STATE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS: Eligibility

Eligibility Requirements for State Arts Agencies

SAA Partnership Agreements are limited to the fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies. In order to enter into a state arts agency Partnership Agreement and receive federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a state arts agency must comply with the following requirements:

Legal
The state arts agency must:

Organizational Entity and Capacity
The state arts agency must:

  • Be domiciled within the State.
  • Be designated by its State government as programmatically and administratively responsible for developing a statewide arts plan and establishing arts and cultural policy having a statewide impact.
  • Be designated as officially responsible for coordinating and administering all financial support received from the National Endowment for the Arts and the State in conjunction with the state arts agency Partnership Agreement.
  • Have designated staff with relevant experience; a designated budget; and an independent board, council, or commission whose members serve in an advisory or policy-making capacity.

Financial Support, Cost Share/Matching Funds, and Financial Reporting
The state arts agency must:

  • Be financially supported by its State government.
  • Provide a cost share/match to the National Endowment for the Arts Partnership Agreementfunds of at least 1 to 1.
    • The 1 to 1 cost share/match must come from state government funds that are directly controlled and appropriated by the state and directly managed by the state agency.
  • Use Partnership Agreement funds to supplement and not supplant non-federal funds. (Non-federal funds cannot be replaced with federal funds with the intention or effect of reducing State financial support for the state arts agency.)

Planning, Programming, and Evaluation
The state arts agency must have developed a state arts plan that:

  • Results from an inclusive, public process that solicited and represented the perspectives of arts constituencies throughout the State. 
  • Reflects the state arts agency’s operating environment, mission, goals, strategic directions, action plans, recommendations from the public process, and timelines and metrics for both accomplishing goals and measuring progress.
  • Demonstrates the state arts agency’s commitment and its capacity to implement the arts-related programs and services reflected in the plan.
  • Bases program funding decisions on criteria that rely primarily upon artistic excellence and artistic merit.

The state arts agency submits this plan with its Partnership Agreement application.

Subgranting

State arts agencies that subgrant must:

  • Require their grantees to provide a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number before a grant can be made.
  • Report grants of $30,000 or more in federal funds and information about the compensation of executives related to those grants to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS).
  • Ensure that all subawards made with Federal or cost share/matching funds are in compliance with the General Terms and Conditions for the National Endowment for the Arts award, including requirements for pass-through entities provided for under 2 CFR 200.331.

SAM Registration

All applicants must have a UEI number, be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM, www.sam.gov), and maintain an active SAM registration until the application process is complete, and should a grant be made, throughout the life of the award.