4Culture Operating Support: Heritage Sustained Support Grant

4Culture Operating Support: Heritage Sustained Support Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: 4Culture
Last Updated: June 11, 2024

Summary

The 4Culture Operating Support: Heritage Sustained Support Grant provides essential funding to heritage organizations in King County for two years. This grant aims to enhance public access to heritage programs, support diverse communities, and promote the preservation of local history. Eligible organizations can use funds for operational expenses, staffing, and community outreach initiatives, ensuring that all residents can benefit from cultural resources and programs.

Overview

Heritage Sustained Support Sustained Support assists with the day-to-day needs of heritage organizations over two-year cycles—this consistent funding source promotes the exploration of the people, places, communities, events, and themes of our region’s past. What Sustained Support Funds 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: Annual Operating expenses related to heritage programs and services which are accessible to King County residents and visitors, and provide public benefit.Staff salaries, utilities, supplies, fees, or services. Criteria Quality and qualifications: Intentional programming that meets the needs of a diverse and evolving audience. Over the previous two years, a demonstrated expansion or improvement of internal capacity in the following areas: programming, operations, fundraising, outreach, volunteerism, board. This can be demonstrated through professional development and/or recruitment efforts. How well your organization’s operations align with professional standards and best practices. The qualifications of the staff board, and volunteers that allow your organization to meet the goals of your mission and needs in the community. Demonstration of internal planning and identification of strategic priorities that align with the mission and operations of the organization. Public impact and benefit: how well your organization helps develop the historical record 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. Heritage priorities: how your organization preserves endangered heritage resources, addresses neglected aspects of people, places, themes, and historic events of King County heritage. These include but are not limited to the histories of: Native Americans, LGBTQ communities, people of color, youth, women, poor, immigrant, refugee, and differently abled peoples. Source communities are provided opportunities to influence and be involved in the operations and programmatic offerings of your organization. Budget: Timely financial record-keeping through completion of appropriate IRS 990. Demonstrated track record of sufficient revenue levels to achieve programmatic and operational goals. A mixture revenue sources. Geographic Equity Enhancement 4Culture recognizes that where an organization is based or provides its services can affect access to funding and other resources. Many cultural organizations 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, 4Culture will give a modest award increase to the 2021 Sustained Support awards for organizations located outside the City of Seattle, and for organizations located in Seattle in a 2010 US Census tract area with a Communities of Opportunity index percentile of 60% or greater. Communities of Opportunity (COO) is a partnership and initiative of the Seattle Foundation and King County, whose purpose is to direct resources where they can have the greatest impact while overcome ongoing patterns of underfunding. Annual measures of life and health indicators by census tract are averaged over multiple years and combined to create a single index. 4Culture will use this index for the 2021 Sustained Support cycle to guide award increases toward applicants located in Communities of Opportunity. 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.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. For 2021 Sustained Support awards, Geographic Equity Enhancements will be provided to:Organizations, or the historic resources they steward, that are located within King County but outside the City of Seattle.Organizations, or the historic resources they steward, located in Seattle, but within a Community of Opportunity.

Ineligibility

Organizations with an annual budget over $3.5 million do not qualify for this enhancement.