Funding you receive from the government, including hotel-motel occupancy or bed tax, other city, county, state, regional, and national funding and support.

  • These are typically competitive dollars, so you may do better some cycles than others. In some rare instances, these funds are dedicated to a particular organization at a particular sum and can be reasonably assured.
  • These are funds that go under regular public scrutiny and often require justification and protection. Because of this, they often fluctuate. It is important to stay abreast of the issues impacting these funds and to participate actively in advocating continuation of these funds.
  • Because these are pubic funds, the process for distribution is sometimes called into question. These can be heated and drawn-out processes, which again, can cause fluctuation.
  • Many organizations forget to consider support they may receive from government organizations beyond grants, but hardly any non-profit could survive without them. These range from your exemption on taxes to the charitable giving laws that incentivize your donors to give you funding, to such things as city-operated facilities or land leased from the city with landscaping services. These government organizations are constantly working to preserve and protect these laws and represent non-profits in the public policy arena.

Public funders have grant programs that may be appropriate for arts organizations:

LOCAL
City or county government

STATE
Humanities Texas
Texas Commission on the Arts
Texas Department of Agriculture (economic development, community development, rural affairs)
Texas Historical Commission
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

FEDERAL
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
National Park Service
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Preserve America
US Forest Service