On September 1, the King County Council approved an additional $2 million in CARES Act funding to 4Culture’s ongoing COVID-19 response efforts. We thank King County Executive Constantine and the Council for this critical support. This amounts to $4 million to 4Culture in 2020 to distribute to the cultural sector in this time of persistent crisis.

Our goal is to get funds to the cultural sector as quickly and simply as possible, while also working within CARES Act guidelines. These federal funds must be spent by the end of the year, can only be used to offset a specific set expenses related to the shutdown, and recipients must demonstrate unanticipated losses due to COVID-19—all requirements that differ from our typical grant programs. We know requirements add barriers to accessing relief and are available to answer questions and help recipients meet them as best we can.

With this new addition, the full $4 million of CARES Act funding now supports three different arms of our relief effort:

Cultural Relief Fund for Individuals: new application now online
In the spring, we allocated $510,500 in 4Culture funds to relief for cultural workers in King County. Additional CARES Act funding will provide $500,000 for our updated grant program for cultural workers who are suffering financial losses due to the COVID-19 public health crisis. We are now accepting applications for grants of up to $2,000 to help cover costs of necessities, including housing, utilities, groceries, childcare, and transportation.

• The deadline to apply is Wednesday, October 21 at 11:59 PDT.
• If you have not previously applied to 4Culture, request an account and get started at least one week prior to the deadline.
• You will need to fill out a simple online demographic profile and application; the estimated completion time is 30 minutes.
• If selected, you must be able to complete required contract documents by December 15, 2020.
• CARES Act funding comes with strict guidelines and deadlines that you must adhere to in order to receive funding. Reading the guidelines carefully answering required questions and documents is essential for this grant.
• Applications from Black and Indigenous people of color, transgender and nonbinary people, and people with disabilities are welcomed and encouraged.

Cultural Relief for Organizations: additional allocations
In June, we allocated a total of $1.39 million to 274 cultural organizations experiencing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19. Now, this additional CARES Act funding will help address unmet need demonstrated by applicants to our Cultural Relief fund.

• Organizations that already received Cultural Relief funds but are not receiving a Reopen Fund grant will receive either $1,500 or $2,500 in additional Cultural Relief funding.
• New awards of $3,000 or $3,500 will go to some eligible Cultural Relief applicants who did not receive funding in the first round.
• All of these awards are dependent on whether organizations can meet CARES Act requirements related to loss of income, eligible expenses, and other criteria that will be assessed through a preliminary survey. A prompt response to this survey is required and organizations that do not reply by October 5 will have their conditional award revoked.
• Notification of conditional awards and next steps were sent to organizations on Monday, September 28. Please contact your contract manager if you have questions.

Reopen Fund: Organizations and Landmarks
These additional funds from King County allowed us to augment our Reopen Fund, which was open earlier this summer. 171 cultural organizations and historic landmarks received grants of up to $24,000 to support either their reopening efforts or digital programming amid COVID-19. The CARES Act requirements listed above apply to these funds as well. Notification of conditional awards and next steps were sent to organizations on Monday, September 28. Please contact your contract manager if you have questions.

Thank you for your ongoing patience as we all navigate this crisis. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns at hello@4culture.org, 206-296-7580, or TTY: 711.