Arts Grant Budget Calculator

This calculator builds out a full arts grant budget starting from the requested grant amount and a required match percentage — total project budget is simply the grant plus the cash match required (grant times match percentage), and if you've documented in-kind support (donated space, volunteer time, discounted services), that value is subtracted from the cash match required to show how much actual cash match you still need to raise. On the spending side, indirect costs (organizational overhead) come off the top of the grant amount first, and the remaining direct funds are allocated across personnel, artist fees, supplies, marketing, and travel using the percentages you set — but note those percentages are normalized to sum to 100% of the direct-cost pool even if you enter values that don't add up to 100, so entering 40/20/15/10/5 (summing to 90) still allocates the full direct-cost pool, just proportionally rescaled. The calculator also flags basic NEA compliance against two real federal thresholds: an indirect cost rate at or under 15% of modified total direct costs — the federal-wide de minimis indirect cost rate that any recipient without its own negotiated rate may elect under 2 CFR § 200.414(f) — and a match requirement of at least 100% (1:1), which is the standard cost-share requirement stated in the NEA's own Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) guidelines ("1:1 Cost share required.

Sources may include both cash and in-kind."). Actual program guidelines vary by grant category and year, so this flag is a sanity check, not a substitute for reading your specific NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity). A common mixup: match requirement here is expressed as a percentage of the grant amount (100% match on a $25,000 grant means $25,000 in matching funds, i.e. true 1:1), not a smaller fractional match — double-check which convention your specific funder uses before submitting, since some describe match as a ratio and others as a percentage of total project cost rather than of the grant itself.