4Culture: Collections Care Grants

4Culture: Collections Care Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: 4Culture
Amount: US $1,000 - US $8,000
Last Updated: December 03, 2025

Summary

The 4Culture Collections Care Grants support King County non-profit heritage organizations in preserving historic artifacts and cultural materials. Grant funds, ranging from $1,000 to $8,000, can be used for assessments, training, conservation, and public benefit projects. The program prioritizes projects that demonstrate feasibility, quality, and impact on the community. New applications will reopen in 2025, as the current grant cycle is on hold due to ongoing federal relief fund disbursements.

Overview

Update: 2024 Collections Care grants are on hold as we work to disburse federal COVID relief funds and plan for new Doors Open programming. Applications will reopen in 2025. Collections Care The preservation of our past is vital to our present and our future. Our Collections Care grant helps King County’s archivists, librarians, and historians protect the real, tangible objects that make up history so that the generations of today and tomorrow can continue to learn from them. What Collections Care Funds Our annual Collections Care grant program supports the work of King County non-profit heritage organizations by providing the funds necessary to assess, organize, catalog, clean, repair, photograph, scan, and, ultimately, save, the King County’s cultural material. You can use this grant for: Care of historic and cultural materials, artifacts, and archival records including the purchase of materials and consumable supplies used for collections care purposes.Developing and/or implementing a collections management policy, improving emergency preparedness plans, instituting and improving security methods for collections.Performing collections needs assessment surveys and implementing recommendations, completing inventories, descriptive catalog, and/or condition surveys, bridging a funding gap to conduct assessments such as Museum Assessment Program, Collections Assessment for Preservation Program, or Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations.Digitization of collections or archives to minimize handling.Training and professional development for staff and/or volunteers in preventive collections management.Fees for conservators, heritage specialists, interns for collections care projects; fees directed to staff, if their work on the project is outside their regular job duties and payment is above-and-beyond their regular compensation structure. Criteria We fund all of our grants through a competitive process, carefully evaluating each application. For this particular grant, we’ll look to see how well your project shows the following: Quality and qualifications: how well your project aligns with professional standards and best practices, the qualifications of you and your project team, and how your project meets the goals of your organization’s mission or needs in the community.Feasibility: your organization’s ability to develop and complete your project within 18 months of the award date. This is demonstrated through the qualifications of you and your project team, your budget—including your ability to raise additional funding—and your ability to fund the project on a reimbursement basis. Demonstration that your organization has completed the necessary planning and assessment to care for collections in the long-term.Project impact and public benefit: how your project develops and preserves the historical record in King County, its potential to raise the visibility of heritage collections care and preservation, its ability to preserve heritage resources held in the public trust, your project’s ability to generate broad and/or lasting public benefit.Heritage priorities: how your project preserves endangered heritage resources, addresses neglected aspects of King County heritage, and provides opportunities for youth, underserved communities, and multicultural audiences. 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.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. YouYou must be a King County-based nonprofit heritage or arts organization—museum, archive, public agency, community association—that collects and preserves historic artifacts, photographs, documents, and ephemera.Your ProjectYour request amount should be at least $1,000, but no more than $8,000.Your proposed project must focus primarily on collecting, cataloguing, inventorying, and/or preserving the historical record in King County, i.e. historic and cultural materials, artifacts, and archival records.Your project should demonstrate a public benefit to King County residents and visitors—learn more about that requirement in the “What Collections Care Funds” section of this page.

Ineligibility

You cannot use this grant for:Major equipment purchases, construction or fabrication projects, general operating support, overhead costs and fees, employee benefits or any regular staff salaries (we offer separate grants for these—please see Cultural Equipment, Cultural Facilities, and Sustained Support- here, here, and here).Elements of your project completed before funds are awarded on August 19, 2019.Projects for which fundraising is the primary purpose, direct marketing or advertising costs, or projects that do not focus on King County’s heritage as a foundational element.Restoration of historic structures, the preservation of the built environment, or the stabilization of archaeological sites.The purchase of art and artifacts.Support of collections that are privately held or not regularly accessible to the public.We do not fund K-12 schools, school districts, or religious institutions.