Slots: 2. All applications require partnerships that involve at least two primary partners as defined by these guidelines: a nonprofit organization and a local governmental entity.
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 5pm PT
LOI: August 4, 2022, 11:59pm ET
External Deadline: August 16, 2022, 11:59pm ET
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Anticipated Amount: You must request a grant amount at one of the following levels: $25,000, $50,000, $75,000, $100,000, or $150,000. We will award very few grants at the $150,000 level; these will be only for projects of significant scale and impact.
Link to Award: https://www.arts.gov/grants/our-town
Eligible lead applicants are:
- Nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) U.S. organizations with a documented completed three-year history of programming. For the purpose of defining eligibility, “three-year history” refers to when an organization began its programming and not when it incorporated or received nonprofit, tax-exempt status
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Office of Research Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/.
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Single Page Proposal Summary (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 1-page limit will be excluded from review.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs and Co-PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
Our Town is the National Endowment for the Arts’ creative placemaking grants program. Through project-based funding, we support projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes.
Successful Our Town projects ultimately lay the groundwork for systems changes that sustain the integration of arts, culture, and design into local strategies for strengthening communities. These projects require a partnership between a local government entity and nonprofit organization, one of which must be a cultural organization; and should engage in partnership with other sectors (such as agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, public safety, transportation, and workforce development). Cost share/matching grants range from $25,000 to $150,000, with a minimum cost share/match equal to the grant amount.
We encourage applications for projects that integrate arts, culture and design into strategies for strengthening communities. Arts, culture, and design may uniquely:
- Bring new attention to or elevate key community assets and issues, voices of residents, local history, or cultural infrastructure.
- Injectnew or additional energy, resources, activity, people, or enthusiasm into a place, community issue, or local economy.
- Envision new possibilities for a community or place—a new future, a way of overcoming a challenge, or approaching problem-solving.
- Connect communities, people, places, and economic opportunity via physical spaces or new relationships. See more here: https://www.arts.gov/grants/our-town/program-description.
The NEA is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and fostering mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all individuals and groups. Our Town supports a variety of projects across the country in urban, suburban, rural, and tribal communities of all sizes.
Budgetary Requirements: Our grants cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the project. All grants require a nonfederal cost share/match of at least 1 to 1. These cost share/matching funds may be all cash or a combination of cash and in-kind contributions. You may include in your Project Budget cost share/matching funds that are proposed but not yet committed at the time of the application deadline.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.