Washington’s nonprofit arts sector is getting a $10 million cash boost.
That’s how much Allen Family Philanthropies and nonprofit ArtsFund will send out to local organizations in the fourth round of the Community Accelerator Grant program, the organizations announced Tuesday.
The funds come from Allen Family Philanthropies, the foundation started by the late Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen and his sister Jody. The program is administered by ArtsFund, a statewide arts advocacy and grant-making nonprofit, which is helping to send grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 to 745 arts and cultural groups.
They are all smaller organizations with annual budgets under $1 million.
ArtsFund and Allen Family Philanthropies also announced the renewal of the $10 million program for next year.
This year’s recipients are based in 37 of Washington’s 39 counties, and range from small community organizations in Omak and Ariel to groups in cities like Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Port Townsend and beyond.
The grants include funding for six Lewis County organizations for a total of $52,500. In Thurston County, a total of $450,000 will be provided to 29 organizations.
Lewis County grantees:
Thurston County grantees:
The funding will give organizations like Picture Lab in Walla Walla (which received $10,000) and the Mariachi Northwest Festival in Wenatchee ($17,500) the ability to expand their teaching programs and make them more accessible.
Executive Director Nelly Pilares said in a news release that the funds will help Picture Lab retain teaching staff, purchase supplies, and bring arts education to 12 schools across six districts in Walla Walla and surrounding rural communities. The money will help keep the group’s arts experiences free for children, teens and families.
“These opportunities are especially important for students whose schools lack dedicated art teachers and for families facing financial or transportation barriers,” Pilares said.
Vancouver-based Bravo! Concerts Northwest received $17,500. The group plans to use the cash to program additional concerts at new venues and to bring Grammy-nominated Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo to its 2027 festival.
The program sent $10 million to 930 organizations last year, meaning this year’s grants were nearly 25% larger on average. The mean grant amount rose from approximately $10,753 in 2025 to $13,423 in 2026.
This year’s focus on smaller organizations follows a report commissioned by AFP in collaboration with ArtsFund, which showed that smaller organizations with annual budgets under $1 million lost an average of one staff position between 2023 and 2024, while organizations with budgets over $1 million added an average of five.
Organizations don’t have to spend the funding on labor. The grants are unrestricted, which allows for flexibility in a changing and challenging funding environment.
The foundation and ArtsFund said past recipients indicated their main needs are usually: programming; salaries and labor; and rent, mortgage and facility upgrades, in that order.
The funding comes amid recent reports that show some signs of financial stabilization in the arts sector after years of pandemic volatility — while major structural struggles remain.
Revenue from ticket sales and programming remains below 2019 levels, audiences have yet to fully recover, and inflation continues to strain resources. But levels of giving from foundations and individuals are reaching near pre-pandemic levels, according to the 2026 Analysis of the Nonprofit Arts and Culture Sector from Southern Methodist University’s SMU DataArts.
A local State of the Sector study published by ArtsFund earlier this year found that the same trends hold true across Washington: Any gains in revenue are outpaced by rising costs. Limited access to flexible funding across multiple years is another concern across the sector.
The Community Accelerator Grant program was created in 2022 by ArtsFund and what was then known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Prior to this year, the foundation had allocated $30 million. The foundation has also distributed more than $16 million to downtown Seattle groups and arts and cultural organizations at Seattle Center in recent years.
The program is one of the largest private sector grants for the Washington arts sector; it also eclipses some — but not all — government funding programs.
4Culture, the cultural funding agency for King County, gives out more than $100 million annually to local arts, science, history and heritage nonprofits through its Doors Open program.
ArtsWA, the state’s arts agency, is sending out $2.8 million in grants in 2026. Our state’s per capita spending on arts agencies falls behind the national average, with Washington ranking 34th in 2026, just behind North Carolina and Nevada, according to data from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
The Chronicle contributed to this report.
