Arts Education: Multiyear Grant

The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation offers grants to PreK-12 education organizations in North Carolina's Triangle region. Committed to addressing educational inequities, the foundation supports initiatives that close academic gaps and enhance access to quality arts instruction. Grants range from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the organization's needs and grant type. Eligible organizations must demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with funding available for both multi-year and one-year projects.

Participating in the arts confers numerous benefits, from providing captivation and pleasure, to providing a vehicle for self-expression, to promoting cognitive growth and the capacity for empathy. Arts education can also provide the means for sharing ideas and images, cultural and political knowledge, and insights about humanity across generations. By nurturing creative thinking, collaboration, and other competencies, arts education can play a vital role in preparing students for fulfilling and successful lives and careers.
The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation supports organizations whose primary purpose is to provide high-quality, participatory arts education experiences for PreK-12 students. These organizations work with students who lack access to such programming because of economic conditions, race or ethnic background, geography, or different abilities.
For more information, including application timeline and eligibility requirements, please visit our multiyear grantmaking guidelines webpage.
Multi-year Grants
Organizations that focus on PreK-12 arts education AND have received funding from MDBF in the previous 5 years are eligible to apply for a 3-year grant.
Each year, we will award 5-7 general operating support grants to nonprofit organizations that further our grantmaking goals. Grant amounts range from $15,000 - $50,000 a year for each organization. MDBF has a finite budget and may not be able to fund the full amount requested. If your application moves forward, MDBF staff will work with your organization to determine the actual requested amount. Please know that there is no penalty for requesting the maximum amount at the LOI stage.
Multiyear grants are only available to organizations that MDBF has funded in the previous five years. Both developing nonprofits and established organizations are eligible for these grants. All organizations must have a primary focus on the Arts Education.  Organizations must be located in and main programming must take place in Chatham, Durham, Orange, and/or Wake Counties, NC.

Eligibility

Developing Organizations Typically have existed for 2-5 years, are addressing a clear unmet need or opportunity, have strategic goals, and have begun offering programmingOrganizations at this stage may have limited or no board of directors with staff who are primarily volunteers. Or, their boards may have expanded beyond "friends and family" and are beginning to focus more on governance and less on day-to-day operations. Paid staffing is minimal, typically only an Executive Director and perhaps one or two program staff.Funding sources are likely not diversified at this stage of development, but the organization may be starting to formalize financial management, volunteer management, program evaluation, fundraising, board development, marketing, and strategic planning as they grow.Established Organizations Are more mature and stable; programs/services are solid and well-recognized with strong and effective leadership. Paid program and administrative staff are in place and the board's focus is primarily policy and oversight. Organizational processes are developed. Revenue sources are more diversified. These organizations may have a well-demonstrated model and data that shows outcomes or is currently executing a plan for evaluation, continuous learning, and improvement.General Eligibility RequirementsOrganization is located in and the majority of programming takes place in Chatham, Durham, Orange, and/or Wake counties.The majority of students engaged or served by the organization are those who lack access to programs because of economic conditions, race or ethnic background, geography, or different abilities.Students actively participate in making art.501(c)(3) tax-exempt status or sponsored by a qualified fiscal agent.A current or expected expenses budget under $2,000,000 (fiscal sponsors are exempt from this stipulation).A demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in its governance, staffing, and participants.Capacity to achieve its goals: staff and experience (including volunteers), board governance, and financial resources.

Ineligibility

Public schools and charter schools are not eligible.Organizations that have an interim or new executive director (hired within the past 6 months) are not eligible.Arts education programs that are primarily passive, in which students do not actively participate in making art, are not eligible.Arts instruction focused on adults is not eligible.We do not make project-based grants.Organizations whose primary mission and focus is on the humanities or history are not eligible.University-affiliated organizations are not eligible.