The Greater Washington Community Foundation has $1 million in grant money to award local arts and culture organizations struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Arts Forward Fund was seeded with a $500,000 gift from The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and includes gifts from a total of eight other grant-makers.
Grants will be awarded from $10,000 to $50,000 for support to help arts and culture organizations in the D.C.-area make the urgent changes they need to continue their work through the pandemic and beyond.
Applications for the Arts Forward Fund are currently being accepted online.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the programs and finances of the region’s nonprofit sector in ways that even the most forward-thinking organizations could not have anticipated,” said Cafritz Foundation president and CEO Calvin Cafritz.
“In helping to launch the Arts Forward Fund, we want to ensure that arts and culture nonprofits continue to carry out their missions, serve their communities and pursue new paths during this crisis.”
The Greater Washington Community Foundation says the region’s arts and culture organizations contribute at least $3.75 billion in economic activity and nearly 60,000 jobs to the Washington region annually, citing a 2017 Americans for the Arts study.
Other contributors to the fund include the Harman Family Foundation, Weissberg Foundation, Linowitz Family Fund, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, S&R Foundation, Diane & Norman Bernstein Foundation, Lois and Richard England Foundation, and Philip L. Graham Fund.
