NEA Announces Guidelines for American Rescue Plan Grants

June 23, 2021

Today, the National Endowment for the Arts announced guidelines for American Rescue Plan Grants, which are intended to help support jobs in the arts sector, keep the doors open to arts organizations, and assist the field in responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The League of American Orchestras has posted a new resource page with important details, exceptions, eligibility information, and more. Key highlights for the prospective applicants to the Grants to Organizations category are as follows: 

• Grants are for specific operating costs only, with no cost share/matching fund requirement. Applicants may request a fixed grant amount for: $50,000, $100,000, or $150,000. The NEA encourages applicants to select a grant amount that is reflective of their overall organization size and internal capacity. The grant period can be up to two years.
• A grantee may receive more than one federal grant during overlapping periods of performance, but grants must cover different costs and/or activities. Applicants may apply to other Arts Endowment funding opportunities for which they are eligible, including Grants for Arts Projects.
• The NEA is especially encouraging applications from organizations that serve populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by ethnicity, economics, geography, or disability; organizations with small and medium-sized budgets; organizations from rural to urban communities; and organizations that may be applying for federal support through the Arts Endowment for the first time.
• Due to anticipated volume, applications will be submitted in two separate groups: one for organizations with legal names beginning with A-L and another for organizations with legal names beginning with M-Z. All Grants to Organizations applicants have the same initial Part 1 deadline to submit information via Grants.gov by Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 11:59pm Eastern and then slightly staggered deadlines for Part 2 when materials are submitted to the Applicant Portal, but all award notifications will be given at the same time, anticipated to be December 2021. Awards will not be determined on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Before submitting to Grants.gov, organizations must register or renew/verify their registration with both Grants.gov and the System for Award Management (SAM). These registrations can take several weeks, so this should be done as soon as possible.

The NEA will host a webinar on Wednesday, June 30 from 4-5pm Eastern to provide an overview of the American Rescue Plan Grants to Organizations. A presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. For complete information about NEA Rescue Plan Grants, please visit the NEA website.