FY22 and FY23 awards were funded through a $30.7 million allocation in the most recent biennium budget. Of these funds, 80% were distributed in general operating support grants to the state’s arts, humanities, and cultural organizations. The result was $16.1 million in operating support grants to 632 organizations in year one and $8.5 million to 725 organizations in year two (15% of the fund is building cultural infrastructure through our funded partners; 5% is for CTH overhead). The smaller amount of funding available in year two, and 93 more organizations receiving awards in year two vs. year one, led to lower award amounts. (Learn how your award amount was calculated in the next question below)  

You Can Help Secure and Increase Funding 

A new biennium budget will be adopted in the upcoming legislative session. CTH is partnering with the CT Arts Alliance and the CT Tourism Coalition and working hard to SECURE and INCREASE the amount of support in the CT Cultural Fund. The goal is for everyone to receive impactful funding equitably into the future. You can help by staying informed (subscribing to grants updates) and connecting with the legislator(s) for your organization’s town. Be sure lawmakers know about your organization, your work in your community, and how vital meaningful, reliable, and equitable funding is for you. Watch a recent advocacy conversation with CLHO here to learn more.

For both FY22 and FY23, the following formula was used:

$5,000 + [your average operating expenses]*[a prorated percentage] – Line Item Funding = Your Award

Awards that fell under the minimum award amount of $5,000 were adjusted to $5,000, and awards over the maximum award amount were adjusted to the maximum award amount. All awards were rounded to the nearest $100. Note that your average operating expenses were calculated using the data your organization provided for all fiscal years requested in the grant application.

In FY22, CTH had $16.1 million to distribute among 632 eligible organizations. That year’s formula was:

$5,000 + [your average operating expenses]*[5.8025%] – Line Item Funding = Your Award

With a minimum award of $5,000 and a maximum award of $500,000.

In FY23, CTH had $8.56 million to distribute among 725 eligible organizations. This year’s formula was:

$5,000 + [your average operating expenses]*[2.3875%] – Line Item Funding = Your Award

With a minimum award of $5,000 and a maximum award of $150,000.

Note that for both FY22 and FY23, awards for State-run and University/College-run organizations were capped at $5,000.

The CT Cultural Fund is funded through State general funds. State line-item funding and carryforward funding come from these same funds. To distribute the CT Cultural Fund across all cultural organizations equitably, organizations that have already received funds through state line-item funding and carryforward funding had this funding removed from their final award.

You can find your grant agreement and submit your signed grant agreement through the CTH Grants Portal. Log in to the CTH Grants Portal; this should take you to the Applicant Dashboard. Scroll down until you see your grant. Then, look for “Documents uploaded by Administrators.” The first document under this should be your grant agreement. Click on the hyperlinked agreement under File to download your grant agreement.

Print out the grant agreement and have your authorized signatory sign the agreement. Then, scan the agreement and save it on your computer.

To submit your signed grant agreement, return to the Applicant Dashboard on the CTH Grants Portal. Scroll down until you see your grant. Under “Follow Up Forms” you should see a form called “CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant – Grant Agreement.” Click “Edit” on the far right of this line to access the form. Here, you can upload your signed grant agreement, confirm that you’ve registered for Bill.com, and confirm that you’ve completed your survey (which is also linked within this form). Click the Submit button and you should receive an automated confirmation email that lets you know we’ve received your signed grant agreement!

For questions regarding this process, please email grants@cthumanities.org.

Bill.com labels the grant award payment from CTH as an invoice. Your Bill.com account will show that you have an overdue invoice from CTH. There is no action needed for this. Please do not email CTH requesting an invoice. When our office processes payment for your award, you will receive an automated email letting you know that your account will be receiving a payment from us.

We anticipate sending first award payments through Bill.com in the first half of February 2023. We appreciate your patience as we transition to Bill.com.

Please note that organizations that received a CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant in FY22 must submit their final report and post-award survey before receiving their first award payment for FY23.

The payment structure for this grant is 75% at the time of contract and completion of grantee survey and 25% after completion of the final report and post-award grantee survey. You can find more information on this payment structure in your grant agreement.

Yes. Since these are general operating funds, you can use your award for any organizational operating expenses as long as they are not listed as funding exclusions in the grant guidelines.

However, grantees are encouraged to use their funding to help advance their organization’s priorities that also support the following program priorities that helped make this funding available from the CT State Legislature:

• Organizational staffing (bringing back employees or hours lost to the pandemic, paying existing staff, hiring new staff, hiring CT contractors, etc.);
• Activities that help connect K-12 teachers and students to strong humanities and arts content;
• Activities that improve your informational technology and digital infrastructure.

If the activity/expense is not listed in the funding exclusions in the grant guidelines, you more than likely can use the funds for this activity/expense. If you are unsure, feel free to reach out to the Grants staff at grants@cthumanities.org with your specific question.

While data collection is important for CTH to continue to advocate for future funding to support the state’s cultural, humanities, and arts community, it is not required to receive CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant funding. We know that this is an area where many organizations are uncomfortable or would like assistance. Please view the “Resources for Grantees” tab for a series of tools, templates, and trainings to help CT Cultural Fund grantees start to better collect data from their respective audiences.

You will receive the remaining 25% of your award after you submit your final report and post-award survey. Please note that FY23 final reports will not be made available until July to ensure a performance period of at least 6 months before completion of your post-award survey.

To complete your final report any time between July 2023 – December 2023, log in to the CTH grants portal. Under your project on your applicant dashboard you will see a line that says “CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant Final Report.” Click “View” to edit and submit your final report. You will find your post-award survey in your final report.

Please note that you must report on how your organization spent your full grant award, not just the 75% of your award you have received to date.

Once you’ve submitted your final report, please allow three weeks for CTH staff to process your final report and payment.

The financial report asks you to list out in a text block the itemized grant expenditures that add up to your full grant award. CTH does not require that you submit receipts or invoices with your final report. However, please do keep all receipts and invoices for grant expenditures on file for at least three years in the event that you are audited.

Future rounds of CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants are dependent on additional State of CT funding. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with ways you can advocate for continued funding and get notified when future funding becomes available.

Please note that future rounds of the CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grants may have revised guidelines and eligibility requirements.