Heritage Sustained Support

Heritage Sustained Support provides operating funds to organizations all over King County for two calendar years with allocations made annually. These awards provide unrestricted operating funds to organizations that have a track record of delivering heritage programs and services, for the benefit of the public.

You can use this grant for:

If you are interested in funding for:

Criteria

For this grant, we’ll look to see how well your project shows the following:

Equity Investment

4Culture recognizes that where an organization is based or provides its services, as well as the communities it serves, can affect access to funding and other resources. To take a step towards balancing these disparities, 4Culture will award additional funding to organizations that are based in an Equity Investment area or that focus on marginalized communities, especially communities that are disproportionately impacted by structural racism.

Organizations qualify as being in an Equity Investment area by meeting one or more of the following requirements. Your organization does not need to meet one of these to be eligible for this program; these only give certain organizations priority.

• Your organization is outside the City of Seattle.
• Your organization is located in Seattle in a 2010 US Census tract area with a Communities of Opportunity index percentile of 60% or greater. These locations are showed in purple on the map below.
• Organizations with an annual budget over $3.5 million do not qualify for this additional funding.

For Firefox users, you may find it easier to view the map using this link.

Organizations may also qualify for Equity Investment funds by scoring an average of 5 out of 5 on the Equity criterion. This is collectively determined by the panel of peer reviewers who read and score all Heritage Sustained Support applications.

On-Site Reviews

Organizations that apply for our Sustained Support grant 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. The on-site review program was suspended for 2020-2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On-Site Reviews are expected to resume in 2023.

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:

To be eligible for Heritage Sustained Support, your organization must be a federally-recognized 501(c)(3) historical museum, heritage organizations, public corporation, and/or tribal government with a two-year minimum operating history of managing collections, and/or presenting exhibits and programs with a focus on heritage in King County to the residents of King County.

Workshops

Workshops can make a major difference in how competitive your application is—each year, we find that the strongest applications come from people who have attended a workshop. 4Culture Heritage staff are available to answer questions, discuss project details, and review draft applications.

All workshops will be held remotely. Please register via the links provided to receive Zoom meeting information. You will need a Zoom account in order to attend a workshop. If you are unable to attend, a workshop recording will be available.

Workshop Recording

If you were unable to make the Zoom workshop, you can view a recorded version instead.

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.
 
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Timeline

Applications are due by October 12, 2022, at 5:00 pm. 4Culture notification of Sustained Support awards will take place by January 2023.

Selection Process

In 2022, 66 organizations received funding totaling $541,558. Awards ranged from $1,250 to $29,636. View last cycle’s Heritage Sustained Support recipients on our Awardees page. The 2022 Sustained Support awards took into account whether an organization had received 4Culture Recovery Fund or King County Revive & Thrive Awards and are not indicative of future award amounts. For 2023-2024, Heritage Sustained Support will return to a regular, biennial award cycle for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a typical, biennial award cycle, 4Culture Program Managers first review all applications to ensure eligibility. We then facilitate a panel of peer reviewers, which changes for each Sustained Support cycle, to evaluate all eligible applications. Award amounts will have three components; a base award based on budget size, an additional merit award based on overall panel score, and potentially an Equity Investment based on geographic location and/or an organization’s score on the Equity criterion (see Equity Investments section under Section 1: What Sustained Support Funds above).

The panel’s award recommendations are then sent to the Heritage Advisory Committee for review, and then onto 4Culture’s Board for final approval. The entire process, from application deadline to final award notification, takes approximately two months.

Contracts and Payment

If we select your organization for funding, your grant manager will work with you to create a contract outlining a Scope of Service and Public Benefit. Organizations that receive Sustained Support funding are paid upon completion of one or more of the Public Benefit activities described in their grant contract.

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.

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

The following materials are required for this application cycle. We strongly recommend assembling them before you login and begin your application.