Information on Grants for Sunshine District Chapters

Generally, grants can be divided into 2 categories – government grants and private grants.

Government Grants

Government grants include National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), state grants, county grants, and city/region grants. Typically grants have areas defined for specific support. Barbershop organizations usually qualify for arts and culture type grants. As an example, for several years, the St Petersburg chapter received grants from the City of Saint Petersburg for Arts and Culture. Some grants are available at a county level, such as the Tourist Development Cultural/Arts grants in Sarasota county. The Sarasota Board of County Commissioners recently approved $2.1 million in Tourist Development Cultural/Arts grants for the 2025 fiscal year. These grants, funded by tourist development taxes, are awarded to local arts and cultural organizations to support their programs and initiatives. The Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County administers the grants program.

The State of Florida has been granting arts and culture projects for several years, but the recent political environment has cancelled (last year) and scaled back (this year) the funding. They have also raised the bar such that only 10% of qualified applications (or less) will be funded this year. The NEA has scaled back as well, making it harder for organizations to get grants. Chapters are likely to have better chances with county or city grants in the public sector.

To find these, just do an internet search such as: “Sarasota arts and culture Grant” to see information on city and county grants that are available. Also look at the organizations reporting on these grants in your Google search… some of those sites may lead to great resources for finding funding in your area.

Private Grants

Private grants are all around. Typically, they are from the “foundation” (non-profit) extension of a larger business. They can also be stand-alone, typically founded for a specific mission. These are plentiful, but typically for only specific purposes, so not for everyone. For example, one company we discovered give thousands of dollars away on grants every year, but specifically for supporting youth sporting activities (such as youth baseball). 

Ask your members if they are in a company (or retired from a company) that has a foundation that has grants for the arts or culture. Explore these with the member to see what is available. As an employee/retiree, they may find some better ways in, or more helpful advice from the foundation than outsiders.

Companies all around you may also have grants for arts and culture.  Check with places you all frequent.  Big companies like Home Depot and Publix.  Smaller owner-based companies/franchises like Chick-fil-a, Culvers, etc.  Some of these companies have corporate grant opportunities.  Some owner-based companies put aside money for charity work. 

For the private sector, it is not always about the big grant. Much like you would do when selling ads for your Christmas show program, you could be going after smaller gifts/grants like $500 or $1000. Several of those can add up to support the year. You could offer free ads in all of your show programs, or some specific mention in a project (such as a youth camp) that you are targeting.

General Advice

Researching and finding grants can be very time consuming. Most grants are project based, so you will need to decide what project you need to be funded (such as Christmas shows, youth camps, or chapter quartet outreach to shut-ins or elderly homes). Once you find one that appeals to you and sounds like a good fit for your project, you need to see what the requirements are from your organization. Also see what the reporting requirements are as well as understand how you will receive the money: Lump sum in the beginning? Quarterly installments? Reimbursement by receipts? – etc. Then you can write the proposal and submit according to the grant sources requirements. You may also need to present the grant request to a panel of judges, to answer any questions or clarify anything you put in the proposal.

You should also understand the whole timeline of the grant application process that you are interested in. For example, the grantor may have a July to June fiscal year. They may open applications in August, close submissions in October, decide in November, and then let you know by December. But it may not be paid out until the following July 1st (or whatever schedule starting in July). Most often, it can be a long process to get a grant – this is nothing like applying for a bank loan and having money a few weeks later. 

Hiring a grant writer can help you decide if a grant is a good fit, tell you the likelihood of getting that grant and explain the process for that grant. They can also help to word your proposal to achieve the best possible chance of qualifying and edging out other proposals. Some of these grant writers are expensive, and some are cheap… see if you can find someone that only gets paid (flat fee) if your gets approved (for example: $500 for securing a $4000 grant). You don’t want to lose money while trying to find money.

Hopefully this information is helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions. I will be adding some additional documentation on funding strategies on our SUN website – grants are only one part of funding a chapter.

As most of you heard at the Fall contest, we have an endowment! With the recent donation from the Breedon fund, the endowment has reached its initial funding goal.  This is exciting news for the Sunshine District as it sets us up with income – forever.  This is also something you can do for your own chapter. At least one chapter in the Sunshine District already has its own endowment. You may be asking “what is an endowment and how does it work?”

What is an endowment?

An endowment is a fund of donations, typically held permanently, that is invested to generate income. The principal of the fund is preserved, while a portion of the earnings is used to provide long-term support for a specific purpose.

How does it work in general?

• Donations – Individuals or groups donate to the fund.
• Investment – The donated principal (also known as the “corpus”) is invested in things like stocks and bonds. This is typically done by a management group that oversees the endowment.
• Spending – a portion of the investment earnings is withdrawn annually to fund the organization, while the principal remains intact (you can never spend the principal/corpus – it can only grow and/or earn interest).
• Donor Intent – Donors can specify how their donated funds should be used, such as for youth activities, scholarships, or other specific programs, or they can leave it up to the organization’s governing board to decide.

How does the Sunshine District’s endowment work?

Basically, we had a donor in the past who donated a large sum of money ($15,000) to an endowment for the Sunshine District. Harmony Foundation International (HFI) is managing the endowment for the Sunshine District – for free. They can manage your endowment for free as well. As the manager of the endowment, HF will collect the donations, ensure that the endowment is properly invested and manage the spending/draws as well as the donor intent.

To start an endowment with HFI, there is a minimum threshold to be invested: $25,000. You can save it up for a few years with fundraising campaigns, etc. Once you reach the minimum threshold of $25,000, the fund will officially become an endowment and be invested to grow. It will take 2-3 years of initial investing before you can draw from the growth, but typically you can get 4-5% annually from the endowment. So, for a new $25,000 minimum, you would receive $1,000 – $1,250 annually – forever!

You should encourage more donors to continue to grow the endowment for more income every year. Folks can set up regular donations, one-time donations, donations from their estate, etc. With successful fundraising over the years, your endowment could easily grow to $250,000 (or more) and be providing you with $10,000 – $12,500 income every year at that size. Quite often the annual investment could exceed the amount you are drawing out every year, and the excess would be reinvested, continuing to grow the corpus.

As the manager, HFI would ensure that you know what % of the funds are designated to specific uses by the donor’s intent. For example, if $15,000 was donated with no direction, then the organization can spend however they want. If an additional $10,000 was donated for youth activities, then HFI will let you know that on a $1000 draw, you must use $400 for youth activities, and you can use the remaining $600 for general use. This ensures that the wishes of the donors are upheld year after year.

An endowment can ensure that a chapter can continue existence for generations. This could pay for a director’s position, annual youth camps, leadership training, competition costs, performance costs like risers and uniforms, etc. The possibilities are endless – and so is the income, unlike grants that vary in value and can dry up in some years.

For more information on how an endowment works or how you can set one up, feel free to reach out to me and I can meet with you or your board.