Inspire Olympia Impact Funding Grant

The Inspire Olympia Comprehensive & Impact Funding initiative aims to enhance access to diverse arts, sciences, and cultural experiences in Olympia. This voter-approved program focuses on lowering participation barriers, particularly for youth and underserved communities. By strengthening local nonprofit cultural organizations, the initiative seeks to deliver inspiring and creative programs for all residents. Funding is allocated through a competitive application process, ensuring that selected projects effectively benefit the community.

Note: There is a second Inspire Olympia funding category, called Comprehensive Funding, which may be a better fit for some organizations based on the organizational eligibility criteria, the size of their budget, and/or the scope of their programming.
Inspire Olympia's Mission
Providing a reliable source of public funding that sustains a healthy, visible, welcoming, and inclusive nonprofit cultural and science sector, making creative cultural experiences accessible for everyone in Olympia.Impact Funding
Funding is distributed to local cultural organizations through contracts for services with the City of Olympia. Following the application process, contracts are awarded to those who best demonstrate how their arts, culture, heritage, and/or science programs benefit people and communities in Olympia.
Primary Funding Goals
All applicants for Inspire Olympia funding are encouraged to focus on the way their work supports Inspire Olympia’s funding goals:

• Support public programs in arts, culture, heritage, or science.

Increase access to these programs and reduce barriers to participation, especially for historically underserved populations.Support programming by and for culturally or ethnically specific communities and underrepresented groups.Expand access to youth education programs in arts, culture, heritage, and science.Support the sustainability of and collaboration among cultural sector organizations.
Impact Funding is available to eligible organizations that demonstrate a commitment to Inspire Olympia’s mission of a healthy, visible, welcoming, and inclusive cultural sector, making creative experiences accessible for everyone in Olympia. Applicants may offer programs to the general public (open to all ages), or youth programs (for youth under 18). Applicants may propose single events, a series of events, or programming throughout the year.
Match Requirement: A one-to-one match is required, meaning for every dollar you request from Inspire Olympia, your organization must commit to bring resources of equal value to fund your work. In other words, you cannot request Inspire Olympia funding for more than 50% of your proposed program budget. Your match requirement can be met using cash or donated time and materials, or a combination. Furthermore, the cash portion of your match can include projected income from other grants, fundraising, and earned income anticipated from things like ticketing or tuition fees.