» Recovery Grants for Arts & Culture Organizations

Under the recommendations of the Star City Strong Recovery Task Force, $400,000 in CARES Act funding is available for the COVID-19 relief and recovery activities of arts and cultural organizations. Grants will reimburse organizations for previous expenditures dating from March 12 to July 31, 2020 in the following categories:

• COVID-related preparedness, sanitation, and refitting costs 
  • Payroll costs
  • Rent or mortgage payments and utilities
  • Costs of providing virtual content
  • Specific sunk and irrecoverable costs due to mandated closure 

Eligibility

Applicant organizations must be located within the City of Roanoke and be nonprofit—501(c) 3—organizations in good standing with the Commonwealth of Virginia, the City of Roanoke, and the Federal government, with complete operational status as of January 1, 2020. 

Receipt of previous Federal funding through the CARES Act will not exclude participation in this program. However, the funding from each source must be covering distinctly different activities and/or period of time.

Self-certification

Organizations will be asked to self-certify that

• The expenditures for which they are applying are documented, with documentation maintained on file at the organization.
• They have not received Federal funding through the CARES Act for the same activity or expense. (Note that CARES Act Resources are coming to organizations through a variety of pass-through entities including Federal, State, and Local governments as well as regional intermediaries such as Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. The organization is responsible for knowing the origin of the funding source.)
• They are participating in the Visit Virginia Blue Ridge Stay Safe Pledge and following Virginia COVID safety mandates for businesses.

Application

To be reviewed in the first round, applications must be received by 5 PM, Friday August 28, 2020 via online form (found here) with the upload of a detailed expenditures spreadsheet categorized by eligibility category (see sample here) and an organizational W-9. If funds are expended in round one, there may not be a second round.

Contact

Contact Arts and Culture Coordinator Douglas Jackson at 540-853-5652 or douglas.jackson@roanokeva.gov with questions or for additional guidance.