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.