4Culture Grants + Calls

Heritage Projects

Through Heritage Projects we support the people and organizations making history relevant and provocative through exhibits, publications, oral histories, and more.

Update: 2024 Project grants are on hold as we work to disburse federal COVID relief funds and plan for new Doors Open programming.
  • Applications for new Projects will reopen in 2025 with more awards and funding! Find other opportunities on our Grants + Artist Calls, Listings, and Community Resources pages.
  • Current Project grant contracts will continue to be honored.
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Steps to Apply

1 What Heritage Projects Funds

1 What Heritage Projects Funds

4Culture’s Heritage Projects funding program promotes the identification, documentation, exhibition, and interpretation of historic and cultural materials exploring the heritage and historical record in King County, Washington. Awards range from $1,000 to $10,000.

You can use this grant to:

  • Create heritage resources including, but not limited to, books, guides, brochures, research projects, digital projects, oral histories, visual or audio recordings, museum exhibits and programs, and education curriculum.
  • Produce special events and programs that highlight heritage in our region including, but not limited to: conferences, workshops, technical assistance programs, apprenticeship or training opportunities, historic walking, cycling, or driving tours, field schools, skill demonstrations, and programs that facilitate collaboration between heritage organizations.
  • Provide opportunities for populations underrepresented in mainstream heritage organizations including people of color, LGBTQ communities, youth, people with disabilities, and gender variant communities to work firsthand with heritage resources.
  • Pay for materials and consumable supplies used for your project, transportation, documentation, and compensation for professional consultants, heritage specialists, trainees, or staff time if work on the project is outside their regular work duties and payment is beyond their regular compensation structure.

You cannot use this grant for:

  • Projects that do not focus on heritage in King County as a foundational element.
  • Major equipment purchases or construction projects (we offer separate grants for these).
  • General operating support, overhead costs and fees, employee benefits or any regular staff salaries (we offer separate grants for these).
  • Elements of your project completed before funds are awarded: June 28, 2023.
  • Projects for which fundraising is the primary purpose.
  • Direct marketing or advertising costs including but not limited to newspaper ads, paid social media posts.
  • Support for services and programs to be provided by the King County Landmarks Commission for land use regulation and archaeological resource management purposes, as described in K.C.C. chapter 20.62 (King County Code 4.42.125H).
  • We do not fund K-12 schools, school districts, religious worship or instruction, or programs that are only open to matriculated students.

Criteria

For this grant, panelists will use the below criteria to score each application:

  • Project impact and public benefit: how your project meets the goals of your organization’s or personal mission and established needs in the community. How well your project helps expand or develop the historical narrative in King County, its potential to raise the visibility of heritage work, and its ability to increase public access to heritage resources and programs. This might include free performances, exhibitions, workshops, screenings, or readings, as well as free, electronically accessible materials, including literary publications, audio, or video recordings.
  • Quality and qualifications: how well your project activities and planning align with professional standards, best practices, or values of the community served. The qualifications of you and your project team—qualifications can be skill, experience, training, or knowledge-based.
  • Feasibility: the ability to complete your project within 24 months and with a realistic timeline, and thoughtful planning. This is demonstrated through the qualifications of you and your project team, your budget—including your ability to raise additional funding—and details provided in the Project Implementation section.
  • Advancing equity: how clearly the project is led by and serving marginalized communities especially communities that have been disproportionately impacted by structural racism. This is not a requirement for funding.

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.

Equity Investments

In order to combat inequities in our grantmaking, 4Culture has implemented Equity Investments. This practice incorporates indicators of structural inequity into our panel process, including geographic location, income, operating budget, audiences served, and project focus. By prioritizing these factors, we intend to more equitably distribute funds to communities that have historically been excluded from cultural funding.

Each of our grant programs implements an Equity Investment system tailored to the specific needs of its applicants; please read the After You Submit section of this page for details on how Equity Investments functions for this grant. This organization-wide practice —and what we learn about its impact—is an important step towards more equitable funding at 4Culture and throughout the King County cultural sector.

2 Are You and Your Project Eligible?

2 Are You and Your Project Eligible?

You

  • Individuals, organizations, community groups, unincorporated or fiscally sponsored groups may apply.
  • You must be at least 18 years old and a resident of King County when you apply and through the completion of your project.
  • Organizations, community groups, and public agencies must operate within King • County. If you receive funding, you’ll need to provide us with your Social Security number in order to receive payment. Organizations, community groups, and public agencies will need to provide us with a Tax ID or EIN in order to receive grant funds.

Your Project

  • Your project must focus primarily on heritage and historical themes in King County through identification, documentation, exhibition and/or interpretation. Heritage and historical themes can include people, memories, places, communities, and events. Heritage is defined as “the exchange of knowledge and experiences shaped by the past.”
  • Your project must be accessible to and provide public benefit to King County residents and visitors.
  • Your request amount is between $1,000 – $10,000. Requests that are outside of the range are not eligible.
  • If your project involves multiple disciplines—heritage, preservation, and/or arts—it may be eligible for consideration under more than one 4Culture projects funding program. You may request funding for different elements of your project through the separate funding programs, but must disclose the other 4Culture requests in your application. Contact Megumi Nagata to discuss your project’s eligibility before applying.

You can only submit one application for the Heritage Projects program. We’ll consider your application complete once you’ve filled out all sections and provided all required materials listed in the Apply section of this page. It’s a good idea to put all these together before you login and begin your application.

3 Helping You Succeed

3 Helping You Succeed

Workshops

Workshops can make a real difference in the success of your application. They’re an opportunity for you to get your questions answered by a 4Culture grant manager and learn from other applicants. All workshops will be held remotely. Please register via the links provided to receive Zoom meeting information. You will need a personal Zoom account in order to attend a workshop. If you are unable to attend, a workshop recording will be available.

Application Guide

Watch this step-by-step application guide video to assist you in the application process.

Resources

The total available funding for Heritage Projects in 2023 is $275,000. In 2022, 73 applications were submitted and 37 of them received funding, totaling $265,126 in support of Heritage projects throughout King County. Awards range from $2,165 to $9,575.

You can read a sample application that successfully received funding for inspiration, and view a list of last year’s recipients on our Awardees page.

You can also read through the application questions before getting started:

  • Project Description: what do you propose to do? Describe the proposed project activities and the heritage content—the people, places, events, themes, and trends—of your project. What is the historical significance of the heritage content to the community your project serves? How did you develop the idea for your project? If your project has multiple phases, please explain which portion of the project you are applying to this grant for.
  • Project Impact and Public Benefit: describe the intended audience for this project, your history working with this intended audience, and impact or goals for your intended audience. Please explain how this project meets the established needs of the community served or aligns with your organizational or personal mission. What resources, programs, or tangible products will result from this project and how will you provide public access to them? In this program, public benefit should be heritage activities or services that are made available for the enjoyment, education, and expression of King County residents and visitors. If your project is multi-phased, describe the public benefit of the proposed portion of the project.
  • Advancing Equity: explain if the primary goal of this project is to serve historically marginalized peoples or communities in King County, especially communities that have been disproportionately impacted by structural racism. Will your project center the voices of and be led by the community it serves? If so, please explain.
  • Relevant Expertise, Experience, and Accomplishments: Describe the project team who will plan, implement, and manage your project. Cite team members’ roles and their qualifications—their experiences, skills, and/or knowledge expertise that are necessary to complete the work successfully. How will the project team ensure your project aligns with professional standards, best practices, or values of the community this project serves If you are working with heritage or historical record from another culture or community, how are members of that community involved in this project?
  • Project Implementation: provide a timeline and a work plan for this project. The work plan could include phases for planning, bidding process, fundraising, publicity, execution, public benefit, and evaluation of the intended goals identified in Project Impact section. Describe how you determined the appropriate timeline and work plan for this project. Remember, projects funded through this program should be completed within 24 months.
  • Budget: provide the budget for the project. In the notes section, provide an explanation of the line items and a breakdown of how you intend to use the 4Culture funding. Please refer to the guidelines for eligible and ineligible uses of 4Culture funding.

Please read the Apply section for the complete list of required materials.

Contact

Megumi Nagata
megumi.nagata@4culture.org
206-263-3474

Translation and Assistance

The guidelines, a detailed explanation of how to apply, and the application are in English. If this is a barrier that stops you from understanding the grant or applying due to limited English writing ability, visual impairment, or you would like to request assistance to create an application, please contact hello@4culture.org or call (206) 296-7580 or TTY 711, and we will make sure you get the support you need. More ›
 
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4 After You Submit

4 After You Submit

Timeline

The deadline for this grant is March 23, 2023 at 5:00 pm PST. Most 4Culture grants take approximately three months from application deadline to when we announce our funding decisions. You can start your project—or the portion of your project described in your application—on or after June 28, 2023, and you must complete it by June 29, 2025.

Panel Process

We make all of our funding decisions through a panel process in which a group of peers working in heritage assesses your application. 4Culture staff recruits the panelists with considerations for various factors such as geography, expertise, and conflict of interest. 4Culture staff facilitates the panel but does not score applications or try to influence the outcome. If you are interested in learning how to become a panelist, please see our Get Involved page.

This program implements two practices towards advancing equity. First, there is a question specifically asking if your project has a primary focus to center and serve historically marginalized people or communities in King County. The answer to this question will be scored against the Advancing Equity criterion, which holds the same weight as the other three criteria for this program—five points.
Second, applicants or projects that are located within a 4Culture Equity Investment area are eligible for an equity investment. 4Culture recognizes that where an organization or cultural worker is based or provides its services can affect access to funding and other resources. Many cultural organizations and cultural workers in greater King County have less access to public and private support than those located in Seattle. To take a step towards balancing these disparities, applicants or projects located in a 4Culture Equity Investment area will receive additional consideration during the grant evaluation and awards process. Projects qualify as being in an Equity Investment area by meeting one of the following requirements:

  • The applicant or project site is located outside of the City of Seattle.
  • The project is located Seattle but is also in a 2010 US Census tract area with a Communities of Opportunity index percentile of 60% or greater.

Please contact Megumi Nagata if you have any questions

Contracts and Payment

If we select your project for funding, your grant manager will work with you to create a contract outlining the scope of your project and a payment schedule. Payments are made on a reimbursement basis. You’ll receive your funds once you have completed the public benefit component of your project—that’s why it’s so important to come up with a feasible way to share your project with the public.

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’s in the Application?

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.

Demographic Information

Your profile in our portal must provide demographic information for the current year for yourself and, if you are applying as an organization, for your board and paid staff. You will access the demographic update form through the portal, under “Your Profile” section. You must submit this information by the application deadline—March 23, 2023. We use this information to help us understand how well we are doing in our efforts to reach all communities in King County.

Application Form

The application can be accessed through our portal. Along with Project Budget and optional attachments, answer all narrative questions in the application form: Project Description, Project Impact and Public Benefit, Advancing Equity, Relevant Expertise Experience and Accomplishments, Project Implementation.

Project Budget

Use the budget form embedded in the application to record expected expenses and revenues for the project. In the notes section of Project Budget, explain the line items and how you intend to use the funds you’re requesting from 4Culture. The total expenses and revenues must match, including in-kinds in expenses and revenues. Please refer to “What Heritage Projects Funds” section of the guidelines for eligible and ineligible uses of 4Culture funding.

Attachments

You may submit up to three attachments to your application. Accepted file types are .doc, .docx, .pdf, .jpg, and .gif. Individual files must be less than 2 MB. Attachments may include photos, bids, estimates, letters of support from your project partners or communities served by the project, drawings, maps, copies of media coverage, previous research, studies, or reports to help illustrate your proposal. Attachments are optional.