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ArtsFund supports the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking in order to build a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington. 

ArtsFund awards grants to arts & culture organizations in Washington through annual and special programs.  

Please see the descriptions below for key dates, eligibility criteria, and appropriate contact information for each program. To stay up-to-date with open grant opportunities with ArtsFund please join our statewide newsletter. 

 For questions about ArtsFund’s grantmaking, please email grants@artsfund.org.

 

Open Grant Opportunities

YOUTH ARTS OPPORTUNITY FUND (YAOF) GRANTS 

Organizations that are currently members of ArtsFund’s Cultural Partners Network and have substantial programs that provide arts opportunities for underserved youth populations (grades K – 12) are invited to apply for funding. 

The Youth Arts Opportunity Fund aims to increase access to and participation in meaningful, robust, and sustained arts experiences for youth with low socioeconomic status or who have historically lacked access to arts programs. The Fund provides flexible operating funds to arts organizations who demonstrate an authentic commitment to this work. 

Grants from the Fund range from $2,500 to $15,000 to be used for general operating support. As funding is limited, organizations that apply to the Youth Arts Opportunity Fund are not guaranteed an award and will be considered on an annual basis. In 2024, 50 organizations applied and 30 received awards. Grantee budgets ranged in size from under $100,000 to over $5,000,000.  

APPLICATION/EVALUATION PROCESS 

Applicants will be asked a combination of short and long-answer questions focusing on: 

  • Population of students served 
  • Youth program-related expenses for fiscal years ending in 2023 and 2024. 
  • Programs offered and measurements of success 

Organizations will be evaluated on: 

  • Philosophical approach to the work 
  • Commitment to engaging youth, based on resources dedicated to these activities, program design and program evaluations 

Key Dates: The link to apply was sent out to Cultural Partners on July 8, 2024. The deadline to apply for 2025 grants is 5:00pm PT on August 1, 2025. 

For assistance or questions about the Youth Arts Opportunity Fund, please contact grants@artsfund.org. 

View the list of 2024 Youth Arts Opportunity Fund (YAOF) Grantees. 

Closed Grant Opportunities

Annual Allocations Grants

ArtsFund’s Annual Allocations Grants support organizational health and strengthen the Puget Sound arts ecosystem. Application is by invitation only.  

 Invitations for the next cycle will go out in early 2026. These unrestricted grants enable grant recipients to invest the funds where needed most to advance their missions. Applications are evaluated in alignment with ArtsFund’s strategic framework with the goal of advancing organizational health, youth and family engagement, and equity and inclusion throughout the arts sector.  

ArtsFund’s allocations are awarded by a panel of public, private, and corporate grantmaking experts who engage with ArtsFund in a thorough vetting process, evaluating application materials and interviewing the leadership of arts groups. Get to know the 2025 Panel here.  

For more information about ArtsFund allocations grants or grantees, contact grants@artsfund.org or visit the 2025 Annual Allocations announcement here.  

Community Accelerator Grants

Building on the successful Community Accelerator Grant program, ArtsFund and the Paul G Allen Family Foundation will partner again in 2025 to offer a third round of unrestricted funding to Washington’s arts and cultural nonprofits. See more information on the Community Accelerator Grant web page. The application preview, eligibility requirements, and answers to frequently answered questions are available now.  

View the list of 2024 Community Accelerator grantees.

Past Grant Opportunities

In 2021, ArtsFund, in partnership with the Washington State Department of Commerce, administered $10,780,000 million in Nonprofit Community Recovery (NCR) grants. Grants were distributed statewide, providing critical COVID-19 pandemic recovery relief to nonprofits across Washington state. All funds were distributed by June 30, 2021. 

For more information, visit the NCR Grant Page. 

For additional questions about the Nonprofit Community Recovery Grants please contact grants@artsfund.org. 

View the list of NCR grantees. 

ArtsFund, along with a coalition of anchor arts and cultural organizations, created the COVID-19 Arts Emergency Relief Fund in 2020 to help stabilize the sector with unrestricted grants for arts organizations impacted by the global pandemic. The ArtsFund Foundation seeded the fund with $1 million and additional gifts and from donors pushed the total to $3.2 million. The COVID-19 Arts Emergency Relief Fund is no longer distributing grants. 

50th Anniversary Grants 

In celebration of our 50th anniversary year, ArtsFund allocated $100,000 in grants in 2020 to five regional arts and cultural nonprofits. These $20,000 unrestricted grants were awarded in recognition of regional arts organizations’ demonstrated and future impacts advancing ArtsFund’s mission of strengthening community through the arts. To read more about ArtsFund’s 50th Anniversary grants, click here.

In celebration of our 50th anniversary year, ArtsFund allocated $100,000 in grants in 2020 to five regional arts and cultural nonprofits. These $20,000 unrestricted grants were awarded in recognition of regional arts organizations’ demonstrated and future impacts advancing ArtsFund’s mission of strengthening community through the arts. To read more about ArtsFund’s 50th Anniversary grants, click here.

ArtsFund supports and participates in the Creative Equity Fund, which was launched in 2018 to support community organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) that are using arts and culture to build racial justice in King County. 

Creative Equity Fund supports arts and culture-based strategies that address the structural racism impacting our communities and build racial justice. For 2021/2022, the Creative Equity Fund aims to direct a total of $600,000 to support arts and cultural groups and other community-based organizations located within King County which are actively using arts and culture-based strategies to work toward racial justice. This current round of funding will focus on making grants to organizations most directly impacted by structural racism and colonization, those that are led by and serve Black and Indigenous people. 

Creative Equity Fund is administered by Seattle Foundation and made possible thanks to the generous support from a collection of funders, including ArtsFund, 4Culture, Macklemore, Microsoft, Satterberg Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle Foundation, The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation and individual philanthropists. 

To learn more about the Creative Equity Fund, visit the Seattle Foundation website.