Booth Ferris Foundation: Arts & Culture Grant

The Booth Ferris Foundation offers grants to arts and culture organizations in New York City, aiming to enhance the city's cultural vibrancy. The Foundation prioritizes organizations that demonstrate artistic excellence, engage diverse audiences, and maintain robust fiscal health with budgets over $1 million. Support is available for capacity building and capital projects, with an emphasis on sustainability and measurable outcomes. Eligible applicants must be 501(c)(3) public charities. The application deadline is February 1.

NOTE: The annual application deadline is February 1. If February 1 falls on a weekend, applications are due the next business day.
The Booth Ferris Foundation was established in 1957 under the wills of Willis H. Booth and his wife, Chancie Ferris Booth. Since that time, approximately $425 million has been contributed from the Foundation to worthy organizations for a variety of charitable purposes.
Funding Interest: Arts & Culture
The Foundation supports arts and culture organizations, including parks and gardens, located in New York City and working directly to enhance the vibrancy and cultural richness of New York City. Arts and culture organizations eligible to apply include performing, presenting, arts education, intermediary, advocacy, public policy and capacity-building organizations.
Support is available for capacity building or capital projects.
Priority organizations will meet the following criteria:

• Demonstrate standards of artistic excellence

Engage significant numbers and reach a diverse audience and constituency base
Maintain an annual budget over $1 million for the last complete fiscal yearDemonstrate a proven record of success in achieving measurable outcomes
Maintain a strong track record of fiscal health including sound financial planning and robust funding from diverse sources.
Support is available for an organization’s own capacity building or for its capacity building activities on behalf of a group or network of nonprofits.
Guidelines for capacity building support:
The Foundation supports capacity building activities that build nonprofit infrastructure and sustainability, enabling organizations to achieve greater performance and impact. The Foundation supports activities to strengthen leadership and adaptive capacities, as well as management and technical capacities. Strong proposals will clearly articulate intended goals and a process for measuring capacity building outcomes.
Examples of capacity building activities supported by the Foundation include:
Adaptive Capacity- Strategic planning, organizational assessment, needs assessment, strategic plan implementation, program evaluation, collaborations and mergersLeadership Capacity- Board development, professional leadership development and succession planningManagement and Technical Capacity- Human resources management, financial management, fundraising, marketing/communications and technology
Guidelines for capital support:
Capital campaigns and major capital improvement projects must have already met at least 50% of their fundraising goals in order to apply for support.Priority will be given to smaller-scale projects and discrete capital requests.

Eligibility

Organizations must be classified by the Internal Revenue Service as public charities and tax-exempt under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.Restrictions: Maintain an annual budget over $1 million.A minimum of three years must elapse between grant awards.Type of Support: Capital andcapacity building.

Ineligibility

Grants are not made to organizations whose primary work is conducted outside of the United States, and grants are not made to individuals, to federated campaigns or to work with specific diseases or disabilities.Proposals from educational institutions for scholarships and fellowships and for unrestricted endowment are discouraged, as are proposals for individual research efforts at such institutions.Proposals from social services and cultural institutions from outside the metropolitan New York area will not be considered.The Foundation does not provide general operating support or support for ongoing programs or activities.