2024 Arts and Culture Rebuilding Program FAQs

Applicants should operate with a mission that identifies arts and culture as a primary purpose. Eligible organizations will have a mission stating they are organized primarily for the purpose of producing, promoting, or presenting the arts, heritage, history and humanities to the public; or are organized primarily for identifying, documenting, interpreting, sharing, or preserving cultural resources. Organizations that provide arts and culture programs within a larger mission unrelated to arts and culture are not eligible to apply. Libraries and supporting organizations are not eligible to apply. Organizations that serve a specific population or culture must have a mission focused primarily on cultural expression to be eligible.

No, arts and culture nonprofits can apply regardless of how long they have been established. Please review the program guidelines to determine if your needs or opportunities fit the program goals. 

This grant cycle is solely to support arts and culture nonprofits, although we will prioritize funding organizations that share resources and create meaningful opportunities for artists, culture bearers and smaller organizations. We have partnered with the Oregon Arts Commission and Miller Foundation to distribute funding through the Artist Resilience Program in 2021 and 2022, however another round of funding for individual artists is not currently planned.

No, the rolling deadline is intended to give applicants time to apply when they are able. It also allows OCF to respond to urgent needs quickly and make awards if needed before the grant deadline. We will hold funds until the December 10 deadline so that all competitive applications can be considered equally.

Please upload a profit and loss statement showing actual income and expenses from the most recently available fiscal year. You may also include a balance sheet. You may submit up to three years if needed to demonstrate your financial position, but only one year is required. You may also submit your most recent 990 filing instead of a profit and loss statement. We're asking for actuals rather than budgets or projections to document your financial position. 

No, there are no set formulas based on budget size or project budget to determine award amounts and matching funds are not required.

Other applications or awards will not affect your eligibility for this program. Arts and culture organizations are not eligible to apply to the 2024 Fall Cycle of OCF’s Community Grants program; please apply for the Arts and Culture Rebuilding program instead. This shift will ensure applications from this sector are evaluated together with equitable access to our funding opportunities.

There will not be a separate Small Arts and Culture grant cycle in 2024, please apply to the Arts & Culture Rebuilding Program instead.

No. However, some applicants who strongly meet the program priorities and are awarded funds in 2024 may be offered a renewal option for up to two additional years.

To be eligible for this program, organizations must have a mission that identifies arts and culture as a primary purpose. Organizations that serve a specific population or culture must have a mission focused primarily on cultural expression, heritage or history to be eligible.

Organizations or projects that are not 501(c)3 tax exempt entities may apply using a fiscal sponsor. Fiscal sponsors must certify that they will provide active oversight and take responsibility for the use of the funds as specified in the application. Applicants with a fiscal sponsor must upload documentation demonstrating approval from the fiscal sponsor in order to be eligible.

 A sponsor organization can submit one application for their specific needs and still sponsor a separate application for an organization without 501(c)3 status. An organization may sponsor more than one application, particularly in rural regions. If you plan to sponsor more than one application, please notify us at grants@oregoncf.org.

Organizations can apply with an out-of-state fiscal sponsor as long as the services or programs in need of support primarily serve Oregon.

Applying does not guarantee that your organization will receive funding. Available funds are limited and first consideration will be given to the priorities outlined in the program guidelines. We anticipate making fewer awards at higher amounts towards applications that show the greatest alignment with the program goals and have the highest potential for impact.

OCF staff are working diligently to respond to stakeholders across Oregon. Unfortunately, we have limited capacity to respond to all questions about funding or accept all requests for individual meetings at this time. The fastest way to get help is to send an e-mail to ArtsRebuilding@oregoncf.org that describes your current needs and OCF staff will reply as soon as possible.

If you need to speak to someone by phone, call our Portland reception at 503-227-6846 and they will direct your call.

Email us at grants@oregoncf.org and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.

Your application must be submitted and received by December 10, 2024, at 5 pm Pacific Time. If you do not receive an email confirmation of your submission, your application has not been received by OCF. If you have questions about your application submission, please contact grants@oregoncf.org. We experience a high volume of submissions close to the deadline and highly recommend you submit your application in advance as we have limited capacity to troubleshoot issues with the application system in the final days of the application window. 

Because of the rolling application deadline, we do not have one set timeline to make awards or decline proposals. We will review and respond to the needs and opportunities from applicants as we receive them. Some applicants may quickly receive an award or decline notice, while most will not hear back for several months while their grant is considered.

OCF staff review applications as they are received for potential expedited review based on urgent needs. An expedited review based on urgent need does not guarantee a better chance at funding if the proposal does not demonstrate the strongest alignment with the program guidelines and the highest potential for impact.

Most applications will be sent to a pool of community members for review in batches of 40-50 applications as received. If your application is one of the highest rated proposals based on the application criteria, the soonest you would likely receive funding is roughly two months after submitting. OCF will send decline notices to the lowest-rated applications, but we will hold the majority of applications that score in the middle for further review.

This award process is different than most of the grant programs that OCF operates because of the rolling application deadline and ongoing efforts to bring in more resources. We want to give everyone the best chance of being funded, so we will lean toward holding an application if it looks like it could possibly receive funding at some point. We will continue making awards between now and early 2025, while reserving enough funding to give equal consideration to each application received by the deadline on December 10, 2024. We plan to notify all applicants of their final award status by the end of March in 2025. 

We thank you for your patience!

We will review applications on an ongoing basis and make awards and distributions on a rolling basis based on the critical needs and timelines we identify in our application review process. We anticipate making some awards quickly based on urgent need and will continue making ongoing distributions through early 2025.

Only one application will be accepted in 2024, so we encourage you to take your time to craft an application that best reflects your needs and opportunities.

We hope the rolling deadline will give organizations sufficient time to submit an application by December 10th. Our deadlines are generally not flexible because we have timelines locked in with community reviewers to help us make decisions, however feel free to reach out to ArtsRebuilding@Oregoncf.org and we will do our best to help.

OCF will continue to evaluate needs in the arts and culture sector and resources available to provide further funding. We will announce any new opportunities widely when available. Additional application windows beyond 2024 are still to be determined.

OCF welcomes your written stories, videos and photos so we can share them with prospective donors and the public. Real stories from nonprofits help us secure more gifts, and that benefits the entire nonprofit community. Email them to communications@oregoncf.org.

Do you have blanket photo and video releases for everyone pictured? If not, please make sure they each complete an OCF Photo Release Form.