Operating Support: Public Free Access Grant

Operating Support: Public Free Access Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: 4Culture
Last Updated: December 04, 2025

Summary

The Public Free Access Grant by 4Culture aims to eliminate barriers to cultural programming for underserved communities in King County. Organizations can apply for funds to support free or reduced-cost participation in arts and heritage experiences that engage the public. To qualify, applicants must meet specific criteria, including documenting attendance and adhering to funding requirements. This initiative promotes equitable access to cultural experiences, ensuring that everyone can participate regardless of financial constraints.

Overview

NOTE: To prepare for grants in 2025 and beyond, please note that applicants must have documented their free and reduced cost attendance in 2024 by some mechanism that records a head count, preserved the documentation in their records, and be prepared to produce the documentation if requested by 4Culture. If you intend to apply for a Public Free Access grant in 2025, plan now to ensure your organization is collecting and preserving attendance documentation in 2024+. Public Free Access Grant. This program helps reduce barriers to your organization's programming. Our Public Free Access program aims to reduce the significant barrier that admission fees pose to many King County residents— particularly underserved communities—and visitors in accessing quality, relevant, cultural experiences. Grants may be used to support free and reduced cost participation in existing, new, or restarted arts, heritage, or preservation cultural experiences that meet the following criteria: Mission-based and meaningfully engages the attendee in the mission. Provides an identical experience to attendees paying a standard fee. Produced by your organization. Open and advertised to the general public without restriction or limitation by invitation, such that anyone who wishes to visit/attend/participate/purchase a ticket may do so. In-person at venues in King County whereat head counts are taken and recorded. Public Free Access grants will be based on the number of free and reduced cost attendance provided in the previous calendar year that meets the above criteria. For this purpose, the following definitions apply: Attendance is per visit rather than per individual, e.g., a person participating in programming for free on two separate days would count as two attendees. Reduced cost attendance does not include participants paying fees more than 50% of the standard fee or more than $10 per person. Standard fee means the advertised, one-time, per program cost (or most common, per program cost if fees vary by time of purchase) of general admission to access a cultural experience. Attendance does not include participants at open air, ungated, and/or unmonitored venues whereat head counts are not taken and recorded. Attendance does not include participants reported by another applicant for a Public Free Access grant. Examples of attendance include: attending a performance in a theater, visiting an historic building, listening to a curator’s talk at a museum, touring a sculpture garden in which attendees are counted upon entry, taking a class on jewelry making, viewing a photography exhibit at a gallery. Examples of attendance do not include: remote attendance, private event or other space rentals, hosted events for which your organization is not the producer, ungated festivals in which attendees are not individually counted upon entry, attendance at a 25% discount, fundraising events, web site visits, newsletter subscriptions.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. To be eligible to receive Public Free Access program funds, you must meet the following requirements:Approved for current year funding in 4Culture’s Arts, Heritage, or Preservation Sustained Support programs at the time of the posted application deadline. Provide mission-based, cultural experiences open to the public, King County residents and visitors, occurring between Jan. 1 – Dec. 31 of the designated year. Have 501(c)(3) IRS determination or a fiscal sponsor. Be a nongovernmental organization.The Communities of Opportunity (COO) index was first developed in 2012 and includes a set of health and socioeconomic indicators to gauge community health and well-being. 4Culture aligns our equity investments with the COO index to identify the areas of King County in greatest need of support.View this Communities of Opportunity map to determine whether your organization or primary venue is located in a COO. COO areas eligible for an equity investment in the Public Free Access program are outlined and in purple.