Wake County Nonprofit Arts Relief Fund – United States

• Eligible applicants may request to be reimbursed for eligible expenses incurred March-December 2020. The maximum request is 10% of the most recent 3-year average operating expenses or $50,000, whichever is less. The maximum request for culturally specific organizations is 20% of the most recent 3-year average operating expenses or $50,000, whichever is less.

Eligible Operating Expenses

When building your claim of eligible expenses, the following expenses that were or will be incurred between March 1 and December 30, 2020, can be considered:

• Paid salaries and benefits (including contractors);
• On-going operating expenses such as rent, utilities, or insurance;
• Established monthly expenses such as loan payments;
• Costs associated with canceling programs, such as contractual payments to venues, vendors, etc.;
• Costs of pivoting to remote/virtual programs and services;
• Costs of mitigating the spread of COVID-19, such as cleaning, PPE, physical barriers, etc.;
• And other business-critical operating expenses;
• All claimed expenses must be supported by documentation.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for funding, all applicants must:

• Be a Wake County-based, IRS-recognized 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit in “good status” as a nonprofit corporation and up to date with IRS 990 filings.
• Function as a nonprofit arts or cultural organization with programs directly related to the creation, education, preservation, presentation of arts or cultural programming, and be the primary presenter/producer of the work.
• Offer programming accessible to members of the public in Wake County for at least the last three consecutive years.
• Have at least one paid staff person or board member (i.e., treasurer) who will be designated as the administrator of the grant funds.
• Have not received any direct assistance from the State of North Carolina in Session Law 2020-97.
• Have received private funding since March 1, 2020 or have an active plan to achieve private funding in an amount equal to the grant amount requested.
• Demonstrate the costs of business interruption and expenses caused by required closures between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in at least the amount of the grant request.