STATE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT GRANTS: Eligibility

Eligibility Requirements for State Arts Agencies

SAA Partnership Agreement grants are limited to the fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies. In order to enter into a state arts agency Partnership Agreement grant and receive federal funding from the NEA, 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 NEA and the State in conjunction with the state arts agency Partnership Agreement grant.
  • 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 NEA Partnership Agreement grant funds 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 grant 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 grant 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, per 2 CFR 200.331, in compliance with the General Terms and Conditions for the NEA award, including requirements for pass-through entities (including specific requirements related to 504/ADA and Civil Rights).

For full subgranting requirements, see Appendix A of the Partnership Agreements General Terms and Conditions.

SAM Registration

  •  All applicants must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), 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.