Manhattan Cultural Tourism Grant

Funded and administered by the New York City & Company Foundation, the Manhattan Cultural Tourism Grant supports initiatives that highlight the cultural and artistic diversity of Manhattan.

Organizations and projects that support this mission are selected by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. The NYC & Company Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization whose mission is to support tourism to New York City by promoting the arts and cultural organizations that make visiting New York a special and exciting experience.

Eligibility

  1. For specific questions about project eligibility, email FoundationGrants@nycgo.com. All grant recipients must be registered as a 501(c)3 with the State of New York.
  2. Applicants’ projects must fall primarily within calendar year 2023.
  3. If you are selected, the Office of the Borough President will provide you with the Borough Grant Reporting Guidelines. You must review and comply with these requirements. By accepting the Foundation’s check, you agree to comply with the Borough Grant Reporting Guidelines including, but not limited to, submitting the previous year’s final report prior to receiving funds. Failure to comply with all reporting guidelines may jeopardize eligibility for future funds.
  4. Projects eligible for funding under the program should be tourist facing and shall include, but are not limited to, promotional materials for cultural institutions, programs, and events (i.e. paid media, print or digital content, and/or videos).
  5. Priority in award decisions will be granted to applicants who have not received prior funding in both 2022 and 2019. Groups who have received funding in both of these years are welcome to apply, but we welcome and encourage groups who have not received funding in these most recent cycles to apply and to present high-quality proposals.

Funding Restrictions

Grant awards may not exceed $25,000 per recipient or project in one grant cycle. Please note that for 2022, awards were $2000 per recipient, which was consistent with prior years.

Non-eligible Costs

These micro grants are meant to be for the marketing and promotion of cultural programs and organizations. As such, costs not eligible for funding from the Foundation include, but are not limited to:

  1. Salary and/or benefits for staff, consultants, or certain contractors, i.e. hiring of street teams;
  2. Capital projects, rent and/or structural rehabilitation;
  3. Travel and entertainment;
  4. Membership dues or fees;
  5. Office supplies or overhead;
  6. Business-to-business projects;
  7. Promotion of for-profit entities or individuals;
  8. Promotion of organizations outside New York City; and,
  9. Any activities associated with political lobbying or campaigning.

Recipient Restrictions

Certain types of entities are not eligible to receive or benefit from the grant. These include, but are not limited to:

  1. Individuals or scholarship-granting organizations; or
  2. Fiscal conduits or sponsors.

Project proposals must include:

  1. Detailed description of the project;
  2. Detailed itemized budget for the entire project, including specification of which line items grant funding will be applied to;
  3. The target audience(s) of the project with a focus on how Foundation funds will help you reach the desired audience;
  4. How the success of the project will be measured;
  5. A copy of the applicant arts organization’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status determination letter (Proposals will not be considered without tax-exempt certification); and,
  6. A detailed project implementation timeline, including major production and promotional elements with deliverable dates.

Application Deadline

The Foundation will notify the Borough President around late-Spring 2023 regarding the final status of grant requests. Funds will be released to the office of the Borough President for distribution within a few weeks after that final status notification.