appeals

Learn about what will be required if you are awarded a grant, and about the process for appeal of a 4Culture decision.

5 Apply

5 Apply

Once you’ve started your application, you can save after each step and sign out—your application will be saved as a draft that you can continue to work on up to the deadline. Once you hit “Submit,” your application is final. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions during the process.

What We Require

We will not consider your application without the materials listed here. We strongly recommend assembling them before you login and begin your application, and encourage you to call or email us with any questions as you work on these materials.

For nonprofit organizations:

  • Operating budget, formatted in 4Culture forms.
  • List of programs in the most the most recently completed program year, including the date or date range, number of occurrences, location, and estimated attendance.
  • Board or staff list, with titles.

For Local Arts Agencies:

  • List of staff dedicated to arts programming and the percentage of time allocated.
  • List of commissioners and board members.
  • List of annual arts programming for the most recently completed program year. Include date or date range, number of occurrences, location, and estimated attendance.
  • List of arts program related expenditures and income. The most recently completed cultural plan, if applicable.

For municipalities:

  • One-page roster of staff dedicated to historic preservation activities and programming, including the percentage of time allocated.
  • One-page list of commissioners/board members, their term limits and affiliations.
  • One-page budget of historic preservation program-related expenditures and revenue for the last two fiscal years.
  • Any recently completed municipal cultural plan that addresses historic preservation. Please submit only the portion of the plan that relates to historic preservation, and limit to 10 pages.