Professional Development Grants for Arts Organizations

The South Arts is accepting applications for its Professional Development Grants for Arts Organizations.

Donor Name: South Arts

State: Selected States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: (mm/dd/yyyy) 04/30/2026

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

Grant Duration: Less than 1 Year

Details:

South Arts strongly believes that skill and knowledge building for arts organizations are integral to success and sustainability. These grants are designed to support the professional development needs of Southern arts organizations for increasing organizational capacity to achieve long-term sustainability, growth, and/or operational stability. This grant program is open to film, visual arts, performing arts, traditional arts, literary arts, and multidisciplinary arts organizations.

Funding can support staff or board participation at conferences, workshops, and other professional development opportunities and events. In addition, these grants can support expenses for in-person and virtual professional development for organization-wide staff learning and training. Funds support travel expenses (for example, lodging and air/ground transportation), admission/registration fees, or other related expenses (for example, consultant/service fees for staff learning/training sessions).

Funding Information

The minimum grant request is $250. The maximum grant request is $1,000.

Project Period

Projects must take place between October 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.

Eligibility Requirements

The following is a top-level list of the main eligibility requirements necessary to be considered for a Professional Development Grant. Please refer to the full list of eligibility requirements in the Guidelines.

Be a tax-exempt nonprofit, an official unit of local, county, or state government, or a federally recognized tribal community based within South Arts’ nine-state service area (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, or TN).
Be an arts organization, including but are not limited to artist ensembles, producing and presenting organizations, visual and performing arts centers, museums, film festivals, arts service organizations, community arts organizations, and art councils
Have an operating budget of $500,000 or less.
Be for “first time” opportunities and relate to the applicant’s arts programming/services
Provide a dollar-for-dollar cash match.
Only arts organizations with operating budgets of $500,000 or less (for the last completed fiscal year) are eligible for this grant program. Arts organizations can include but are not limited to artist ensembles, producing and presenting. organizations, visual and performing arts centers, museums, film festivals, arts service organizations, community arts organizations, and art councils.
Only nonprofit and governmental arts organizations in South Arts’ nine-state region are eligible to apply. South Arts’ nine-state region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Applicants must have 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt status; be an official unit of local, county, or state government; or be a federally recognized tribal community. Applications are accepted from any tribal community with not-for-profit, tax-exempt status. For nonprofit applicants, tax-exempt status will be verified by a third-party entity. Governmental applicants must provide proof of government status. South Arts does not accept applications from fiscal agents for this grant program.
Applicants must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Applications will not be accepted from organizations that do not have a UEI. Obtaining your UEI could take a minimum of 30 days.
Applications are only accepted for new professional development opportunities. For the purposes of these guidelines, new opportunities are defined as events/activities that the organization has not participated in previously or “first time participation” opportunities. Proposed projects must relate to the applicant’s arts programming/services and support increasing organizational capacity to achieve long-term sustainability, growth, and/or operational stability (e.g., skill and knowledge building for organizational capacity or stability).
Applicants are limited to one Professional Development Grant application per South Arts fiscal year or grant cycle.
Applicants who have failed to comply with the grant terms and conditions by the application deadline for this program will not be considered for funding from this grant program until they have completed a conversation with program director Nikki Estes. This includes applicants who did not properly acknowledge South Arts’ AND the National Endowment for the Arts’ support in programs/press materials for any previous South Arts grant or applicants who did not submit the final report for any previous South Arts grant.