Some Ideas for Cultural Support Services Projects:

We share these examples to help inspire ideas. We welcome projects you have been working on and dreaming about.

Career Pathways

• Internship program that grows individual workers beyond a single organization or within a Tribe and reaches across the sector.
• Mentorship program that builds career pathways for youth and adults.
• Program to support elder practitioners advance in their careers and plan their legacies.
• Program to keep cultural knowledge among cultural workers within the sector.

Wellbeing

• Program to guide individual practitioners on enrolling or renewing health insurance.
• Program to support individual practitioners experiencing displacement within King County to navigate rent assistance programs.
• Educational programs for individual practitioners forming a cooperative model to increase ownership and sustainability.

Community Building and Organizing

• Collaborations to foster belonging and address systemic inequities for individual practitioners.
• Leadership cohorts to support the development and retention of sector leaders.

Technical Assistance and Professional Services

• Training programs for individuals to gain skills to advance their work.
• Programs that support the development of K-12 public school teachers and cultural and science educators who teach courses in one of 4Culture’s disciplines.
• Educational programs for individual practitioners to strengthen business practices.
• Program to support affordable legal assistance to individuals.
• Cooperative exchange and/or buying program for individual practitioners to access affordable supplies needed to complete their work.
• Equipment loan program with training to increase accessibility to work by individual practitioners.

Advocacy and Systems Change

• Joint outreach and communications campaign to connect individual practitioners with new and sustained audiences.
• Services to guide and train individuals advancing preservation initiatives and/or seeking landmark preservation status.
• Journalism apprentice program to raise visibility of individual practitioners within the sector.
• Program pilot to show the impact of individual practitioners on health outcomes, municipal planning, or other cross-sector industries.

Choice Type: 

• Continue: the proposed project continues and maintains existing services for individual cultural practitioners, demonstrates value in repeating this work over an extended period.
• Grow: the proposed project is a new initiative that is developed with, or in response to a need voiced by the intended individual practitioners.
• Evolve: the proposed project significantly expands your existing service’s scope, reach, or the intended individual practitioners you serve.

For this grant, a panel will evaluate your application based on the following five criteria: 

• Quality and Qualifications: your thought and reasoning behind your proposed project, how well your project activities and planning align with professional standards, best practices, or values of the community served. Evidence your project is informed and guided by the individual practitioners you serve. The qualifications of you and your project team align with the proposed project, its practitioners, and its intended impact. Qualifications can be experience, skill, training, or knowledge-based.
• Feasibility: your ability to complete your project within 36 months of the award date, as demonstrated by a balanced project budget and thoughtful planning. Your project budget and plan are realistic and achievable, and the funding amount is appropriate for the project.
• Project Impact and Public Benefit: how well your project meets the needs of individual practitioners beyond your organization or within your Tribe. How well your project addresses established needs in the community, a sector-wide trend, or relevant research on needs in the sector. Your project provides compelling and sustainable public benefit for individual cultural practitioners of King County that last beyond the project itself.
• Advancing Equity: 4Culture’s mission focuses on racial equity and envisions a county where culture is essential and accessible to all. Your project’s focus is on marginalized communities, especially communities that are disproportionately impacted by structural racism (e.g. serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, engaging BIPOC leaders within a community, etc.). This is not a requirement to apply for Cultural Support Services Projects funding, but sharing about your project’s equity work, however it manifests, will give the panel a fuller picture of how your project supports your community.

• Free workshops, trainings, or classes.
• 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 educational resources, research publications, audio, or video recordings.

• Have a mission that includes a focus on one of our four disciplines:
  • Arts: includes organizations or Tribes focused on creative place-making, cultural festivals, dance, design, film, folk and traditional arts, literary arts, multidisciplinary arts, music, theater, and visual arts.
  • Heritage: includes organizations or Tribes focused on the preservation and transmission of local history; ethnic history; Native cultures; folklore and intangible cultural heritage; and historic and archaeological resources.
  • Historic Preservation: includes organizations or Tribes focused on advocacy or assistance to preserve, promote, and sustain historic places; education about our historic built environment; or stewarding historic properties that serve as a venue for cultural activities.
  • Science and Technology: includes organizations focused on natural and social sciences, characterized by a formalized framework that entails the reproducible testing and revision of falsifiable ideas based on observable facts, as well as formal and applied sciences, such as mathematics and engineering. Applicants that are zoos or aquariums must also be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Municipalities and Tribes are not eligible under this discipline. Please note: Science and Technology-based organizations and their fiscal sponsors have additional eligibility requirements and projects should be made within the scope of the Science and Technology Discipline Eligibility.

• Demonstrate your primary location in King County and at least 51% of the activities by your organization or Tribe take place in King County.
• Have a board of directors, an advisory council or committee, or equivalent decision-making body.

• K-12 schools and school districts.

• Individual practitioners.

• Applicants with open and unclaimed contracts for past 4Culture Cultural Support Services Projects grants at the project start date, December 2, 2026.

• Be incorporated in the state of Washington.

• Be recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) OR be working with an eligible fiscal sponsor. 

• Be based in and conduct a majority of your mission-based, public-facing activities in King County with a primary focus on science and technology. 

• A university, college, or institution of higher education.
• An agency of the state or any of its political subdivisions.
• A municipal corporation.
• A Tribe.
• An organization that raises money for redistribution to multiple cultural organizations.
• A radio or television broadcasting network or station, cable communications system, Internet-based communications venture or service, newspaper, or magazine.

• Your project must fall within a category of cultural support services (see above) and support individual cultural practitioners.

• Your project must be accessible to and have impact on individual cultural practitioners beyond the paid and unpaid staff and board of your organization or Tribe and existing membership of your organization.

• Your project must be accessible to and provide public benefit to individual cultural practitioners of King County.

• Your request amount is between $10,000–$75,000 per each year for the proposed project period. Requests submitted that are outside of the range are not eligible and will not be considered for funding.

• You may apply to fund the portion of a project that begins on or after December 2, 2026 (the award date). The public benefit of your project must be completed by December 31, 2029. 

• Request an organization account on 4Culture’s grant portal and complete your Account Profile or update your existing organization account. You will apply through our online grant portal system at apply.4culture.org.
• Returning: If you have applied for a 4Culture grant before, confirm that you still have log-in access, and that your organization or Tribe has answered all the questions under “Organization Accounts Only.”
• New: you will need to create an account before you can access the application. Creating a new organization account can take 2 business days for your account to be active. 
• Please note: the email address of the person who submits your application will be the primary email address for future communications about your organization’s or Tribe’s Cultural Support Services Projects grant. 
• If you are using a fiscal sponsor to apply for this grant, you must have prior approval by 4Culture staff. You will need to indicate if you are applying with a Fiscal Sponsor in your application, and 4Culture will review both your and your fiscal sponsor’s eligibility to receive funding. Please review our our Fiscal Sponsorship page.

Narrative Questions in the Cultural Support Services Projects Application Form

Project Description: clearly describe what you propose to do in your project. It’s great to be concise. This is the who, what, and why of your project.

• What will you do in your project? How did you develop the idea? How was the need for your project identified?

• Who are the individual practitioners served by your project? How have they been involved in project development thus far?

• What are the activities you will carry out? How do they align with professional standards, best practices, or values of the community served?

Project Impact and Public Benefit: clearly describe the intended individual practitioners for this project, your history working with them, and the impact or goals for your project on them. Individual cultural practitioners for your project must extend beyond your organization or within your Tribe. Please see the guidelines for our definition of public benefit.

• What is the significance of the cultural support services to the individual practitioners your project serves?

• How does this project meet the needs of the individual practitioners served? How does the project address a sector-wide trend or relevant research on needs in the sector? If your project includes compensation for practitioners, explain how you set the compensation rates for them.

• What are the intended outcomes of your project’s cultural support services? Be as specific as possible, including goals for number of people served, number of events, etc. Describe how you determined your outcomes and why they best match your project.

• What resources, programs, tangible products, or other types of public benefit will result from your project? If your services include fees for participants, describe what they are anticipated to be and how you are arriving at the cost. 

• How will you provide access to the services? Will you provide free or low-cost services? How will you work to make the services accessible to many ages, disabilities, languages, and/or communities?

• What are the lasting impacts you anticipate beyond your project itself?

Advancing Equity: 4Culture’s mission focuses on racial equity and envisions a county where culture is essential and accessible to all.

• How does your project benefit communities of color and/or historically marginalized communities? 

• How does it serve or collaborate with members of these communities? 

• What intentional actions and strategies are you carrying out to advance equity? 

Complete this question to the best of your ability and in alignment with your organization’s or Tribe’s readiness to engage in and share your equity work. If these questions do not apply to your project, you may simply state so. The answer to this question is not a requirement to be eligible for funding. However, panelists will review your response to evaluate the Advancing Equity criterion, and your response will be considered in determining Equity Investments.

Relevant Expertise/Experience/Accomplishments: describe the project team who will plan, implement, and manage your project. Include team members’ roles and their qualifications that are relevant and necessary to complete the work successfully, including but not limited to, their experiences, skills, training, and/or knowledge expertise. How will the project team ensure your project aligns with professional standards, best practices, or values of the community this project serves?

Project Implementation: provide a work plan for this project with a timeline and core activities. The work plan could include phases for planning, outreach and publicity, execution, public benefit, and evaluation of the intended goals identified in Project Impact and Public Benefit section. Remember, projects funded through this program should be completed within 36 months of the award date.

Project Budget in the Cultural Support Services Project Application Form

Use our Budget Form in the online application to record expected expenses and revenues for the project; you only need to fill out the line items that pertain to your project. IMPORTANT: the Budget Form totals your expenses and revenues for your total project across ALL years. Request amounts from 4Culture may vary by year but can be no less than $10,000 or greater than $75,000 for a given year. You can apply for one year, two years, or all three years. Use the Budget Notes section to explain the line items, and how you intend to use the funds you’re requesting from 4Culture. If your expenses include staff salaries dedicated to the proposed project, list the staff and their titles, briefly describe their project role, identify if this is a percent of their time, and state their proposed compensation. The total expenses and revenues must match, including in-kinds in expenses and revenues. Please refer to “What Cultural Support Services Projects Funds” section of the guidelines for eligible and ineligible uses of 4Culture funding.

In addition to the Budget Form in the online application, for total grant requests $150,000 or above over the three-year grant period, you MUST complete and submit the following Large Projects Budget Form with your application. Download the form to your computer and work on it outside your web browser. The form is a word document and does not automatically calculate your totals. When you’ve completed the form, save it as a PDF, and upload it as part of your application through apply.4culture.org.

The Large Projects Budget Form accommodates up to three years of project activities and expenses. The Year 1 sections should include costs for activities and income that begin on the project start date (as indicated in your Project Plan) and end 12 months later. If the project timeline exceeds one year, list the costs for the next 12 months in the Year 2 sections. If the project extends beyond two years, list the costs for the next 12 months in the Year 3 sections.

NOTE: in 2025, project awards included partial awards that ranged from 70-100% of requested funds from 4Culture.

Required Additional Materials in the Cultural Support Services Projects Application Form

Organizational Board List (required): you must submit a list of your organization’s board members, their terms, and their employment or community affiliation in this section of the application. For project-based groups and community groups, please provide a list of your group’s leadership. This is required for organizations and groups only, not for Tribal governments or public agencies. This information should be specific to your organization, not your fiscal sponsor.

Venue (required): provide the location where your project will primarily take place. Include the street address, if known. At minimum, include the city in King County. Indicate if the location is confirmed or unconfirmed. If this is your organization’s main physical location, include it here. If you have multiple venues, specify the one you will use the most or that best represents your project. Then in the Project Venue Notes list your additional venues.

Attachments (optional): you may upload one document of no more than five pages that helps to tell the story of your group and its history and/or goals for the panel. Accepted file types are .doc, .docx, .pdf, .jpg, and .gif. The file must be less than 2 MB. To resize the file to under 2 MB, you can use free websites like Image Resizer and PDF Resizer. Examples could include photos, letters of support from individual cultural practitioners served by your project, copies of media coverage, previous research, studies, or reports to help illustrate your proposal. If your project involves a partner to execute the project, a letter of support is highly encouraged. Not all panelists are required to review the applicant’s optional attachments, so please make sure the most important information is included in your application form and not in the attachment. You are encouraged to reference your attachment in the application, so reviewers know what part of the application it illustrates. 

Required Additional Components to Complete in Your Profile Section of the Grant Portal

Make sure you have completed these components BEFORE submitting your application, if you have not completed these components your application is considered INCOMPLETE.

Demographic Information (required): your organization profile in our application portal must provide demographic information for your board and staff for the current year. We use this information to help us understand how well we are doing in our efforts to reach all communities in King County. Read our privacy policy for information about how we protect your information. Your application is not complete if your demographic information is not updated for the current year.

Not sure how to complete your demographics information? Watch a tutorial video on how to complete your organization’s demographic survey. Substitulos en Español | 中文字幕（繁體)

Financial Information (required): your organization profile in our application portal must provide information from your organization’s most recent IRS 990 form. Make certain it is up to date and confirm the accuracy of your address. If you have never provided us with this information, please include your three most recent years (2023, 2024 and 2025). If you do not file IRS 990, please use the financial information you have to complete the form in the portal. If you do not have three years of financial information, provide information from the most recent years you have available. This is required for organizations and groups only, not for Tribal governments or public agencies. This information should be specific to your organization, not your fiscal sponsor.

Not sure how to find your organization’s 990? Watch this tutorial video. Substitulos en Español | 中文字幕（繁體)