Description & Eligibility

The purpose of the funds is to offset business disruption and/or expenses incurred due to COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and December 30, 2020.
Organizations that meet the following criteria are eligible to apply to receive CARES for Arts funding:

• Must be a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization located in Transylvania County, North Carolina.

• Must have arts and culture in the agency’s mission statement; or must have arts and cultural programming as a core activity (25% or more of budget most recently approved before September 1, 2020).

• Must demonstrate the costs of business interruption caused by COVID-19 and/or increased expenses incurred by pandemic-related activities.

These funds were allocated by the NC General Assembly using Coronavirus Relief Funds, which are subject to federal rules and guidelines that limit allowable expenditures and timeframe for using the funds. When building your claim of eligible expenses, the following expenses that were or will be incurred between March 1 and December 30, 2020, can be considered:

• paid salaries and benefits (including contractors),

• on-going operating expenses such as rent, utilities, or insurance,

• established monthly expenses such as loan payments,

• costs associated with canceling programs, such as contractual payments to venues, vendors, etc.

• costs of pivoting to remote/virtual programs and services,

• and costs of mitigating the spread of COVID-19, such as cleaning, PPE, physical barriers, etc.

For the purpose of this grant program, revenue losses are not considered for mitigation. North Carolina CARES for Arts funding cannot reimburse any expenses already paid for by other federal relief funds such as PPP loans, the NC Jobs Retention Grant program, locally-run stimulus or relief programs using federal funds, direct grants from the NEA, and stimulus grants issued by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Documents such as receipts, bills/invoices, monthly financial statements, and payroll ledgers will be considered as evidence of expenses. If projecting expenses that will happen in October, November, December, you will provide a word document that reasonably justifies those expenses, and invoices and receipts must be available for projected expenses when they actualize.