Metro Atlanta arts nonprofits have until Thursday, Oct. 29, to apply for Arts Capital | Atlanta’s 2026 Redistribution Fund. The fund pools more than $1 million in unrestricted money. Every eligible organization that applies gets a share. AC|A aims to send awards out by the end of the year.
Laura Hennighausen, director of strategic philanthropy at Purpose Possible, facilitates Arts Capital | Atlanta (AC|A), the collaborative of arts leaders and funders behind the fund. Here’s what she says would-be applicants, and the people who want to support them, should know.
1. Arts organizations built it.
AC|A grew out of Friday-morning meetings arts leaders held during the pandemic. In March 2023, after the Lyric Theatre closed following 42 seasons, 38 arts leaders signed an open letter about the state of the arts in Atlanta. Today, a board and a steering committee of more than 30 arts leaders and funders, including 22 nonprofit arts organizations, guide the work.
2. The money is unrestricted.
Rent, artist pay, insurance, a first reserve: recipients decide where the award goes. “The people running these organizations know what keeps them open better than any funder does,” Hennighausen said.
3. No one is ranked.
There’s no narrative to write. No one scores an application’s writing or artistic merit. That type of ranking, Hennighausen said, tends to reward polish, strong grant writers and big staffs, the same advantages already shaping disparity in arts funding. “If you meet the eligibility criteria, you get a share,” she said.
[“If you’re unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway.”
Laura Hennighausen, Arts Capital | Atlanta]
4. Every organization gets the same amount.
For this first round, AC|A’s board chose to split the pool evenly among all eligible participating organizations. How far the money stretches depends on how many qualify. AC|A estimates $2,000 to $5,000 each. For a group working with a $50,000 budget, Hennighausen noted, that’s 4% to 10% of its annual funding.
5. Eligibility is broad, with a few firm lines.
The fund is open to independent 501(c)(3) nonprofits and to groups working under an established fiscal sponsorship. Applicants need at least three years of continuous operation, a mission centered on the arts, and public arts programming as their main activity. They must be headquartered in and primarily serve Metro Atlanta, which AC|A defines as Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties and the city of Atlanta. Annual operating budgets must fall between $5,000 and $15 million. Subsidiaries of schools, governments, other nonprofits or companies don’t qualify.
6. The application is short.
Think paperwork, not a proposal. Applicants share basic information about their organization and governance and must describe three public programs from their past two seasons or fiscal years, with photos, videos or links as proof. “If you’re unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway,” Hennighausen said.
Recipients, in turn, agree to keep a current AC|A profile, participate in an annual benchmarking survey, respond to advocacy alerts as appropriate and submit required follow-up.
7. The fund is a start, and anyone can add to it.
Metro Atlanta’s public arts funding comes to about $1.96 per person, according to federal, state and local sources. The national average is about $5.44. AC|A puts the difference at roughly $18 million in unmet investment each year. Lead funders have made multi-year commitments. Foundations, corporations and individuals can all give to the pooled fund, which the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia hosts.
“A million dollars is real, but against an $18 million annual gap it’s a starting point,” said Henninghausen.
Eligibility requirements, an application preview and FAQs are at artscapitalatlanta.org.
