Our Town
Description
Our Town intentionally supports creative placemaking. These grants fund projects that integrate arts, culture and design into more traditional community development efforts to advance local economic, physical and/or social development. Our Town applications must be submitted by two organizations in partnership, a nonprofit and a local government entity, with one of the partners being a cultural organization.
Eligibility
All applications require partnerships that involve at least two primary partners as defined by these guidelines: a nonprofit and a local governmental entity. One of the two primary partners must be a cultural (arts or design) organization. Additional partners are encouraged.
One of the two primary partners must act as the official applicant (lead applicant). This lead applicant must meet the eligibility requirements, submit the application and assume full responsibility for the grant.
Eligible lead applicants are: 501(c)(3) nonprofits with a documented completed three-year history of programming, or local governments including city, county, town, village and tribal governments (local arts agencies or other departments within local government may apply on behalf of their local government).
State governments, state government agencies, regional planning organizations or quasigovernment organizations and institutions of higher education are not eligible to apply.
Role In Creative Placemaking
This is one of the only federal grant programs specifically designed to support creative placemaking. Our Town requires the intentional partnerships, community engagement and planning necessary to execute creative placemaking successfully.
Match
At least 1:1
Previous
Master plan – Ajo, AZ
Grant Street Global Voices – Buffalo, NY
Over.Under.Pass – Greensboro, NC
Role in Creative Placemaking
This section represents our attempt to capture how this specific funding opportunity might fit into a placemaking initiative.
Eligibility
Who can apply? Eligibility is often limited, but in partnership with other entities you may identify an access point, such as subgrant opportunities. This information can help you determine which potential partners in your community might be able to access the funds.
Previous Projects/Grantees
These examples show how these funds have been used for creative or placemaking endeavors in the past, the types of organizations that have successfully accessed the funds and/or the types of activities for which the funds can be used.
Max Award
Maximum funding amounts can vary from year to year. We have provided the most recent information available. Where available, we also include a median or a range in cases in which the maximum is not typical of an average award.
Match Requirement
Most federal programs require some form of cost sharing. This is expressed differently for different agencies and programs. Sometimes a direct 1:1 match is specified. Other times, the application will state the maximum percentage of a project cost that the funding award can cover. We include this information, where available, in order to give you a sense of what to expect when applying for a particular funding program.
Compliance
Most federal funding programs will require financial and progress reports at least annually, along with a final report. We consider this to be a "moderate" compliance burden. Where a higher degree of data collection and reporting is indicated, we convey that information with a "substantial" rating.