Florida Humanities "American Rescue Plan" Grants

Florida Humanities "American Rescue Plan" Grants

• Application Deadline: September 1, 2021 at 12pm EST
• All applications will be competitively reviewed in one funding cycle.
• Informational Webinar: July 30, 2021 at 9am EST
• Funding Notification: Week of October 18, 2021
• Funding Available: Up to $2 million
• Award Amounts: Up to $25,000
• Cost Share: None required
• Funding Period: November 1, 2021 – July 31, 2022

Applicant Resources

Award Amounts and Funding Period

Eligible organizations with annual operating budgets of up to $2 million may request up to $25,000 in general operating support. Requests may not exceed 10% of an organization’s 2019 pre-pandemic total operating budget. Florida Humanities reserves the right to award full or partial funding based on the total amount of funds available. Please only apply for what your organization can justify as funding is limited.

Approved applicants will receive a 9-month contract (November 1, 2021 – July 31, 2022) to expend their grant funding. Eligible pre-award costs dating back to March 15, 2021 may also be included in your request.

Funding Priorities

Florida Humanities’ “American Rescue Plan” grants are for short-term general operating support only.

Florida Humanities will prioritize full funding for eligible organizations that also meet one or more of the following criteria:

• organizations with budgets of less than $500,000
• organizations located in a designated Rural Area of Opportunity (RAO)
• organizations that prioritize programming for minority or underserved audiences. Underserved audiences may be defined as those whose access to the humanities is limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

Eligibility

Florida Humanities’ American Rescue Plan grants are intended to reach a diverse network of small to large-sized organizations located in both urban and rural communities and which serve diverse constituents statewide.

Applications will only be accepted from organizations such as museums, archives, historical societies, and cultural centers whose primary mission is humanities-focused or can demonstrate a substantial track record of regularly occurring public humanities work. While organizations that received a 2020 Florida Humanities CARES grant for emergency operating support are also eligible to apply, they are not guaranteed renewed funding.

State and local government agencies as well as federally recognized Native American tribal governments that meet this humanities-focused criteria are eligible to apply. Universities, colleges, and academic departments are ineligible to apply with the exception of public-facing humanities centers, museums, libraries, archives, and university presses associated with a college or university. Such organizations are eligible to apply and will be asked to provide the annual budget for their own operations.

All applicants must:

• be organized as a non-profit as reported to the IRS with an existing EIN
• be registered as a non-profit operating in the state of Florida
• have a current DUNS number at the time of application (Note: Registration in the federal System for Award Management, sam.gov, is not required although highly encouraged.)
• certify that the organization has not been suspended or debarred or is delinquent on federal debt
• demonstrate continued financial hardship due to the direct effects of the pandemic. Financial impacts may include: lost or potentially lost revenue due to cancelled programs and/or fundraising events; lost or potentially lost revenue from admission fees, programmatic fees or other earned income opportunities; lost or potentially lost space due to an inability to pay rent, mortgage or utility payments; furlough or loss of full-time or part-time staff or contracted services based on projected revenue reductions and/or inability to make payroll; inability to deliver programming resulting in reduced visibility and/or viability of the organization; or other.

Ineligible:

• Organizations whose primary mission and/or regular activities fall outside of the humanities
• Individuals
• For-profit organizations
• Foreign entities
• Applications from a fiscal agent or fiscal sponsor
• Organizations with operating budgets of more than $2 million
• Political or advocacy organizations
• Public, private or parochial schools
• Public libraries and arts organizations