Thrive

Funding Timeline 

Eligible Applicants

Eligible Applicants

• 501(c) non-profit arts organizations operating for five years or more. 501(c) status can be new but must be active at the time of application.
• Applicant’s primary mission and over 50% of their body of work is the production, presentation, or promotion of arts and culture. This includes organizations that provide professional support to creatives.  
• Five years of operating history in the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) which includes Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, and Williamson Counties.  
• Over 50% of the applicant’s creative production is within the Austin 10-1 City Council districts or extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) and a minimum of 1 year of creative production within Austin.  
• Proposed activity meets all program requirements as outlined by the Hotel Occupancy Tax.  
  • All events are open to the public    
  • Occur within Austin or the Austin ETJ  
  • Marketed to tourists   

Ineligible Applicants

• 501(c) non-profit organizations or that are not primarily an arts organization.
• Individuals or creative businesses with annual operating budgets above $500,000.  
• Applicant organizations outside of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
• City of Austin Employees
• Applicants who have accepted grant funding from the Cultural Arts Fund (Thrive, Elevate, or Austin Live Music Fund) in the current City of Austin Fiscal Year 2024 grant funding cycle 

Eligible Activities and Expenses

See Additional Program Details in English (PDF, 518 KB), Additional Program Details in Spanish (PDF, 519 KB) for a more detailed list of eligible and ineligible activities and expenses

Eligible Activities 

• Operations related to the applicant’s ability to produce public events
• Exhibitions
• Performances
• Workshops and classes that include a performance or exhibition that is open to and marketed to tourists
• Public art projects that are installed on public or private property and accessible by the public (Applicants must obtain written permission from the property owner prior to submitting an application. See page 6 of the Additional Program Details in English (PDF,362 KB), Additional Program Details in Spanish (PDF,519 KB) for more information).
• Activities related to the sustainability and growth of the organization. EXAMPLES:
  • Expanding public programming and audiences
  • Establishing a reliable space for planning and presenting work
  • Establishing new and/or more diversified revenue sources  
  • Operations related to the production of public events 

Eligible Expenses

• Administrative and creative costs incurred in the preparation and implementation of cultural activities that are open to and marketed to tourist (including staff hours, contractor costs, and artist salaries)
• Costs related to improving the organization’s ability to produce cultural events.
• Insurance costs.
• Subscription costs or license fees for software needed to complete contracted activities.
• Capital expenditures - Any single capital expenditure over $2,000 must be pre-approved by the staff contract administrator to ensure compliance with the contract and City policy.  
  • Capital expenditures include but are not limited to the purchase, repair, or renovation of equipment or property like speaker systems, theater seats, artwork, etc. These are examples and not an exhaustive list. Please contact your contract administrator for further questions about specific expenses.

Awards received from this grant may not be used toward activities funded by any other City of Austin programs. 

Glossary of Terms

Here are just a few important definitions for helpful reference in understanding goals and priorities. For a full list of definitions please see the glossary of terms and definitions beginning on page 19 of the Additional Program Details. 

Creative Business 

A creative business is an individual or a group whose primary activities are arts and culture based, and does not have a 501c non-profit status. Creative businesses with annual operating budgets below $500,000 can apply as an individual or arts group in Nexus and Elevate. 

 

Cultural Displacement 

Cultural displacement occurs through changes in the aspects of a neighborhood that have provided long-time residents with a sense of belonging and allowed residents to live their lives in familiar ways.   

As the scale of residential change advances, and shops and services shift to focus on new residents, remaining residents may feel a sense of dislocation despite physically remaining in the neighborhood. This may also reflect the changing racial or ethnic character of the neighborhood—not just its class composition.  

 

Cultural Erasure

Cultural erasure is when, because of cultural displacement, key aspects of neighborhoods that allow both current and future residents to feel at home go missing. Current and future residents lose access to opportunities in the neighborhood and the scale of change erases key aspects of the neighborhood that allows residents to feel at home.  

 

Content was developed in collaboration with the City of Austin's Equity Office and industry resources. 

 

Cultural Institution

The Cultural Funding programs define this as an entity whose primary mission is to present and produce arts and cultural activities, has a high degree of financial sustainability, and is seen as an indispensable part of a community. It is important to note that an organization can be an indispensable part of the community but has not received the historical financial support necessary to achieve cultural institution status as defined here.   

 

A cultural institution will have reliable and consistent access to multiple types of these hallmark attributes, including but not limited to:

• multiple paid full-time staff, including dedicated development and marketing staff, often with access to employment benefits such as health insurance and/or paid leave 

• an endowment and/or cash reserves  

• a diversity of operating support grants   

• consistent corporate sponsorship and private donations   

• steady earned income (representing a significant percentage of the annual budget) 

• a permanent location in the form of owned property or a long term (10+ years), rent controlled lease   

• a diversity of capital campaign or physical infrastructure funds (grants, government contracts, individual, and corporate)  

• fee based membership to industry networks such as Americans for the Arts   

 

Fiscal Sponsor

A nonprofit corporation with 501(c) status that applies for financial support on behalf of another organization or individual in order to enable the latter to receive the benefits of tax-exempt status. There are several forms that fiscal sponsorship can take, but in every case, the fiscal sponsor takes responsibility for external parties that the funding will be utilized for tax-exempt, charitable purposes as defined in the internal revenue code. See The Long Center’s 

 

Intersectionality

The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to highlight the overlapping vulnerabilities that are at play in shaping the life chances of some of society's most vulnerable populations, for example: women who are poor, of color, or who are undocumented.   
 
Intersectionality describes the many ways in which various forms of discriminations can intersect, creating special vulnerabilities for some. Vulnerabilities related to systemic and institutional racism are an integral part of intersectionality. 

 

Key Constituencies

The people deeply impacted by your work, which may include your audience, community members, and/or participating artists and administrators. These ‘key constituencies’ are identified and named by the applicant.

For the purposes of this program, key constituencies that will be prioritized are community groups that are at immediate risk of cultural erasure and displacement within Austin and/or have been institutionally marginalized and under-funded by the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division. Any reference to ‘key constituencies’ in a program application and scoring rubric will be referring to the community groups that meet this definition and that has been directly identified by the applicant.

This may refer to Black/African American, Native American, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Islander, the LGBTQIA, and disability communities.

NOTE: Audience served is NOT the same as ‘key constituencies’ as the audience served may or may not include communities that are at immediate risk of cultural erasure and displacement within Austin and/or have been institutionally marginalized. 

Grant Awardee Commitments

In addition to application proposals, the following information is also required.

Reporting Requirements

Grantees will be required to submit a report annually. To ease reporting requirements, grantees will have the option to participate in conversation-based assessments and reporting with their dedicated City staff person.  

 

Year 1: Initial Report*

An initial report will be used by Cultural Arts Division staff to establish a baseline of data and information about the organization’s self-identified goals. This assessment is developed through a conversation about the organization’s existing areas of expertise and interest in sharing those skills through collaborative learning opportunities, as well as any possible networking connections the organization hopes to leverage during the cohort time period. This assessment will be used in the planning of Thrive cohort opportunities and to track progress during the interim and final reporting stages of the grant.

 

Year 1: Interim Report*

The interim report will be used by Cultural Arts Division staff to update and revise your goals as necessary for any Year Two changes. Disbursement of the remaining 10% of that year’s goals will not be issued without approval of the submitted interim report.  

 

Year 2: Final Report*

A final report is due within thirty days of the final program date in Year Two of the contract. Workshops on how to complete your report will be made available and supporting materials can be found in the Contractor Library.  

 

* See Additional Program Details for more detailed reporting information. 

Past Awardees

2024 Awardees (FY25-26) 

Organization Name	Award
Austin African American Book Festival	$150,000
Austin Gay Men's Chorus	$150,000
Austin Iranian Professionals Association (AIPA)	$150,000
Cine Las Americas	$150,000
Early Era Collective	$150,000
Glass Half Full Theatre	$150,000
Outreach Productions	$150,000
SuperWoman Records	$150,000
Texas Folklife Resources, Inc.	$150,000
Unlisted Projects	$150,000
_OFCOLOR	$100,000
Austin Asian American Film Festival	$100,000
Austin Soundwaves	$100,000
Capitol View Arts	$100,000
ConnectHER Annual Film Festival	$100,000
Eastside Kings Festival	$100,000
Fisterra Projects	$100,000
Ground Floor Theatre	$100,000
Indian Classical Music Circle of Austin (ICMCA)	$100,000
Jump On It	$100,000
La Peña Latino Arts	$100,000
Latinitas	$100,000
Motion Media Arts Center	$100,000
Roy Lozano's Ballet Folklórico de Texas	$100,000
Texas Music Museum	$100,000
CBA - Cultural Brasil Austin	$85,000
Dance Africa Fest	$85,000
Indie Meme	$85,000
Laboratorio Arts	$85,000
Mexic-Arte Museum	$85,000
Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance/ Puerto Rican Cultural Center (DBA)	$85,000
SAGE Studio & Gallery	$85,000
The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)	$85,000
The VORTEX	$85,000
Torch Literary Arts	$85,000

 

2022 Awardees (FY23-24)

Organization Name	Award
allgo	$150,000
Austin Asian American Film Festival	$100,000
Austin Chinese-American Network or ACAN	$85,000
Austin International Drag Foundation, Inc.	$100,000
AZTLAN DANCE COMPANY	$100,000
Ballet East Dance Company	$85,000
Capitol View Arts	$150,000
Cine Las Americas	$150,000
Color Arc Productions	$85,000
Dance Africa Fest	$85,000
DAWA (Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action)	$100,000
E4 Youth, Inc	$85,000
Esquina Tango	$100,000
Glass Half Full Theatre	$85,000
Great Promise for American Indians	$150,000
ICMCA	$85,000
Imagine Art	$85,000
India Fine Arts, Inc	$100,000
Indie Meme	$85,000
Jump On It	$100,000
LA PENA	$150,000
Lannaya West African Drum and Dance Ensemble	$100,000
Latinas Unidas Por El Arte (LUPE Arte)	$100,000
LATINITAS, LATINITAS, INC.	$100,000
Mexic‐Arte Museum	$100,000
MoHA	$150,000
Oliver Rajamani DBA Taranada	$85,000
Outreach Productions	$100,000
OUTsider Film & Arts Festival	$100,000
PUERTO RICAN FOLKLORIC DANCE INC aka Puerto Rican Cultural Center	$150,000
Red Salmon Arts	$100,000
Roy Lozano's Ballet Folklorico de Texas	$100,000
The VORTEX	$150,000
Torch Literary Arts	$150,000
WhatsintheMirror	$85,000
Women in Jazz Association	$150,000