Operating Grants for Organizations in Massachusetts

The Mass Cultural Council is seeking applications for its Operating Grants for Organizations.

Donor Name: Mass Cultural Council

State: Massachusetts

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline:  06/13/2024

Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000

Grant Duration: 1 Year

Details:

Operating Grants for Organizations will provide multi-year, unrestricted operating grants to nonprofit organizations that enrich Massachusetts’ cultural life. These grants will work to strengthen a cultural sector that generates $1.2 billion in economic activity, creates thousands of jobs, and delivers programs to more than 20 million people a year.

Funding Information

The council anticipates the minimum grant amount for FY25 will be $6,000. 

Eligibility Criteria

The following organization types are eligible to apply:

Nonprofits that are independent and have active

• 501(c)3 status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
  AND
• Nonprofit Corporation status according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth (SOC), meaning they are either:
  • Incorporated in MA.
  • Incorporated as a Nonprofit Corporation in another state, but registered as a foreign corporation in MA, with a MA legal address.

Cultural Affiliates: This is the name that is given to semi-independent programs that operate under a non-cultural parent organization.

• Cultural Affiliates can include:
  • Departments/Programs of a Massachusetts:
    • Federally-Recognized Tribal Government
    • State Government (including public colleges or universities)
    • Municipal Government
    • 501(c)3 organization that is not eligible to apply on its own (including private colleges, universities, or conservatories)
  • MA branch/program of a national 501(c)3 organization
• Cultural Affiliates must also meet both of the following criteria:
  • Manage their own budget.
  • Have at least one full-time (min. 30 hours per week) compensated administrative staff position dedicated solely to operation of the cultural entity.

Eligible organizations must meet the following criteria:

• The organization’s primary mission or purpose is creating, presenting, or providing services in the arts, humanities, and/or interpretive sciences.
• Over 50% of the organization’s programmatic (not administrative) work is in Massachusetts.
• The organization contributes to the cultural vitality of Massachusetts by providing programming that is publicly available, or intentionally serving a specific portion of the general public, rather than benefitting any private individual or group.
  • A college or university providing programs to its own students, or an organization that only provides programming for its donors, members, or other limited audiences is not considered to be serving specific portions of the general public for this program.
  • Programs of K-12 public, private, charter, or independent schools are typically not eligible for this program unless they meet certain programmatic requirements.
• The organization must:
• Be able to provide required financial reporting for the three most recently completed, 12-month fiscal years.

AND

• Have minimum expenses of $50,000 for each of the past two, full 12-month fiscal years
• The organization must have an Access Plan that illustrates compliance with or improvement towards the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

For more information, visit MAC.