General Operating Support Grants

The 2026 General Operating Support Grants offered by the City of Boulder's Office of Arts + Culture are designed to sustain and stabilize the region’s cultural organizations by providing flexible, institutional funding. This initiative is part of the cultural grants program aligned with the Boulder Arts Blueprint, specifically Phase 1, which emphasizes the importance of increasing and stabilizing funding for arts organizations. These grants reflect an adaptation of models from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, tailored to meet Boulder’s unique cultural and community planning needs. Operating support grants provide crucial unrestricted funding that allows grantees to direct resources where they are most needed, whether that be core operational expenses, programmatic costs, or entrepreneurial efforts. By focusing on organizational autonomy, these grants help reduce mission drift caused by funder-driven project requirements. In addition, because they often recur annually and offer a predictable revenue stream, they improve grantees’ ability to plan and maintain services consistently over time. Recipients are held to high standards of fiscal accountability and program evaluation, encouraging the adoption of sound management practices throughout Boulder’s nonprofit arts sector. In 2026, a total of $1,580,000 in funding is available. Grants are distributed across six tiers: one "Bedrock Operating Support" category awarded based on community impact, and five General Operating Support tiers determined by the applicant’s 2025 annual revenue. These include Extra Large ($1M+), Large ($500k–999k), Mid-sized ($300k–499k), Small ($100k–299k), and Extra Small (under $100k) organizations. Awards range from $10,000 to $80,000, with specific percentage-based funding calculations used for most categories, capped to prevent exceeding certain thresholds of organizational budgets. The application process begins with a mandatory pre-application, which must be submitted and approved by staff before access is granted to the full application form. Full applications must be submitted online through the Boulder Arts Commission grant portal and must include a comprehensive set of documents. Required materials include income statements, balance sheets, major contributors for the past two fiscal years, in-kind donation summaries, IRS tax-exempt documentation or fiscal sponsorship arrangements, a board of directors list, and key staff bios. Optional uploads include strategic plans, evaluation results, and work samples to demonstrate alignment with the funder's mission. Evaluation occurs in two scoring rounds by a five-member panel. Following the initial scoring, selected applicants may be asked to respond to up to two clarifying questions. A second scoring phase leads to a public Boulder Arts Commission meeting where final grant decisions are made. Applications are assessed based on five criteria: Capacity Building, Community Priorities, Proposed Outcomes and Evaluation Strategy, Cultural Equity, and Encouragement Points, totaling a maximum of 36 points. The final award decisions are subject to approval by the Boulder Arts Commission, and successful applicants will complete required paperwork before funding is disbursed. Key deadlines begin on January 7, 2026, when pre-applications open. Pre-applications are due February 4, with full applications due February 13 at 11:59 p.m. The review process runs from February 18 through April 13, concluding with the final Arts Commission meeting on April 29, 2026. Eligibility is limited to organizations headquartered in Boulder with a majority of their programming conducted within city limits, as defined by the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Emerging groups with budgets under $250,000 may apply with a fiscal sponsor.

Include strong work samples to show alignment with funder priorities; ensure fiscal sponsorship details are clear and compliant; prioritize cultural equity and evaluation strategy in responses.