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ArtsFund and Allen Family Philanthropies — formerly known as the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation — recently announced $10 million in funding to 930 grantees in the third year of the Community Accelerator Grant program.
This is the largest slate of awardees in the program’s history, with 19 percent being first-time grantees. Building on the successful $10 million pilot investment in 2023, and a second $10 million investment in 2024, the program has now infused a total of $30 million of unrestricted funding into Washington state arts and culture organizations.
Evergreen Playhouse ($5,000), Fire Mountain Arts Council ($12,500), Mineral Arts & Residencies ($17,500), the Lewis County Historical Museum ($25,000) and the Southwest Washington Dance Center ($5,000) are among the 2025 grantees getting funding, with a full list of recipients available at shorturl.at/kADzP.
Administered by ArtsFund and funded by Allen Family Philanthropies, the latest round of grants range from $2,500 to $25,000 in response to ongoing needs of arts and culture organizations.
“Across the three years of this successful partnership with Allen Family Philanthropies, we have seen the breadth and depth of the arts across Washington,” ArtsFund President and CEO Michael Greer said in a news release. “Having access to well-resourced arts organizations in every community impacts livability for all Washingtonians — from economic opportunities to social cohesion and connection. We are proud to support Washington arts and culture organizations and the multi-faceted impacts they make in their region.”
Grants were awarded to every eligible organization that applied. The average award size was $10,753, according to the release. For the first time in the program’s history, this year’s distribution includes organizations in all 39 counties throughout Washington.
“The incredible reach of this program into every corner of our state shows just how much this type of flexible funding is needed to bolster Washington’s rich and diverse arts and culture sector,” Lara Littlefield, executive director of Allen Family Philanthropies, said. “This community-driven model now supports nearly a thousand organizations.”
Participation also increased from every corner of the state with 612 grantees in northwest Washington, 160 in the southwest, 87 in Eastern Washington and 51 in Central Washington, including funding for 12 out of 29 (41%) of Washington’s federally recognized tribes. In addition, 18.5 percent of grantees this year are organizations located in rural counties (as defined by Washington state). The program continues to focus on communities that have historically lacked access to funding. Additionally, 91 percent of grantees from 2024 reapplied.
The leading uses grantees cite for unrestricted funding, in order of priority, are programming; salaries and labor; and rent, mortgage and facility upgrades, with 85% of organizations citing programming or salaries and labor as their top needs, the release stated.
