The Arts: Multiyear Grant

The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation's Arts Grant Program provides multiyear funding to arts nonprofits and PreK-12 education organizations in North Carolina's Triangle region. With grants ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 annually, the program focuses on supporting developing and established organizations, emphasizing artistic excellence and community engagement. Eligibility includes a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This initiative aims to strengthen the cultural sector, foster growth, and enhance the overall well-being of communities through arts programming.

The arts are essential to strong, vibrant communities. A dynamic cultural sector is a catalyst for growth, attracting and retaining businesses and visitors. They strengthen neighborhoods and communities by preserving the culture and memories of specific places and have a positive impact on health and well-being. The arts provide spaces to allow people from different backgrounds to engage with one another and opportunities to build community. Perhaps most importantly, they offer personal enjoyment to individuals, groups, and families, and give voice to the human condition.
We provide grants to:
Support and strengthen cultural organizations that demonstrate artistic excellence and elevate the profile of the Triangle’s art scenes, both locally and nationally.Support new, emerging, or grassroots cultural organizations.Support arts-focused organizations that work directly with artists to deepen and expand talent, develop professional and business skills, and/or create new works.
Multi-year Grants
Each year, we will award 5-7 general operating support grants to nonprofit organizations that further our grantmaking goals. Grant amounts range from $20,000-$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.
Multi-year grants are only available to organizations that MDBF has funded in the previous five years (2019-2023). All organizations must have a primary focus on the arts or PreK-12 education and main programming must take place in Chatham, Durham, Orange, and/or Wake Counties, NC.
We focus our multi-year grants on two types of organizations:

• Developing organizations

These organizations have identified a clear need or opportunity, have strategic goals, and have already begun offering programming. Our goal in supporting developing organizations is to help them solidify their programs and operations as they build a strong and sustainable foundation for long-term success.
Organizations 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” to focus more on governance and less on day-to-day operations, with staffing in place beyond an Executive Director and volunteers.
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 experiencing pivotal moments
These organizations have more maturity and stability; 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. 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.
Through the years, MDBF’s experience has illuminated the importance of strategic alignment. We have learned that certain types of organizations tend to thrive more within our grant support framework. Thus, we concentrate our efforts on established organizations that are experiencing inflection points in their lifecycle, when leaders face big decisions about how to ensure progress towards the organization’s vision.
These organizations are in moments of transition, challenge, and opportunity and are seeking additional help, resources, and expertise to ensure they’re positioned for success and heading in the right direction to achieve their goals and mission. This could include organizations that have an opportunity to expand programming, capacity, and/or locations.

Eligibility

Arts or organizations pay the artists they engage or provide visibility or sales for artists and/or develop artists' professional and business skills.Organization is located in and the majority of programming takes place in Chatham, Durham, Orange and/or Wake counties.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

Individual artists' projects are not eligible for support. Fiscal sponsorships of individual projects are not accepted.We do not make project-based grants.Organizations that do not pay artists or performers are not eligible.Organizations whose primary focus is engaging adults in learning or participatory activities, such as creative aging classes, are not eligible.Organizations whose primary mission and focus is on the humanities or history are not eligible.Organizations that have an interim or new executive director (hired within the past 6 months) are not eligible.University-affiliated organizations are not eligible.

Only nonprofit organizations that MDBF has funded in the previous five years. Must have a primary focus on the Arts, be 501(c)(3) (or fiscally sponsored), and be located and program mainly in Chatham, Durham, Orange and/or Wake Counties, NC.